epitassō

This is the ordinary word for an order given by someone whose word settles the matter. A king sends a soldier off to fetch a prisoner's head, a high priest tells the men standing by to strike Paul across the mouth, a servant comes back to report that what his master ordered has been done. In every case the order is laid on someone whose job is to carry it out, which is why a soldier, a servant, or a crowd is so often on the receiving end.

Mark and Luke then put that everyday word to startling use. Twice a crowd is left gasping at Jesus, and the thing they seize on is not the beauty of what he says but the identity of what takes his orders: he gives orders to unclean spirits and they come out, he gives orders to the wind and the water and they obey him. The shock is in the pairing of a common word with an impossible audience. The same logic runs the other way when a legion of spirits begs him not to order them into the abyss, because they already know his order would stand.

Paul turns the word inside out in his short letter to Philemon. He says plainly that he has every right in Christ to order Philemon to do what he ought, and then declines to use it, appealing to him for love's sake instead. Naming the authority he refuses to press is itself part of the appeal.

Greek has several verbs that English flattens into "command", and they are not interchangeable.

• κελεύω is a directive issued by someone acting in an official capacity, such as a Roman officer.
• παραγγέλλω passes a charge along and makes it stick, often as standing instruction to a group.
• ἐντέλλω entrusts a commission, handing someone a task rather than pressing an order on them.

This verb keeps the weight on the standing of the one who speaks and on the obedience owed by whoever is addressed.