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A Little Bible Talk 

By: De_Composed in GRITZ | Recommend this post (1)
Tue, 17 Feb 26 7:32 PM | 22 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Grits Breakfast of Champeens! 		Msg. 16172 of 16195
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I've been doing some Bible study of late (see micro? I'm not totally hopeless!), probably reading more in the last week than I have in my entire life. It's been interesting. I've occasionally come across things that satisfactorily explained what I thought were surely errors or "gotchas." But, more often, I'm finding truly egregious mistakes. And, yes, I do subscribe to the premise that the Bible is either flawless or it is unreliable.

With that in mind I think Ephesians 6:5 is worth discussing.


Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.

With fear and trembling. For your boss. Really?

The Church tames it down quite a bit saying that the verse instructs servants to obey their earthly masters with sincerity and respect, treating their work as service to Jesus Christ.

That's not how it sounds to me.


I found the passage odd enough that I figured it was probably a mistranslation. It turns out I was right. Ephesians was written by Paul while he was in prison, around 60-62 AD. So it's not Old Testament, and the Dead Sea Scrolls play no role. Ephesians 6:5 was written in Greek. We have early Greek copies that are considered highly reliable. Ephesians 6:5 does not say what the KJV Bible claims. What Paul actually wrote is:


Οἱ δοῦλοι, ὑπακούετε τοῖς κατὰ σάρκα κυρίοις,
μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου, ἐν ἁπλότητι τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν,
ὡς τῷ Χριστῷ.


And - Οἱ δοῦλοι means "Slaves / bondservants," not "Servants."

In short, Ephesians 6:5 condones slavery, telling slaves to be good, loyal, OBEDIENT slaves. Interesting, don't you think? Particularly in the way that modern Christianity intentionally deceives its flock about slavery and glosses right over the "fear and trembling" part..

- ὑπακούετε — obey
- τοῖς κατὰ σάρκα κυρίοις — your masters according to the flesh
- μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου — with fear and trembling
- ἐν ἁπλότητι τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν — in the sincerity of your heart
- ὡς τῷ Χριστῷ — as to Christ


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