Re: the unprofitable servant

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Sep 16 1999 - 06:10:14 EDT


"Bryan Rocine" <brocine@earthlink.net> wrote:
>Lev 25:39-46 makes the distinction between the treatment of
>a bondslave and a hired servant or sojourner (see also Deu
>15:12-18). I gather that the distinguishing condition of
>the bondslave is that he works with great rigour and without
>any reward other than sustenance. I think the bondslave is
>generally "in for life." Is Christ's reference to an
>unprofitable servant in Luke 17:7 a specific allusion to the
>type of bondslave mentioned in Lev? The Liddell-Scott does
>not make any such reference to the use of an idiom such as
>DOULOI ACREIOI, but I thought someone on one of the lists
>might know differently.

CRHSTOS is a not uncommon epithet for a slave in earlier Attic, meaning
something like "doing good service" but commonly turned into English with
DOULOS (i.e. CRHSTOS DOULOS) as "a good slave" = "a slave who is good for
something." I would think the reference in Lk 17:7 to slaves who are NOT
good for anything as ACREIOI DOULOI is reasonably in keeping with older
usage.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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