An Alphabetical Analysis
Volume 6 - Doctrinal Truth - Page 155 of 270
INDEX
expresses his sentiments, not with too much liberty, but with too much
freedom' (Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary).
The Greek words translated 'free', 'freedom' or 'liberty' in the New
Testament are:
(1)
Eleutheros, the adjective describing one who can go where he
will.
(2)
Eleutheroo, the verb, to free, set at liberty.
(3)
Apeleutheros, the noun, an emancipated slave.
(4)
Eleutheria, translated 'liberty'.
(5)
Anesis, a letting loose, relaxation, as of cords.
(6)
Aphesis, remission, deliverance, forgiveness.
(7)
Exousia, authority, the right to do anything.
(8)
Parrhesia, freeness of speech, frankness.
(9)
Apoluo, to let loose, unbind, set at liberty.
(10)
Dikaioo, to set forth as righteous, to justify.
(11)
Politeia, the relation and rights of citizenship.
(12)
Dorean, freely, gratis, as a free gift.
We shall not attempt to examine in extenso every one of these
references, we set them out in order that the reader may see the range of the
subject.
As the words 'freedom' and 'liberty' have a fairly
wide connotation, we will note next the background, the alternatives provided
by the Scriptures to this blessed state.
'Whether ... bond or free'; 'There is neither bond nor free';
'Barbarian, Scythian, bond (nor) free' (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11).
The great type of deliverance, the Passover and the Exodus, had as its
background 'bondage' (Exod. 1:14; 6:6), and Egypt is referred to again and
again as 'the house of bondage'.  In the New Testament there is not only
mentioned the literal and physical bondage of slavery, but the bondage of sin
(Rom. 6:20); of the fear of death (Heb. 2:15); of subjection to a ceremonial
system (Gal. 2:4; 4:3).  The fact that the word 'slave' does not occur in the
A.V. and that doulos is nearly always translated 'servant' instead of 'bond -
servant' or 'slave', has robbed the reader of much valuable help to the true
understanding both of the condition of sin, and of its most blessed
deliverance, namely:
'The metaphor of our redemption by Christ from the slavery of sin, the
law and idols -- a metaphor influenced by the customs and technical
formulae of sacred manumissions of antiquity' (Deissmann, Light from
the Ancient East).
Manumission is from manu, 'from the hand' and mitto, 'to send',
'Manumission is properly when the lord makes a deed to his villeine to
enfranchise him by this word, manumittere' (Coke).
This is the pronouncement of Sir Edward Coke, a celebrated judge (a.d.
1549 -1634).  Behind the references to freedom in the New Testament lies the
practice of manumission that was in force during the lifetime of the apostle
Paul, and it is to the evidences available of that custom we again turn our
attention, even though the matter has been dealt with earlier (pp. 54 and
215) :