From: Steven Craig Miller (scmiller@www.plantnet.com)
Date: Fri Dec 03 1999 - 16:05:11 EST
<x-flowed>To: Christopher Hutson,
Garland Shinn wrote: << Regarding PAIS, I note that the word is used of the
centurion's servant in Matt 8:5-13 while Luke uses the word DOULOS in what
is apparently the same incident in 7:1-10. I would welcome your take on how
is PAIS being used in the Matthean account. Is there some cultural
phenomenon occurring here? >>
SCM: << Sure, PAIS could also be used to refer to a servant or slave. In a
similar manner, the English term "boy" was used to refer to a male servant
or slave. >>
CH: << Yes. And that would be an option, if one wanted to harmonize Matt
and Luke. Matt 14:2 clearly uses PAIS to mean something like "slave" or
"henchman." Reading Matt alone, however, it seems most natural to read the
centurion's PAIS as his son. >>
Most natural? How did you determine this?
FWIW, W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, commenting on Mt 8:6, write:
<< ... only once in the NT does PAIS clearly mean 'son' (Jn 4.51). For the
rest it seems to mean 'servant' (cf. Mt 14.2; 12.18) or 'youngster' (cf.
17.18). And in the LXX PAIS rarely translates ben: it is most commonly the
equivalent of `ebed. So we prefer to translate 'servant.' One should think
of a house slave >> (2:21).
-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller@www.plantnet.com
"Words are like people. To know them well one must meet them on their own
level, in their own environment. In different circumstances they react
differently. Like a face they take on varying expressions. Some of them
move from place to place; some never return to their earlier familiar
surroundings. But to know their past is to know a little better what makes
them act as they do in the present" (Frederick W. Danker, "Multipurpose
Tools for Bible Study," 1993:135).
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