Band
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σπεῖρα names a Roman military cohort, a detachment of soldiers, roughly a tenth of a legion in full strength, though the word could describe a smaller unit in practice. John 18:3 uses it for the force that comes to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane, arriving 'carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons' alongside temple officers sent by the chief priests and Pharisees.
Reader summary
Full entry for σπεῖρα (G4686) · Open the biblical lexicon
σπεῖρα names a Roman military cohort, a detachment of soldiers, roughly a tenth of a legion in full strength, though the word could describe a smaller unit in practice. John 18:3 uses it for the force that comes to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane, arriving 'carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons' alongside temple officers sent by the chief priests and Pharisees.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Regiment (2), [Roman] regiment (1), a band of soldiers (1), band of soldiers (1), company (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 27:27. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (3), John (2), Mark (1), Matthew (1).
σπεῖρα names a Roman military cohort, a detachment of soldiers, roughly a tenth of a legion in full strength, though the word could describe a smaller unit in practice. John 18:3 uses it for the force that comes to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane, arriving 'carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons' alongside temple officers sent by the chief priests and Pharisees.
The detail is significant precisely because of its scale: John describes an organized, armed, official force, not a small mob acting on impulse, sent to arrest one man who offers no resistance. The disproportion between the force assembled and the situation it meets, Jesus identifying himself plainly and the arrest proceeding without struggle, is part of John's narrative point.
Teachers should let the word's military precision stand; it grounds the arrest scene in verifiable, structured Roman and Jewish cooperation rather than in vague popular hostility alone.
John 18:3 gives readers a scene with real scale: an official, armed cohort, not a spontaneous crowd, sent by name-checked religious authorities to arrest a single man in a garden at night. The lanterns and torches suggest a search for someone in hiding, yet Jesus steps forward and identifies himself before any search is needed, and the described force briefly recoils.
So Judas brought a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees. They arrived at the garden carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons.
John 18:3 describes 'a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees' arriving at Gethsemane 'carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons' to arrest Jesus.
Then the band of soldiers, with its commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him.
John 18:12 repeats the term as this same cohort, 'with its commander and the officers of the Jews,' arrests and binds Jesus, confirming the scale and official character of the force involved.
When Jesus said, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
John 18:6 records that when Jesus says 'I am He,' the arresting party 'drew back and fell to the ground,' an arresting force meeting an unexpected response before proceeding with the arrest it came to make.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Military unit of soldiers, typically a cohort or maniple, used in NT for Roman garrison troops.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a cohort
Read versea cohort
Read versea cohort
Read versea cohort
Read versea cohort
Read versea cohort
Read versea cohort
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
σπεῖρα is built from these roots:
Highlights scale of opposition.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
John 18:3 gives readers a scene with real scale: an official, armed cohort, not a spontaneous crowd, sent by name-checked religious authorities to arrest a single man in a garden at night. The lanterns and torches suggest a search for someone in hiding, yet Jesus steps forward and identifies himself before any search is needed, and the described force briefly recoils.
The overwhelming display of force meets no corresponding resistance from Jesus, who has already told his disciples to put away the sword (John 18:11). Preachers can use this word to describe the arrest of Jesus honestly, as an organized use of official power against one who submits to it voluntarily, in keeping with his own stated purpose. This word opens a teaching doorway on Jesus' voluntary submission to arrest: an organized, armed cohort comes prepared for resistance or search, and meets instead a man who identifies himself plainly and goes willingly, in line with his own stated purpose to lay down his life.
It gives preachers a concrete, historical anchor for Jesus' voluntary suffering. It corrects readings that flatten the arrest into an act simply done to Jesus by overwhelming force, missing John's careful notice that Jesus identifies himself and the arresting party briefly recoils before proceeding. Frame σπεῖρα as a real, organized military and temple force whose scale highlights Jesus' voluntary, non-resisting submission to arrest, not merely as background detail.
John.18.3
Frame σπεῖρα as a real, organized military and temple force whose scale highlights Jesus' voluntary, non-resisting submission to arrest, not merely as background detail. Linguistically, σπεῖρα should be allowed to name a cohort or detachment of soldiers without carrying claims the cited passages do not make.
Isaiah 53:7 pictures the Servant led 'like a lamb to the slaughter' without resistance, and John 18:3-12's account of an organized, armed force arresting a Jesus who identifies himself plainly and does not resist places that prophetic pattern inside a verifiable historical arrest scene.
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