slave vs servant

by bite me 10 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  Chalam

  Hi,
  Good posts Joseph and HM.
  
  The whole thing is that in the context of our first world culture, "slave" is a very negative word.
  
  So the best modern solution is to translate the word as slave for sin etc and servant for Christ and the like.
  
  That said, I do prefer the analogy of being a slave to Christ as I was 'bought with a price' and am 'not my own'.
  
  
  Whatever, the very words of God are totally powerful in themselves (Jesus is described as The Word after all) and we need to make sure the words are best preserved AND the meaning in any translation.
  
  I personally very much like The Message and other paraphrases but these days I am finding that even the NIV is a little loose in the translation department.
  
  Regards,
  Stephen