Nobleman

Nobleman [EBD]

(Gr. basilikos, i.e., "king's man"), an officer of state (John 4:49) in the service of Herod Antipas. He is supposed to have been the Chuza, Herod's steward, whose wife was one of those women who "ministered unto the Lord of their substance" (Luke 8:3). This officer came to Jesus at Cana and besought him to go down to Capernaum and heal his son, who lay there at the point of death. Our Lord sent him away with the joyful assurance that his son was alive.

Nobleman [NAVE]

NOBLEMAN,
John 4:46-53.

NOBLE; NOBLES; NOBLEMAN [ISBE]

NOBLE; NOBLES; NOBLEMAN - no'-b'-l, no'-b'-lz, no'-b'-l-man (chorim, 'addir; eugenes, Kratistos, basilikos): "Nobles" is the translation of the Hebrew chorim (occurring only in the plural), "free-born," "noble" (1 Ki 21:8,11; Neh 2:16; 6:17, etc.); of 'addir, "begirded," "mighty," "illustrious" or "noble" (Jdg 5:13; 2 Ch 23:20, etc.); of nadhibh, "liberal," "a noble" (Nu 21:18; Prov 8:16, etc.).

Other words are gadhol, "great" (Jon 3:7); yaqqir, Aramaic "precious" (Ezr 4:10); naghidh, "a leader" (Job 29:10); partemim, "foremost ones" (Est 1:3; 6:9); atsilim, "those near," "nobles" (Ex 24:11); bariah, "fugitive" (Isa 43:14); kabhedh, "weighty," "honored" (Ps 149:8); eugenes, "wellborn" (Acts 17:11; 1 Cor 1:26); kratistos, "strongest," "most powerful" (Acts 24:3; 26:25).

The Apocrypha, the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American), still further enlarges the list. In the Revised Version (British and American) we have megistanes, "great ones" (1 Esdras 1:38; 8:26, with entimos, "in honor"; The Wisdom of Solomon 18:12). Otherwise the Revised Version's uses of "noble," and "nobleness" are for words containing the root genitive and referring to birth (compare The Wisdom of Solomon 8:3; 2 Macc 6:27,31; 12:42; 14:42 twice). The King James Version's uses are wider (Judith 2:2, etc.).

Nobleman is, in Lk 19:12, the translation of eugenes anthropos, "a man well born," and in Jn 4:46,49 of basilikos, "kingly," "belonging to a king," a designation extended to the officers, courtiers, etc., of a king, the Revised Version margin "king's officer"; he was probably an official, civil or military, of Herod Antipas, who was styled "king" (basileus).

For "nobles" (Isa 43:14), the King James Version "have brought down all their nobles," the Revised Version (British and American) has "I will bring down all of them as fugitives," margin "or, as otherwise read, all their nobles even," etc.; for "nobles" (Jer 30:21), "prince"; the English Revised Version has "worthies" for "nobles" (Nah 3:18); the Revised Version (British and American) has "the noble" for "princes" (Prov 17:26): "nobles" for "princes" (Job 34:18; Dan 1:3), for "Nazarites" (Lam 4:7, margin "Nazirites"); "her nobles" for "his fugitives," margin "or, as other otherwise read, fugitives" (Isa 15:5); the American Standard Revised Version has "noble" for "liberal" (Isa 32:5); for "The nobles held their peace," the King James Version margin "The voice of the nobles was hid" (Job 29:10), the Revised Version (British and American) has "The voice of the nobles was hushed," margin "Hebrew: hid"; for "most noble" (Acts 24:3; 26:25), "most excellent."

W. L. Walker