The Definition of the word Executioner

Executioner

(Mark 6:27). Instead of the Greek word, Mark here uses a Latin "word, speculator, which literally means "a scout," "a spy," and" at length came to denote one of the armed bodyguard of the "emperor. Herod Antipas, in imitation of the emperor, had in" attendance on him a company of speculatores. They were sometimes "employed as executioners, but this was a mere accident of their" "office. (See MARK, GOSPEL [197]OF.)"