06-30-2008, 05:23 AM
A SERVANT
Romans 14: 6
[Commentary by George Lamsa, in his own words.]
The Eastern text correctly reads: ???And he who is an embezzler is an embezzler to his master and he confesses to God. And he who is not an embezzler is not an embezzler to his master snd he confesses to God.???
Akhel is an Aramaic word, derived from ekhal, meaning ???to eat.??? but the same word is also used for ???embezzling??? and ???devouring.??? Thus akhola, ???eater??? (glutton), sometimes is applied to an embezzler. In colloquial speech people often say ???he has eaten my money,??? which means of course that he embezzled it. He had eaten widows??? houses and their sheep. Jesus used the expression.???Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for you embezzle (Aramaic eat) the property of widows (Matt 23 : 13; Mark 12 : 38; Luke 20 :47, Eastern text).
As certificates and letters of recommendation are not known in the East, servants are given verbal recommendations. Unemployment is hardly known in some of the Eastern countries, and servants and laborers are scarce. Only a few servants seek changes. Most of them prefer to work for the same person as long as they can. Therefore, when a servant seeks employment people begin to gossip about him. They wonder if he had been discharged because of embezzlement or inefficiency. Such rumors make things hard for a servant. When a servant???s reputation is bad, he finds difficulty in securing a new position. This is because the new employer is not satisfied with what the servant says about himself until he learns something about his past from former employers.
Generally when a servant leaves his master and seeks a new position, he is praised by his friends and criticized by his enemies. Some people picture him as an embezzler, extravagant and lazy, while others testify to his good character, honesty, and efficiency. All of this is done by whispering. When one master refuses to hire a servant, the others will be suspicious of hiring him. Consequently, the servant is branded as dishonest and unfaithful. Some people indulge in such gossip concerning servants, not because they are interested in the welfare of the employer, but because it is a habit in which they take some delight.
Pauls warns against this kind of destructive criticism. He bids the Christians to mind their own business and let the masters or employers find out about their servants and laborers. Whatever the servants do, whether good or bad, is know to God, and their acts are only accountable to him. Men are not to judge one another because they themselves might be guilty of the same acts they condemn in others. Some men in the East, when hiring servants or laborers say: ???I leave it to him and to his God.??? ???God is a witness between us.???
George M. Lamsa, NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY, pp. 219-221, A.J. Holman Company, Philadelphia, 1945.
Romans 14: 6
[Commentary by George Lamsa, in his own words.]
The Eastern text correctly reads: ???And he who is an embezzler is an embezzler to his master and he confesses to God. And he who is not an embezzler is not an embezzler to his master snd he confesses to God.???
Akhel is an Aramaic word, derived from ekhal, meaning ???to eat.??? but the same word is also used for ???embezzling??? and ???devouring.??? Thus akhola, ???eater??? (glutton), sometimes is applied to an embezzler. In colloquial speech people often say ???he has eaten my money,??? which means of course that he embezzled it. He had eaten widows??? houses and their sheep. Jesus used the expression.???Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for you embezzle (Aramaic eat) the property of widows (Matt 23 : 13; Mark 12 : 38; Luke 20 :47, Eastern text).
As certificates and letters of recommendation are not known in the East, servants are given verbal recommendations. Unemployment is hardly known in some of the Eastern countries, and servants and laborers are scarce. Only a few servants seek changes. Most of them prefer to work for the same person as long as they can. Therefore, when a servant seeks employment people begin to gossip about him. They wonder if he had been discharged because of embezzlement or inefficiency. Such rumors make things hard for a servant. When a servant???s reputation is bad, he finds difficulty in securing a new position. This is because the new employer is not satisfied with what the servant says about himself until he learns something about his past from former employers.
Generally when a servant leaves his master and seeks a new position, he is praised by his friends and criticized by his enemies. Some people picture him as an embezzler, extravagant and lazy, while others testify to his good character, honesty, and efficiency. All of this is done by whispering. When one master refuses to hire a servant, the others will be suspicious of hiring him. Consequently, the servant is branded as dishonest and unfaithful. Some people indulge in such gossip concerning servants, not because they are interested in the welfare of the employer, but because it is a habit in which they take some delight.
Pauls warns against this kind of destructive criticism. He bids the Christians to mind their own business and let the masters or employers find out about their servants and laborers. Whatever the servants do, whether good or bad, is know to God, and their acts are only accountable to him. Men are not to judge one another because they themselves might be guilty of the same acts they condemn in others. Some men in the East, when hiring servants or laborers say: ???I leave it to him and to his God.??? ???God is a witness between us.???
George M. Lamsa, NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY, pp. 219-221, A.J. Holman Company, Philadelphia, 1945.