Wow! What a statement! If this statement is true, one might wonder:
Are there other words that the English translators have "covered up"?
Should I now doubt the credibility of my English translation?
If the English translators are truly guilty of perpetrating a fraud, are there other things that the English translators conspired to hide?
Ask yourself, "Do we really want to promote truths while at the same time cause people to doubt the reliability of most English translations of the Bible?" I think not. What this amounts to is; Careless, and potentially dangerous, words to promote an important truth.
I have always understood that Christ is my Master and I am His slave-in spite of this so-called "conspiracy to cover up the truth". There are so many texts throughout the bible that speak the truth about our relationship to Christ that I find it difficult to believe that anyone reading (even) English translations for over 40 years could have their "understanding of the new testament explode in a whole new way" after uncovering this "conspiracy".
Careless Words!
Having said that, I am certain that the book will be helpful. I am just concerned about the way in which it was marketed and promoted. I feel it lacked wisdom and was somewhat dangerous in regard to its underlying message. In essence, those statements are also bringing into question the ethics and character of hundreds, if not thousands, of men involved in bible translation work down through history; including Tyndale, the reformers involved in the Geneva Bible Translation, and, even Wycliff, to name just a few.
Bible teachers have always taught these truths about our relationship to Christ, without accusing the translators of the English versions of perpetrating a fraud:
Adam Clark – 1762-1832
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ - The word δουλος, which we translate servant, properly means a slave, one who is the entire property of his master; and is used here by the apostle with great propriety. He felt he was not his own, and that his life and powers belonged to his heavenly owner, and that he had no right to dispose of or employ them but in the strictest subserviency to the will of his Lord. In this sense, and in this spirit, he is the willing slave of Jesus Christ; and this is, perhaps, the highest character which any soul of man can attain on this side eternity. "I am wholly the Lord's; and wholly devoted in the spirit of sacrificial obedience, to the constant, complete, and energetic performance of the Divine will." A friend of God is high; a son of God is higher; but the servant, or, in the above sense, the slave of God, is higher than all; - in a word, he is a person who feels he has no property in himself, and that God is all and in all.
Albert Barnes – 1798-1870
The proper meaning of this word servant, δοῦλος doulos, is slave, one who is not free. It expresses the condition of one who has a master, or who is at the control of another. It is often, however, applied to courtiers, or the officers that serve under a king: because in an eastern monarchy the relation of an absolute king to his courtiers corresponded nearly to that of a master and a slave. Thus, the word is expressive of dignity and honor; and the servants of a king denote officers of a high rank and station. It is applied to the prophets as those who were honored by God, or especially entrusted by him with office; Deuteronomy 34:5; Joshua 1:2; Jeremiah 25:4. The name is also given to the Messiah, Isaiah 42:1, "Behold my servant in whom my soul delighteth," etc.; Isaiah 53:11, "shall my righteous servant justify many." The apostle uses it here evidently to denote his acknowledging Jesus Christ as his master; as indicating his dignity, as especially appointed by him to his great work; and as showing that in this Epistle he intended to assume no authority of his own, but simply to declare the will of his master, and theirs.
Alexander MacLaren - 1826-1910
For you must remember that the word most inadequately rendered here, ‘servant’ does not mean a hired man who has, of his own volition, given himself for a time to do specific work and get wages for it; but it means ‘a bond-slave,’ a chattel owned by another. All the ugly associations which gather round the word are transported bodily into the Christian region, and there, instead of being hideous, take on a shape of beauty, and become expressions of the deepest and most blessed truths, in reference to Christian men's dependence upon, and submission to, and place in the household and the heart of, Jesus Christ, their Owner.
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