5. Ibid.
Today's Gospel: Good News or Bad?
There are at least six Greek words for "servant," and doulos is not one of them. For example, diakonos (from which our word deacon is derived) means "servant." Oiketes speaks of a domestic servant. Pais denotes a young boy who runs errands. Huperetes (usually translated "minister") literally signifies a low-level servant who pulls an oar on the lower deck of a large ship. Leitourgos, also meaning "minister," designates someone who performs some kind of religious ser vice. Therapon, used of Moses in Hebrews 3:5 ("faithful in all His house as a servant"), refers to a dignified kind of high-level ser vice. And there are several more specific Greek words that describe ser vice in terms far loftier and more respectable than doulos.
Doulos speaks of slavery, pure and simple. It is not at all a hazy or uncertain term. It describes someone lacking personal freedom and personal rights whose very existence is defined by his ser vice to another. It is the sort of slavery in which "human autonomy is set aside and an alien will takes precedence of one's own."5 This is total, unqualified submission to the control and the directives of a higher authority — slavery, not merely ser vice at one's own discretion.
For example, in Matthew 6:24, Jesus said, "No one can be a slave to two masters" (literal translation). That translation is much stronger (and actually makes better sense) than what you will find in most versions: "No one can serve two masters." An employee with two jobs could indeed serve two masters. But slavery — not merely ser vice — is what the word doulos and all its derivatives speak of.
As Harris points out, "there is an important difference. A servant gives ser vice to someone, but a slave belongs to someone."6 It is not merely a nuance. Scripture repeatedly and emphatically places Chris tians in the latter category: "Do you not know that . . . you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6:19 – 20). We have a Master who purchased us (2 Peter 2:1). To be specific, we were purchased for God with the precious blood of Christ (Rev. 5:9). This is the very essence of what it means to be a Chris tian: "For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Rom. 14:7 – 9).
Why Such a Revolting Concept?
In one sense, we can understand why Bible translators have tended to soften the implications of doulos. The word slavery conjures up so much negative
5. Ibid. 6. Harris, Slave of Christ, 18.