Stade
Stade (στάδιον), the proper designation of a term used in two senses in the Bible.
I. A "furlong," a Greek measure of distance universally current in the East from the time of Alexander the Great, and hence occasionally occurring in the Apocrypha (2 Macc. 10:16, 29; 11:5; 12:9, 17) and the New Test. (Lu 24:13; Joh 6:19; Joh 11:18; Re 14:20; Re 21:16), but regularly in Josephus for the determination of the location of places. One (Olympic) stadium, as a measure, contained, according to Herodotus (2, 149), 600 Greek feet, i.e., according to Pliny (2, 21; comp. Censorinus, p. 13), 125 Roman paces or 625 feet, so that eight stadia made up a Roman mile (comp. Strabo, 7, 322; Pliny, 3, 39, 8). According to late researches (see Ukert, Geogr. d. Griechen, 1, 2, 73 sq.; Forbiger, Handb. 1, 551 sq.), 600 Greek feet = 570 feet 3 inches 4 lines, Paris measure, or 6063 feet English. It appears, likewise, from the above passages of Luke, that 60 stadia were reckoned as 6 ½ miles, and John (Joh 11:18) reckons 15 stadia as 1 3/8 of a mile. In the Talmud the stadium is called רַיס or רוּס, of which 7½ went to the Roman mile (Reland, Paloest. p. 408). SEE METROLOGY.
II. A "race" course in the public games (1Co 9:24; comp. Heb 12:1; in the Talmud, איצטרין, Aboda Sara, 1, 7), where the lists (δρόμος), whether armed or unarmed, was located, and which was generally (not always; see Forbiger, ut sup. p. 551 sq.) 125 paces or 600 Greek feet long (see Potter, Gr. Antiq. 1, 962 sq.). Whoever first reached the goal (σκόπος) received from the arbiter (ἀθλοθέτης, βραβεύς, or βραβεντής, Sueton. Nero, 53) the prize (βραβεῖον, 1 Corinthians loc. cit.; Php 3:14), namely, a crown (στέφανος, 1Co 9:25) of living twigs or leaves. Every important city of Greece and the Greek colonies of Asia Minor (also the Palestinian cities that contained many Greek inhabitants; Josephus, Life, § 17, 64) had its stadium, either separate or in connection with the gymnasia (Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alterth. 2, 678). See Lydii Agonistica Sacra (Rotterd. 1657). SEE GAME.
