Baggage

BAGGAGE. The materiel, impedimenta of a military force or caravan. One of the meanings of כְּלִי, H3998, appears in numerous historical passages in the OT as 1 Samuel 17:22, KJV “carriage,” ASV “baggage.” The term is extended to cover the special equipment of many stations and the finery of the bridegroom (Isa 61:10, etc.), cognate to Akkad. and Ugaritic expressions. The Gr. noun, ἀποσκευή, is not found in the NT but is found frequently in the Apoc. and Pseudep. The verbal form appears in Acts 21:15 in the compound with ἐπι. All such have been interpreted to mean the loading and unloading of draft animals but this is unlikely.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

bag’aj:

(1) keli, ("the impedimenta of an army"): "David left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage" (1Sa 17:22); "at Michmash he layeth up his baggage" (Isa 10:28). The American Standard Revised Version gives baggage for "stuff" at 1Sa 10:22; 25:13; 30:24.

(2) aposkeue: "Beside the baggage" (Judith 7:2), "a great ado and much baggage" (1 Macc 9:35,39), "the women and the children and also the baggage" (the King James Version "and other baggage"; 2 Macc 12:21).

(3) aposkeuazomai, ("to make ready for leaving," "to pack up baggage"): "We took up (made ready, Revised Version margin) our baggage" (Ac 21:15, the King James Version "carriages"), i.e. what they could carry--English: "luggage"; but others understand the term of the loading of the baggage animals.