Sergeant
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [1]
"a rod bearer" (rhabdos, "a rod," echo, "to hold"), one who carries a staff of office, was, firstly, an umpire or judge, later, a Roman lictor, Acts 16:35,38 . The duty of these officials was to attend Roman magistrates to execute their orders, especially administering punishment by scourging or beheading; they carried as their sign of office the fasces (whence "Fascist"), a bundle of rods with an axe inserted. At Philippi they acted under the strategoi or pretors (see Magistrate , No. 1.)
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( n.) Formerly, in England, an officer nearly answering to the more modern bailiff of the hundred; also, an officer whose duty was to attend on the king, and on the lord high steward in court, to arrest traitors and other offenders. He is now called sergeant-at-arms, and two of these officers, by allowance of the sovereign, attend on the houses of Parliament (one for each house) to execute their commands, and another attends the Court Chancery.
(2): ( n.) A lawyer of the highest rank, answering to the doctor of the civil law; - called also serjeant at law.
(3): ( n.) A title sometimes given to the servants of the sovereign; as, sergeant surgeon, that is, a servant, or attendant, surgeon.
(4): ( n.) In a company, battery, or troop, a noncommissioned officer next in rank above a corporal, whose duty is to instruct recruits in discipline, to form the ranks, etc.
(5): ( n.) The cobia.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
( Ῥαβδοῦχος , literally Rod - Holder, Acts 16:35), properly a Roman Lictor, the public servant who bore a bundle of rods before the magistrates of cities and colonies as insignia of their office, and who executed the sentences which they pronounced.
