Who is the Slave?

by jeshurun 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

jeshurun

Who is the faithful and wise servant of Matthew 24:45-47 ?
In his end time discourse Jesus stressed his unexpected arrival for judgment. By telling a range of parables, he impressed that teaching on the mind of his disciples. The first parable relates to an appointed servant:
45 Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time?
46 Happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so.
47 Truly I say to YOU, He will appoint him over all his belongings. (NWT)
Who is this faithful and discreet slave, or, according to the NIV, the faithful and wise servant?
The WTS has its own answer: We, a remnant of true Christians, are this slave!
The way Christ puts forward the question implies that there can also be a servant who is not faithful nor wise. For this reason he continues the parable thus:
48 But if ever that evil slave should say in his heart, ‘My master is delaying,’ 49 and should start to beat his fellow slaves and should eat and drink with the confirmed drunkards, 50 the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect and in an hour that he does not know, 51 and will punish him with the greatest severity and will assign him his part with the hypocrites. There is where weeping and the gnashing of teeth will be.
A first conclusion must therefore be that it is as good as certain that in the end time two servants will be present on the religious stage of the world: one who proves to be faithful and wise and another one who is evil.
The use of the aorist in verse 45 - katestèsen (has put, or: appointed) - indicates in addition that the servant received his assignment at a certain time in the past.
Moreover it is important to distinguish that the end time essay of Jesus in fact is a circumstantial answer to a question which his disciples had posed; partially according to Mt 24:3 :
And what will be sign of your presence [ Greek: parousia ] and of the consummation of the age?
So, the end time discourse is in fact an essay of the sign of Christ parousia (presence). The faithful servant, and with him the evil servant, will clearly appear as an important feature of the sign of Christ parousia.
But now something what is in my view most important.
From 1 Thess 4:15-17 we can infer that the parousia starts with the Rapture of the Church (the Christian Congregation):
15 For this is what we tell YOU by a word of the Lord: We, the living, who survive to the presence [parousia] of the Lord, shall in no way precede those who have fallen asleep; 16 because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with a voice of an archangel and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Thereupon we, the living, who survive, will together with them be snatched in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with the Lord.
What does all this mean in relation to the question of this Topic? It means that during the parousia the Church will not be present on earth. Consequently the faithful slave cannot represent the Church, and also the bad slave is not Christian. That is simply not possible, because in that vital period, the parousia, the Christian Congregation is no longer here. See also John 14:3 and 1 Cor 15:51-52. What then is the identity of the “slave”?
In my Topic When will the calling of Christians come to an end? 17-Mar-07
[ See: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/131036/1.ashx ]
I wrote:
When all the Gentiles whom God has chosen for salvation during the present age of Israel's rejection have experienced salvation, God will precipitate a revival of faith within Israel. Then he will release Israel from its blindness, its hardness.
This is going to happen during the parousia, after the Church has left the earth. Then Israel is coming again to the fore, because with the beginning of the parousia, also the 70th Week (Daniel 9:27) has its start.
[ The six things mentioned in Da 9:24 are still waiting for complete fulfillment:
1. to terminate the transgression, and 2. to finish off sin, and 3. to make atonement for error, and 4. to bring in righteousness for times indefinite, and 5. to imprint a seal upon vision and prophet, and 6. to anoint the Holy of Holies.
And this all in relation to your people and your holy city, that is: Daniels people and the holy city Jerusalem ]
Therefore the faithful and wise servant within this parable refers to national Israel!
The teaching about the servant of JHWH in the book of Isaiah is well known among JW and xJW. Compare Is 41:8-9
8 But you, O Israel, are my servant, you, O Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend; 9 you, whom I have taken hold of from the extremities of the earth, and you, whom I have called even from the remote parts of it. And so I said to you, ‘You are my servant; I have chosen you, and I have not rejected you.
Also
42:19-25
Israel’s temporary blindness, shut up as they are in disobedience (Ro 11:31-32)
43:8-12
Israel’s restoration to the position of JHWH’s Servant. During the 70th Week they will testify in favour of JHWH that He is the only true God who makes true his declarations (Mt 24:14; Rev 11:3-6; 14:6-7)
44:1-5, 21-22
Further predictions of Israel’s restoration. JHWH will again bless his chosen Servant; he will pour out his spirit on them with renewing results for the nation (32:15); all Israel’s transgressions and sins will be erased as a cloud.
Within this chosen nation the Messiah is the foremost Servant (Is 42:1-4; 52:13 – 53:11).
So Jesus appears prophetically in Is 49:5-6.
In the 70th Week he will bring back Jacob (Israel) to JHWH; he will raise up to full restoration the tribes of Jacob (compare Rev 7:1-8), the preserved of Israel [the Remnant concept].
By the way: The Great Crowd of Rev 7:9-17 answers to verse 10 in Is 49. So, what John heard in Rev 7:4 – the number of 144000 sealed ones – corresponds to the Great Crowd (which no one is able to number) the members of which he really saw!
Conclusion: The wrong claims of the WTS are really numerous!
Pahpa

jeshurun
I really think you are reading too much into Christ's parable of the "faithful and wise servant." Most Bible commentaries simply point out that Christ was encouraging Christians, particularly Christian leaders, to be faithful. It is noteworthy that the "servant" becomes faithful or wicked depending on his actions toward his "fellow servants." He did not say there would be two servants, one faithful and one wicked. (Matthew 24)
The parallel account in Luke (12) agrees with Matthew. The "manager" servant has two choices: to be faithful or abusive. In evaluating the course that servant takes he will either be "put in charge" or be "beaten with many blows." Interestingly, Luke introduces a third possiblity for the servant who did not know the "will" of the master. He is punished but with only with "few blows."
I don't think this parable was meant to be a prophecy. Rather, it served simply as an encouragment or warning to Christians who were waiting for the return of the "master."
jeshurun

Papha

Thanks for your reaction.

As I have pointed out Christians have nothing to do with the parable of the “Slave”.
In his end time essay Jesus directed his discourse to his Jewish disciples, who, at that time, were Messiah confessing Jews. Because Pentecost had not arrived they were not Christians. They had not yet received the new birth by the outpouring of the spirit.

Looking forward to the many features of his parousia (the “Sign”), Jesus had in mind the representatives of these Messiah confessing disciples who in the 70th Week would be made manifest.
Of course Jesus’ auditors would not experience the things he predicted, but their counterparts of the end time would.

The book of Isaiah with its many predictions concerning JHWH's Servant, also reveals that in the 70th Week two groups among the Jews will be made manifest.

1. A Remnant that in belief turns to the Messiah
(Is 10:21-23. Compare Micah 5:7-9; 7:18-20).

2. The majority that persists in unbelief.

In Is 66:5 we see prophetically those two classes in their opposite attitudes:

Hear the word of Jehovah, YOU men who are trembling at his word: “YOUR brothers that are hating YOU, that are excluding YOU by reason of my name, said, ‘May Jehovah be glorified!’ He must also appear with rejoicing on YOUR part, and they are the ones that will be put to shame.”
Leolaia

On the identity of the faithful and wise servant in the synoptic parable, you may want to take a look at my thread which shows that this parable specifically alludes to the OT patriarch Joseph, in whose shoes the ideal servant of Jesus fills:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/67457/1.ashx
The point of the parable can be summed up in a few words, "Imitate the example of Joseph".
The wholistic reading of Deutero-Isaiah in light of ch. 9 of Daniel is imho misguided since these are independent texts that have little to do with each other. This chapter of Daniel rather reinterprets Jeremiah in light of Leviticus, and one would basically be reading the 70 weeks oracle into Deutero-Isaiah (i.e. an eisegetical approach). In fact, the apocalyptic author of Hebrew Daniel did provide in ch. 11-12 a midrash on the Suffering Servant poem in Deutero-Isaiah, but it did not interpret this figure in messianic terms. Rather, the Hebrew author regarded the Suffering Servant as pointing to the faithful Jewish community, and in particular the scribes and teachers (the Maskilim) who suffered and were martyred during the Antiochene persecution in 168-164 BC.
Doug Mason

A Parable is a story, an illustration. Nothing more. It is not a prophecy.

The individual elements within it are there to develop the story. Do not try to make a parable walk on all four legs.

This particular Parable is explained by Jesus. There is no other meaning.

While Matthew places it in the context of a message given to a few disciples, Luke places the giving of the parable in a totally different setting. Why?

Matthew gives it in the context of the destruction of Jerusalem. Luke does not. Why?

Doug
Pahpa

jeshurun
Jesus certainly anticipated a following of both Jewish and Gentile believers as evidenced by his command "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations...." His foreknowledge of events would have given him the insight of a "household" of a "master" that would have servants preparing for the "master's return." It is clear that the parable would include all within that household and specifically the "servant" who was in charge.
Doug
I have also wondered about the context of both Matthew and Luke respecting the parable. Not all the writers followed a chronological order. Or it may be that Jesus illustrated the same parable on different occasions. We simply don't know. Another example is Luke's two accounts of the coming of God's Kingdom. (Luke 17:20-37 in response to the Pharisees and Luke 21:5-31 in response to the disciples inquiry.)
What-A-Coincidence

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Leolaia

The eschatological discourse in Matthew 24 (derived from Mark 13 and paralleled in Luke 21) concerns the destruction of Jerusalem and what was to shortly follow it. Mark presents both the Jerusalem invasion and the coming of the Son of Man in judgment as closely connected, which reflects the time when the gospel was likely written (i.e. before AD 70 or not long afterwards). Some time has passed by the time Matthew was written (most likely around AD 80 or so), and thus Matthew 24:27-25:30 adds a series of parables explaining the apparent "delay" (missing in Mark), including the faithful and wise servant parable, and rephrases the disciples' question in Matthew 24:3 to explicitly refer to the "end of the world" because the reply to the original question in Mark simply assumed that the end would come along with the destruction of Jerusalem. Thus Matthew acknowledges the apparent delay of the parousia, and yet indicates that it would not be for very long -- for it would still occur in the lifetime of those who heard Jesus (cf. Matthew 10:23, 16:28, 24:34). Luke, on the other hand, was written later than Matthew on the Farrer-Goodacre hypothesis, or long enough so that the eschatological expectation was no longer so insistant, and thus arranges the material differently.
Note that in Matthew 24:1-3, the question asked by the disciples directly follows a statement by Jesus declaring that the Temple would be entirely destroyed. In the question of the disciples in v. 3, the author of Matthew lumps together the parousia and the "end of the world" with the destruction of the Temple. The presumption is that the parousia and the "end of the world" would occur at the same time as the destruction of the Temple. This builds on the expectation of many Jews and Christians during the Jewish War of AD 66-70 that the war would lead to the defeat of the Romans and establishment of God's rule. However the wording of the question in Matthew 24:3 is not the original one, since Matthew has taken much of his material from Mark (Markan priority), and there the question makes no reference to the parousia and the "end of the world": "Tell us, when is this going to happen [i.e. the destruction of the Temple], and what sign will there be that all this is about to be fulfilled". In response to this question, reference is made to the Jewish War (Mark 13:5-8) as part of the "beginning of the birth pangs," and explicit reference is made to a desecration of the Temple (v. 14) as occurring "in those days" in a time of great distress, but Jesus also mentions that other things were to happen too "in those days, after that time of distress", including cosmic signs (v. 24-25) and the "coming of the Son of Man in the clouds" in v. 26-27. There is no concept of a huge interval of time between the destruction of the Temple and the parousia, as the text explicitly states that "this generation" (that is, the generation of Jews who lived during Jesus' ministry) would not pass away before "all these things will have taken place " (v. 30), and that the time "has been shortened" (v. 20). Yet the end does not occur during the war itself because it is only the "beginning" of the birthpangs and "the end will not be yet" (v. 7), but at the same time the parousia was supposed to occur "in those days" (v. 18, 24).
By this time, the parousia and end had failed to materialize, and the apparent "delay" was a frequent concern of the sub-apostolic period (cf. James 5:7-8; 2 Peter 3:1-10; 1 John 2:18-19; Jude 17-18; Revelation; 1 Clement 23:1-5 ), and this concern is highly marked in Matthew while absent in Mark. Thus, the author has modified Mark's eschatological discourse by adding a series of parables (Matthew 24:37-25:30) that have as a theme the apparent delay of the parousia (cf. "My master is delaying" in 24:49), the need to stay awake for the later-than-expected arrival of the bridegroom (25:6), and that a period of time would elapse so that the money deposited with the bankers would accrue with interest (25:27). The special interest at the time in the delayed parousia and "end of the world" is thus reflected in the reworking of the disciples' question in 24:3: "Tell us, when is this going to happen [i.e. the destruction of the Temple], and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the world?" The destruction of the Temple is no longer the primary concern; the additions pertain to what was still being eagerly expected: the parousia of Christ and the impending eschaton.
jeshurun

Leolaia

If ever existed something like the so called Q-document. I do not know. And the theory that the Gospel of Matthew was derived from that of Mark, I am not certain either, etc.
What I do know and believe is that all NT writers were guided by the (Gods holy) spirit of inspiration.

In my opinion the internal testimony of Matthew’s Gospel points to Messiah confessing Jews as the circle of Matthew’s readers.

For another approach of he Historical Setting for Christ's Discourse, pse see:

http://www.pre-trib.org/article-view.php?id=134

http://www.pre-trib.org/article-view.php?id=135

http://www.pre-trib.org/article-view.php?id=137

etc.

For me these commentaries by Thomas Ice are more satisfactory, more reasonable and more encouraging.

In the meantime I read your Topic Who is the Faithful and Wise Servant? It's JOSEPH, of course!I agree with you that we can trace back most of the characteristics of the faithful and Wise Servant (Steward) to the life of Joseph, although Joseph was in particular typical for Jesus himself.

How can this be explained?
Because, as I already pointed out above, Israel is JHWH’s appointed Servant and Jesus, the Messiah, is the First One among them.
On this principle Jesus’ statement in Mt 25:40 is based:

To the extent that YOU did it to one of the least of these my [Jewish] brothers, YOU did it to me.
(Compare Mt 12:49; his disciples were at that moment Messiah (Jesus) confessing Jews)

The same is true for his pronouncement according to John 4:22

The salvation is out of the Jews
cultswatter

Yes the slave is evil

Who is the Slave?

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