March 18, 2010

• 26 oὐχ οὕτως ἔσται ἐν ὑμῖν·  ἀλλ' ὃς ἐὰν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν μέγας γενέσθαι ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος,	26 It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,
  27 καὶ ὃς ἂν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν εἶναι πρῶτος ἔσται ὑμῶν δοῦλος·	27 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;
  28 ὥσπερ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἦλθεν διακονηθῆναι, ἀλλὰ διακονῆσαι καὶ δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν.	28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

   

  I want to call your attention to the Greek text of Matt 20:26-28.  I was teaching a Bible study class and somehow this passage came up.  I looked up the text in my UBS4 New Testament, expecting to find the word for “slave,” δοῦλος in the text for the word “servant.”  δοῦλος is there in verse 27 and the NASB translates it as slave.

  What I was not expecting was the word διάκονος, deacon for our English “servant.”  It appears three times, once in v. 26, and twice in v 28.  The other word that surprised me in verse 26 was the word for “great,” μέγας, “megas.” The mega people of the church are the deacons.

  Then in verse 28, speaking of Jesus as the Son of Man, “ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου” the Bible says that Jesus “did not come to be deaconed (διακονηθῆναι), but to deacon (διακονῆσαι)!”  These are not nouns for the office of deacon, but the verbs of action for service.  Now, the translations are good, and I am not criticizing them, but I was surprised (again) by the Greek language behind our English translations.

  Then the second reason Jesus came was to “give his life as a ransom for many.”  Look at the word used for His “life:” ψυχὴν; this is where we get the English word psyche, elsewhere it is translated as “soul.”

  The reasons the Son of Man came into our world God incarnate was (1) to serve, and (2) to give His life as the ransom for our lives, to pay the debt for the sins of our souls.

  Thank you, Jesus.

  • 3:25 pm
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