The Prodigal Son and the Slave Brother

http://www.cooneyillustration.com/zparable-prodigalson.htm

Much is said of the (so called) parable of the Prodigal Son, yet not nearly enough if you ask me! In fact the common name for the parable itself is a big part of the problem. It leaves out half the story!! It leaves out the part about slavery! Perhaps we should call in international conspiracy theorist Dr. MacArthur (Dr. Jones of the Bible perhaps??) who keenly picked up on how there had been an international, near double millennia conspiracy to coverup the concept of slavery in the New Testament scriptures. See The Bible X-Files? and my Final Thoughts on Slave (the doctor's latest book). 

Perhaps there has been a conspiracy to cover up the slavery concept that is clearly portrayed in the original Greek but not often revealed in the English translations of the New Testament? Let's crack the case by going to the source! 

The whole parable is found in Luke 15:11-32, but let's start with a few English translations of verse 29. In this verse we find the complaint of the elder brother to the father who had just accepted his lost son back into the warmth of the family with a celebration! I have bolded the words which are rendered from the Greek word douleuó which is a from the word doulos which Dr. MacArthur claims to have uncovered 'a conspiracy of biblical proportions' to cover up the true meaning of "slave." douleuó means "I am a doulos" or "I have been a doulos." Check out Strong's Numbers Greek 1398.

NKJV - which is my preferred preaching & teaching version because of its readability. 

²⁹ So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 

NIV (2011 - I'm not sure how the previous version rendered it) 

²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

ESV - The version Dr. MacArthur heaps praise on.

²⁹but he answered his father, 'Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

OK so what's my point? I have to admit I have more than one. Least important is the obvious incongruence between MacArthur's video about his new book Slave, and his video about his new ESV Study Bible. The ESV is said to be an accurate word for word translation, but it calls slavery service? 

More important is the fact that the elder brother had served his father like a slave, and the prodigal son had not - yet the father welcomed him as a son he was delighted with! Read the whole parable again. Luke 15:11-32. 

The younger son is horrendous to the father, takes off with his wealth and squanders it on his fleshly desires. No one can deny that this was a horrible thing for him to do. Things quickly got miserable for him. He was a Jew and it got so bad that he had to try to feed himself by looking after pigs - unclean animals according to Levitical Law; Lev 11:7 (for example). 

Then the ESV says that the young man "came to himself" Luke 15:17, and decided that even his fathers slaves/servants were more prosperous than he was! Much is said about the son's intent to serve his father, but he never actually said that to his dad. He only managed to say that he was not worthy to be called his son. At that point the father, who had already ran out to meet the young man before he could return home, sent his servants for the finest robes and put a ring on his hand. Then they had a huge celebration! 

Now there is much debate about the application of this parable to salvation. Is this about restoration of fellowship or is it about a sinner getting saved? Is it a son who was always a son who went away and was welcomed back or is it about a son who "was dead, and lost, but now is alive and found"? I actually tend to think of it as a salvation message, he was dead and is now alive.... but it really doesn't matter for the point of this article. 

The elder son had slaved for his father, and the younger son didn't and was not required by the father to do so. They both had full fellowship, and sonship. The only difference is that the younger prodigal one enjoyed the celebration because he knew he was not worthy to be called a son.  Luke 7:47 comes to mind.

God the Father doesn't require slavery for one to be saved. He requires us to see ourselves as we are, and see our need for reconciliation to Him met fully in His Son Jesus Christ. We are not worthy to be called sons and daughters, but He runs out to us and cloths us in the finest Robe anyway. 

Galatians 3:26-29 

²⁶ For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

First review of MacArthur's new book 'Slave'

UPDATE: Here are my own thoughts about Slave (and here are my first impressions).

In the coming days I intend on discussing how we can, and if we should, follow Paul's example in Acts 21 with our dealings with Brethren who preach the Lordship Salvation message.  Here's the first review I've read of MacArthur's new book 'Slave.'

John MacAthur's New Apostate Book - at the Notes From A Retired Preacher blog. (a repost of Bruce Bauer's review at Amazon.com)  I am also going to repost it here. 

Please Note: This review by Bruce Bauer is from: Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ (Hardcover), by John MacArthur

The back paper jacket to the book caught my attention: “A COVER-UP OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS: Centuries ago, English translators perpetrated a fraud in the New Testament, and it’s been purposely hidden and covered up ever since. Your own Bible is probably included in the cover-up!” 

WHAT? Are we to understand that Bible translators for centuries, hundreds if not thousands of highly-trained knowledgeable men of God, have kept a well-guarded secret about the true meaning of the Bible that only NOW Dr. MacArthur will be the one scholar who will bring us the real scoop? 

Yes, this is exactly what the book would have us to believe, that the common Greek term “doulos” has been mistranslated in every major version of the Bible since the earliest of printed Bible translations. According to MacArthur, “doulos” should be translated primarily if not exclusively as “slave.” Most modern translators (NASB, NIV, KJV, NKJV, ESV) as well as common Greek-English lexicons interpret the term in a variety of ways as, “servant,” “slave,” “bond servant,” “bondman,” or “attendant.” MacArthur also states on pp. 29-30 that the proper meaning of the Old Testament’s nearest equivalent term, “‘ebed” has also been hidden by modern translators: 

“The King James Version, for example, never translates ‘ebed as ‘slave’—opting for ‘servant’ or ‘manservant’ the vast majority of the time. But contrast that with the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament from before the time of Christ. It translates ‘ebed with forms of ‘doulos,’ or ‘slave’ more than 400 times!” 

WHAT?? The LXX translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek, NOT to English! So MacArthur is leaping to an inappropriate conclusion about the meaning of the Hebrew in this case.  

My greatest problem with the book was that the author, MacArthur, took the ancient images of slavery and superimposed them onto modern Christianity with the intent to create the notion that our normative relationship with God and our service to God should be that of a slave to a master, instead of that of a child of God responding out of love and gratitude to an omnibenevolent (all loving) Father God. Romans 8:15 says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba,” Father.” 

With this slave-to-master representation set into place, the author proceeded to promote his standard Lordship Salvation doctrine dressed in new clothes, slave garb. He even used much of the same argumentation that he used in “The Gospel According to Jesus.” And, once again, he freely denigrated and characterized Free Grace theology, especially in chapter five.

Recommended reading: “The Grace Awakening,” by Charles Swindoll

The Bible X-Files?

Dr. John MacArthur has a new book coming out. I heard about this a few weeks ago from a commenter here at On My Walk, but now there's a promo video!

Brother Martuneac, author of In Defense of the Gospel which was recently reviewed here has a discussion about MacArthur's new book "Slave" going on over at his blog. Lou quotes MacArthur's own explanation of the book.

“Studying the New Testament I discovered a distortion of truth when it came to the word ‘doulos.’ The book Slave is about the hidden word that unlocks the believer’s identity. There had been a conspiracy to cover up a truth that is so essential to the New Testament that without it we misunderstand our relationship to Jesus Christ.”

You "discovered" a distortion of the truth? Written about a "hidden word"? There's been a "conspiracy"? Wow, hold the show there Spooky Mulder... I'm sure you're just trying to sell some books but you're going a bit over the top here buddy. What is this? An episode of The Bible X-Files?

Well I don't know about any of that... last I checked the Bible has been completely open for study to everyone for a long time and ignorance of what it says, or doesn't say, is really the fault of an individual - not a conspiracy.  As for what MacArthur intends to explain to the world with his upcoming book "Slave"- well, I think this quote from his sermon "Slaves for Christ" sums it up pretty well.

“When you give somebody the gospel, you are saying to them, ‘I would like to invite you to become a slave of Jesus Christ…give up your independence…give up your freedom, submit yourself to an alien will, abandon all your rights, be owned by, controlled by the Lord’. That’s really the gospel.” (1:06 of video linked above)

"That's really the gospel." Really? Alright MacArthurites, remind me again how I have misrepresented this man's doctrine again and again...

Here's the promo video. I'll definitely be buying this book, if only because I want to show it to all the people who tell me that MacArthur doesn't pervert the Gospel of Jesus Christ.