Luke 3:14

στρατευόμενοι, “soldiers on service”. R. V [40] margin. So also Farrar. But Field disputes this rendering. “The advice seems rather to point to soldiers at home, mixing among their fellow-citizens, than to those who were on the march in an enemy's country” (Ot. Nor.). Schürer, whom J. Weiss follows, thinks they would be heathen. διασείσητε : the verb (here only) means literally to shake much, here = to extort money by intimidation = concertio in law Latin. This military vice would be practised on the poor. συκοφαντήσητε : literally to inform on those who exported figs from Athens; here = to obtain money by acting as informers (against the rich). ὀψωνίοις (ὄψον, ὠνέομαι): a late Greek word, primarily anything eaten with bread, specially fish, “kitchen”; salary paid in kind; then generally wages. Vide Romans 6:23, where the idea is, the “kitchen,” the best thing sin has to give is death.

[40] Revised Version.