What does it mean that authorities “bear the sword?”

In Romans 13:4 it is written that he [the ruler] is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer The image of the sword employed here must be understood against the backdrop of the lady Justitia standing with the sword with which the death penalty was carried out on Roman citizens. The reference is therefore not to the long sword that soldiers bear in battle, but to the short sword used for decapitation (known in Greek as machaira). In Paul’s time a single governing authority functioned as both the administrative authority as well as the judicial power. There was then no separation between legislative and judicial power, which is still the case in many countries today. For this reason Paul can say that the governing authority has the right to execute people who do not cooperate with that authority.

Cranfield¹ is of the opinion that the sword here refers to all military power that has been entrusted to the government. It is true that military power flows from the judicial power of the sword over citizens, but in Romans 13:1–14 the emphasis rather lies on the relationship between ruler and citizen. It therefore concerns the right of the government to administer the death penalty to offenders.^2,3