province Summary and Overview

1. In the Old Testament this word appears in connection with the wars between Ahab and Ben-hadad. #1Ki 20:14,15,19| The victory of the former is gained chiefly "by the young" probably men of the princes of the provinces the chiefs: of tribes in the Gilead country. 2. More commonly the word is used of the divisions of the Chaldean kingdom. #Da 2:49; 3:1,30| and the Persian kingdom. #Ezr 2:1; Ne 7:6; Es 1:1,22; 2:3| etc. In the New Testament we are brought into contact with the administration of the provinces of the Roman empire. The classification of provinces supposed to need military control and therefore placed under the immediate government of the Caesar, and those still belonging theoretically to the republic and administered by the senate, and of the latter again into proconsular and praetorian, is recognized, more or less distinctly, in the Gospels and the Acts. [PROCONSUL; PROCURATOR] The strategoi of #Ac 16:22| ("magistrates," Authorized Version), on the other hand were the duumviri or praetors of a Roman colony. The right of any Roman citizen to appeal from a provincial governor to the emperor meets us as asserted by St. Paul. #Ac 25:11| In the council of #Ac 25:12| we recognize the assessors who were appointed to take part in the judicial functions of the governor.

(See PROCURATOR; PROCONSUL, for the distinction of imperial and senatorial provinces under Rome, accurately observed in New Testament.) Ahab's "young men of the princes of the province" are probably young warriors of Gileadite chiefs recognizing his supremacy, but distinct from "the children of Israel" (1 Kings 20:14-15; 1 Kings 20:19). Provinces existed under Solomon in his wide empire (Ecclesiastes 2:8; Ecclesiastes 5:8). Under the Persian king were 127, each having its own system of finance and its treasurer (Esther 1:1; Esther 8:9; Ezra 2:1; Ezra 2:4; Ezra 5:7; Ezra 6:6; Ezra 7:22; Ezra 7:24; Herodotus iii. 89). The satrapies were only 20. The Jews had their "governor" (tirsbatha'), of their own race (Ezra 2:63; Nehemiah 5:14; Nehemiah 8:9), subject to the "satrap" (pathath) of the provinces W. of Euphrates.