Data dog said-
Yeah...dichotomesei only occurs twice in the NT, and it never means severely punished. Strong's does say " perhaps scourge severely." Perhaps an unknown Bible "scholar" has said it can mean "severely punished."
'Dichotomesei' is the same root where the word 'dichotomy' comes from, indicating a separation into two (uni-, di-, tri-, etc) i.e. a fork in the road; more analogous to the old concept of punishment of 'drawn and quartering', where they tied the limbs of a person around a rope and tied the other end to a horse, and split the person apart.
Pulpit Commentary offers this:
Pulpit Commentary Verse 51. - Shall cut him asunder διχοτομήσει ). This mode of death was inflicted in some cases (see 1 Samuel 15:33; 2 Samuel 12:31; Daniel 3:29; Hebrews 11:37; compare also the account of the execution of Mettius in Livy, 1:28; and Horace, 'Sat.,' I. 1:99). Thus in our own country "quartering," after hanging at least, was once a usual penalty for some offences, such as high treason. The term has been here interpreted to refer to the operation of the cruel scourge, which without metaphor might be said to cut a man to pieces; or "to dismiss from his employment," which seems to be hardly an adequate punishment. The difficulty is that the utter destruction of the malefactor implied in his literal cutting asunder is not consistent with his subsequent consignment to the lot of the hypocrites. Hence the Fathers have variously explained the term to signify separation from the company of saints, or from spiritual grace, or from all the blessings promised to the righteous. But we may take the Lord's words as applying first to temporal punishment - the unrighteous steward shall suffer death as horrible as dichotomy, a severance of body and soul, accompanied with unspeakable tortures; as in the History of Susanna, ver. 55, "The angel of God hath received the sentence of God to cut thee in two." Appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. The Lord drops the parable, and speaks of the terrible reality. The hypocrites are the faithless and deceitful, who, while pretending to do their lord's work, are mere eye servants, and really neglect and injure it. The remissful steward shares their punishment in the other world. There ( ἐκεῖ ) shall be, etc.; i.e. in the place where the hypocrites receive their punishment (Matthew 8:12; Matthew 22:13; Matthew 25:30). The expression signifies measureless grief and despair.
Gill's offers this:
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible And shall cut him asunder,.... The Persic version renders it, "he shall separate him from himself": he shall separate soul and body by death; he shall take away all his gifts and talents from him; and remove him from his place and office, and from the church of God, and communion of the saints, and out of this world. Some think the allusion is to the cutting up of the sacrifices, and dividing them into pieces; and the sense is, that this wicked servant should have no share in the sacrifice of Christ; but should fall himself a victim to divine justice, and be used as sacrifices were; or, in other words, be severely punished for his sins; though the allusion seems rather to be to the manner of punishing treacherous and unfaithful persons, by dismembering them, cutting them in pieces, or in two: and so the Arabic version renders it, "he shall cut him in the middle": this was certainly a way of putting persons to death; though some say it was not known to the Jews; but the following instances show the contrary.
Mention is made of some that were sawn asunder, Hebrews 11:37 and the Jews say (b), that Isaiah was sawn asunder by Manasseh; and such a kind of death is spoken of in the Targum (c); where it is said, that "the priests went before Mordecai, and proclaimed, saying, whoever does not salute, or wish prosperity to Mordecai, and to the Jews, "he shall be cut into pieces", and his house be made a dunghill. And elsewhere (d) it is said of a wicked man, that they put him upon a carpenter's block, and , "sawed him asunder"; and he cried out, woe, woe, woe, that I have provoked my Creator. This was also a punishment used among the Heathens, as Gataker (e), and others out of Heathen writers, have shown. It must not here be understood literally, that this wicked servant should be put to such a corporeal death; but that he should be punished in the severest manner, and should be the object of the fierce wrath and sore displeasure of God, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.
Of course, anytime Jesus says anything that's horrifying, it cannot be taking as if meant it literally, EVEN THOUGH Jesus warned of condemning souls to eternal hellfire for rejecting him and his "gift".... THEN it's literal....
Gill continues:
Luke says, "with the unbelievers" Luke 12:46, very likely both phrases were used by Christ; intimating, that such as make a profession of him, and have only a form of godliness, without the power of it, and are wicked and hypocritical men, will share the same fate with those that believe not; and the portion of these is the lake which burns with fire and brimstone; see Revelation 21:8 or all such persons are intended, who put on the mask of religion, and do not answer to the character they bear: and are unfaithful to the trust reposed in them, and therefore will made examples of righteous judgment, and have their part in the lowest hell: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. See Gill on Matthew 13:42.
(b) T. Hieros. Sanhedrin, fol. 28. 3. & T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 49. 2.((c) Targum in Esther 8.15. (d) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 65. fol. 58. 4. (e) Adversaria, p. 455.
Maybe it's the same guy who said that the faithful slave turning evil was hypothetical? If it's a hypothetical punishment, then who cares anyway? They could have said the slave would be tickled to death.
That warning applies to the OTHER evil slaves, who are spreading false teachings! Remember, Jesus appointed a multitude of head slaves (which he forgot to mention, BTW), and he'll dash those OTHER guys to death. But not the GB.
SBF said-
There is virtually no change in this verse apart from removing brackets. I struggle to see your point.
Yeah, you're right: I see that it wasn't a NEW change here, but something they've rolled out before the RNWT in the "classic" NWT.
Still, the broader point still stands, in that such changes in translations occur at the speed of the movement of land mass plates butting up against another continent, and although slow, changes are perceptible over the course of one's lifetime.
Faithfulwitness said-
I am looking at the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, 1969 (purple) edition.
The Greek words read:
and he will cut asunder him and the part of him with the hypocrites he will place; there will be the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth.
And would that part of him be the upper half or lower half? Which half gets placed where the hypocrites are?
Adam
