Servant or Slave

I have been viewing a wonderful series of lectures by Dr. Joel S. Baden of Yale Divinity School on Hebrew Bible Interpretation.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who would like to delve into the Hebrew Scripture from a somewhat different perspective from the Old Testament in the Bible.  Dr. Baden is a very engaging lecturer and makes the material come alive.  The link to the lectures is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZIm_edPz20&list=PLbQINmUy3n7Yd56ISO-zbVMu0vLtkExB8&index=1.

One of the many points he has made that I found engaging, is the use of the words ‘servant’ and ‘slave’ in the English translation which occurs in many editions of the bible.  Dr. Baden’s point is that the Hebrew word for servant and slave are the same.  Any time we see servant in the bible it is better translated as slave.  He noted that in the covenant, when an Israelite was indentured to another Israelite he or she must not be treated as a slave because the Israelites as a people are slaves to God (YHWH).  However, most editions of the bible will translate that as servants.  This is true in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the bible as I discovered in my daily bible reading as a finished slogging my way through Leviticus, “For to me the people of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 25: 56).  Just to be clear, a more accurate translation is, “For to me the people of Israel are slaves; they are my slaves whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. As Dr. Baden notes it is a very different effect to be a slave of God than to be a servant of God. 

This got me thinking about what the difference would be for Christians in the 21^st Century to be slaves of God rather than servants of God.  I believe that most Christians - at least of a liberal bent - would prefer to think of themselves as servants than as slaves.  A servant is someone who has a choice if they are going to serve somebody.  It gives us the understanding and possibly the illusion that we have a choice in how we live our lives as Christian.  We can choose the conditions under which we live up to fulfilling our duty as Christians - or not.  If we are slaves, we have no choice which doesn’t sit well with our modern or post-modern understanding of ourselves as free agents with choices. 

However, if we are honest, we have to acknowledge the promise that we Christians make, or are made on our behalf when we are baptized and when those vows are renewed.  As part of our liturgy, we also confess to our missing the mark (sin) in living up to those vows.  That has more than a hint of being slaves than servants.  What come to mind while writing this is the Bob Dylan song, You’ve Gotta Serve Somebody.  Here the first verse:

You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

Bob Dylan is putting it in terms of having a choice in who we serve but that, in reality, we are going to serve somebody or something which means that when it comes down to it, we don’t have a choice in serving or not – we are going to give our service someone or something.  I believe that who or what we serve will be different depending on different factors.  Indeed, there may be many different people or things we serve each and every day.  It may not be a stark choice of the Lord or the Devil but it can be in small seemingly inconsequential things.  But as Bob Dylan says we have to serve somebody.  Of course, the process of choosing of what we serve is often not that clear and can be complex and at bottom not something that we do consciously so there may not be that much choice involved.  Consequently, it is important to be mindful of the choices we are making and to attempt be more conscious of those choices. 

So, in all this may you be blessed in the choices you make on your journey.