The English words servant, to serve, service, servile, servilely, serving, &c. have descended into the language from the Latin word servus, a slave, and these words, when first introduced into the language, as distinctly carried with them the idea of slavery as does now our present term, and will continue to do so wherever the English language and slavery prevail. In no slave-holding country will the word servant be applied to a freeman as a legitimate term of description, but in non-slaveholding communities these words are sometimes used in a somewhat different sense, yet erroneously, because they are then used without adherence to their derivation and analogy. These words, when found in the received translation of the Christian Scriptures, are in the most of instances translated from some Greek word that signified or included the idea slavery. But notwithstanding the obvious error in giving the word servant, &c. as the translation of a word that did not carry with it the idea which was in unison with the original of these words, yet we find some few instances of such error. We give a few examples.
“Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.” John xviii. 36.
Here servants is translated from ὑπηρέται, huperetai, and signifies a subordinate. In English it sometimes requires attendants, assistants, inferior officers, &c., but never associates with the idea of slavery.
“Peter followed him afar off unto the high-priest’s palace, and he sat with the servants, (ὑπηρετῶν, attendants, &c.,) and warmed himself at the fire.” Mark xiv. 54. “And the servants (δοῦλοι, douloi, slaves) and officers (ὑπηρέται, huperetai, attendants, inferior officers, &c.) stood there, who had made a fire of coals, (for it was cold,) and they warmed themselves.” John xviii. 18.
That the word here used never conjugates with the idea slavery, we quote it as used in Luke iv. 20, in proof: “And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister,” (ὑπηρέτῃ, huperete, attendant, inferior officer, &c.) Also, Acts xxvi. 16: “But rise and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister (ὑπηρέτην, hupereten, attendant, assistant, minister, &c.) and a witness both of those things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee.”
Here the requisites of the character required are totally incompatible with the character of the doulos, proving with the greatest certainty that these two words have no analogy whatever. For we may well here remark, that human learning has never arrived at a more nicely distinct and definite perfection in the use of language than is even now manifest in the sayings of Him “who spoke as never man spake.”
Besides, in the case of John xviii. 18, servants, douloi, and officers ὑπηρέται, huperetai, being used consecutively and coupled together by a conjunction, is a strong proof that the idea appropriated here severally to these terms could not be expressed by either term alternately by substitution, and that these terms were by no analogy synonymous.
The word servant has also in error been rendered from other terms: see Hebrews iii. 5: “And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant,” (θεράπων, therapon.) We have not in English any single term that fully expresses the idea conveyed by this. It means an associate or companion who is voluntarily under the direction of one whom he takes and acknowledges to be his superior. The old Roman umbra, when applied to an attendant, conveyed the idea more exactly than any one term of ours. Thus, the warrior was called the therapon of Mars, and of the muses and kings of the gods generally. Thus, Menelaus is called the therapon of his chief, &c. &c. (See Iliad, viii. 113, xviii. 244, xix. 143.)
A similar error is occasionally found in the use of the terms to serve, served, service, &c., as if they were legitimately derived from some form of doulos. Thus, Luke ii. 37: “But served God with fasting and prayers night and day,”—“served,” λατρεύουσα, latreuousa, from latreuo. The more appropriate term is “to worship,” &c.
The term was used by the Greeks, “to worship” the gods by sacrifices and offerings. (See Euripides, Electra, 131; Iphagenia in Tauris, 1115.) So in Acts vii. 7: “And after that shall they come forth and serve me in this place,”—“serve,” λατρεύσουσι, latreusousi. It should have been, “and worship me in this place.” Rom. ix. 4: “And the service of God, and the promises,” λατρεία, latreia, worship, &c. So also Heb. ix. 1: “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service,” λατρείας, latreias, worship. So also Heb. xiii. 10: “We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle,”—“serve,” λατρεύοντες, latreuontes, who are worshipping in the, &c. &c.