Word Summary
rhabdos: a staff, rod
Original Word: ῥάβδοςTransliteration: rhabdos
Phonetic Spelling: (hrab'-dos)
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Short Definition: a staff, rod
Meaning: a staff, rod
Strong's Concordance
rod, scepter, staff.
From the base of rhapizo; a stick or wand (as a cudgel, a cane or a baton of royalty) -- rod, sceptre, staff.
see GREEK rhapizo
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 4464: ῤάβδοςῤάβδος,
ῤάβδου,
ἡ (probably akin to
ῤαπίς, Latin
verber; cf.
Curtius, § 513), in various senses from
Homer down; the
Sept. for
מַטֶּה,
שֵׁבֶט,
מַקֵּל,
מִשְׁעֶנֶת, etc.,
a staff; walking-stick: equivalent to
a twig, rod, branch, Hebrews 9:4 (
Numbers 17:2ff, Hebrew text
ff); Revelation 11:1; a rod, with which one is beaten, 1 Corinthians 4:21 (Plato, legg. 3, p. 700 c.; Plutarch, others; πατάσσειν τινα ἐν ῤάβδῳ, Exodus 21:20; Isaiah 10:24); a staff: as used on a journey, Matthew 10:10; Mark 6:8; Luke 9:3; or to lean upon, Hebrews 11:21 (after the Sept. of Genesis 47:31, where the translators read מַטֶּה, for מִטָּה, a bed; (cf. προσκυνέω, a.)); or by shepherds, Revelation 2:27; Revelation 12:5; Revelation 19:15, in which passages as ἐν ῤάβδῳ ποιμαίνειν is figuratively applied to a king, so ῤάβδῳ σιδηρᾷ, with a rod of iron, indicates the severest, most rigorous, rule; hence, ῤάβδος is equivalent to a royal scepter (like שֵׁבֶט, Psalm 2:9; Psalm 45:8; for שַׁרְבִיט, Esther 4:11; Esther 5:2): Hebrews 1:8 (from Psalm 45:8).