BobTheDonkey
Illuminator
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2009
- Messages
- 4,501
Last night, I went ahead and translated these passages 75 times in a row. Each time I used the word 'slave' rather than servant.
So now, you see, your argument is moot (well, it always was).
It matters not what the numbers of translation are, especially when many Biblical translations are known to be terribly innacurate (King James, for example).
What matters is the real expert opinion born out of modern, serious scholarship. And it does, quite clearly, translate the word dolous as meaning slave (the first two links are a rather interesting article, too bad Doc will never read it).
These translations is not perfect, mostly, because slavery was a different institution back then that it was in modern times: it was not race-based, and it could be temporary and the slaves tended to be better treated back then.
But still, on a crucial feature, being the property on another being, the word slave is more accurate.
Ultimately, irregardless of the slave vs servant argument (I side with the slave translation), Jesus advocated beating a subordinate for not knowing the rules/job and then failing to perform adequately.
That's like me coming back to work from a vacation and beating (not just firing, but whipping) one of my subordinates because he didn't balance the books even though I'd never told him to do so, nor where any of the paperwork he'd need was located, nor even trained him how to do it properly. Who's fault is it really that the task wasn't performed? The worker who not only didn't know how to do the task but wasn't even aware the specific task needed to be performed or mine for not making sure my subordinate knew what to do and how to do it?