07-02-2004, 10:43 PM
I may be pushing my luck with this one. The primary meaning of the word in the Greek is "prisoner" (of Jesus) which sounds very bad. Strong's lists bound as well as a meaning at prisoner with 16 times and bound only once.
The Aramaic hrys0 can mean prisoner but can mean sergeant and even bound. so refer to a bondsman? bondsman is a slave, servant, bondsman also has a meaning of accepting responsibility for another, making a lot of sense of this verse. e.g. Paul is being a martyr FOR Jesus, imprisoned, but He is not the prisoner OF Jesus! Taking all the meanings together we get a wonderful picture, Paul is a sergeant of Jesus' movement, He is a
servant of Jesus, He is being punished martyr-style for Jesus, but he
is NOT a prisoner of Jesus!
I think the Greek lovers may fight this one based on the dodgy definitions by Strong, but all the Greek based versions don't say prisoner for nothing. And prisoner of Jesus sounds so bad.
Maybe someone can find a variant for this and strengthen it thusly.
The Aramaic hrys0 can mean prisoner but can mean sergeant and even bound. so refer to a bondsman? bondsman is a slave, servant, bondsman also has a meaning of accepting responsibility for another, making a lot of sense of this verse. e.g. Paul is being a martyr FOR Jesus, imprisoned, but He is not the prisoner OF Jesus! Taking all the meanings together we get a wonderful picture, Paul is a sergeant of Jesus' movement, He is a
servant of Jesus, He is being punished martyr-style for Jesus, but he
is NOT a prisoner of Jesus!
I think the Greek lovers may fight this one based on the dodgy definitions by Strong, but all the Greek based versions don't say prisoner for nothing. And prisoner of Jesus sounds so bad.
Maybe someone can find a variant for this and strengthen it thusly.