EXECUTIONER. In the margin of the A.V. of Gen. xxxvii. 36 ; Jer. xxxix. 9 ; Dan. ii. 14, the words nt.tfr or ?rinD are rendered ' chief of the slaughtermen or executioners.' In the text the rendering is `captain of the guard.' Both translations may be said to be correct, for the word ri means executioner; and the body-guard of the king was employed not only to watch his palace and guard his person, but also to execute his (often bloody) mandates ; so that the captain of the body-guard would be chief of the executioners. Another recognised rendering of the words is ' chief marshal' (2 Kings xxv. S Jer. xxxix. 9), which is less felicitous, for though the provost-marshal of an army sustains the office of executioner, it is not an office like that designated by the phrase under notice. In the passages cited, the officer in ques tion was an officer of the Egyptian or of the Chaldean court ; but an analogous officer seems to have been in the service of the kings of Israel (t Kings ii. 25; 2 Kings x. 24. [ARMY.]) Among
the modern Persians, the Nasakshi Bashi, and among the Turks the Capidshi Bashi, seem to hold similar situations.
In the N. T. the word executioner occurs as the translation of areicouNdrcupa in Mark vi. 27. In the Roman army the Speculatores were originally scouts or spies sent before to reconnoitre the ground ; but under the emperors a body bearing this name existed whose special office it was to guard the emperor and execute his will (Tac. Hist. i. 24, 25 ; ii. I I ; Suet. Claud. 35 ; Galb. t8, etc.) As these were often employed to put criminals to death (Seneca, De Ira i. 16 ; Wetstein ad loc.), the name they bore came to denote an executioner, and was adopted not only into Greek but also into Hebrew (Ino5pDD, Lightfoot, Har. Heb. et Talm., in loc.) —NV L. A.