Acts 12:20

θυμομαχῶν : lit [254], “to fight desperately” Polyb., ix., 40, 4; xxvii., 8, 4, and it might be used not only of open warfare, but of any violent quarrel; here almost = ὀργίζεσθαι. There could be no question of actual warfare, as Phœnicia was part of the province of Syria, and Herod had no power to wage war against it. Probably the cause of this θυμομαχία lay in commercial interests. The word is not found in LXX, or elsewhere in N.T. ὁμοθυμαδόν, Acts 1:14. πείσαντες, cf. Matthew 28:14, possibly with bribes, as Blass and Wendt suggest. τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ κοιτῶνος, “chamberlain,” perhaps best. κοιτών will imply that he was over the king's bed-chamber. Exodus 8:3, cf. 2 Samuel 4:7; 2 Kings 6:12; Esther 3:3; Esther 3:3 = Latin cubicularius. κοιτών, in Dio Cassius, lxi., 5, is used of the king's treasury, but the ordinary usage is as above. In Attic Greek δωμάτιον, not κοιτών. τρέφεσθαι, i.e., with corn (cf. 1 Kings 5:9; Ezra 3:7; Ezekiel 27:17; Jos., Ant., xiv, 10, 6), and see Blass, note in loco.

[254] literal, literally.