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MAGISTRATE.—This word is used in the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] to represent either ‘judge’ or ‘ruler’—‘authority’ in the most general sense. The latter is its meaning in Jdg_18:7 (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘none in the land, possessing authority’—implying independence of Zidon and Phœnicia). The former is its meaning in Ezr_7:25, where it stands for shôphetim (the same word as sufçtes, by which the Romans designated the Carthaginian magistrates). In Luk_12:11; Luk_12:58, Tit_3:1 it stands for derivatives of the general word archo, ‘to rule,’ but in the passages from Lk. with a special reference to judges. In Act_16:20-38 the word is used to translate the Gr. stratçgoi. This is often used as the equivalent of the Lat. prœtores, and in the older Roman colonies the two supreme magistrates were often known by this name. But we have no evidence that the magistrates at Philippi were called prætors, and it probably represents the more usual duumviri.
A. E. Hillard.