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NASB | 1 Thessalonians 3:2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Thessalonians 3:2 and so we sent Timothy, our brother and God's servant in [spreading] the good news of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you [exhorting, comforting, and establishing you] in regard to your faith, |
Bible Question: I have been studying this verse. I have also been reading 1 Cor 3:9, both speaking to God's fellow workers. In my Key Word study Bible in 1 Thess 3:2 the word "diakonos" has been used. In eight other reference materials, Greek dictionaries, Vines, etc, the word "synergos" (and its variations) have been used more frequently. I am curious as to how you came to the determination to use the word that you did. I have also studied that both words have a very similiar meaning and the the context and verbage in both verses are carefully looked at because of the connection to "God's fellow worker" has to be addressed. I will greatly appreciate you insight into this. Thank you. |
Bible Answer: Chilidog, Unfortunately you will not receive a reply here from anybody who represents the translators of the NASB. All participants are just like you, those who log on to find a community to discuss questions like yours. What you ask is an excellent question, yet text criticism principles are hard to explain sometimes. As you seem to be aware, there is a mixed witness in the texts which we have. Diakonos by far has more texts, however the multitude of witnesses to a particular reading is not the only question which a text critic weighs. Another major question which determines the preferred reading is which of the readings best explain the development of the additional readings? In this case it is really easy to see how a scribe reading one being described as "a fellow worker of God" could see that as a bit much and out of a pious but misguided humility softening the statement to "servant." Now on the flip side it is really hard to imagine some scribe being so bold as to read the original reading of "servant" and then decide he should upgrade us from servants to "fellow workers of God." And this is precisely why groups favor the reading of "fellow servant" as being original rather then the more widely attested "servant." Now we can't be certain about this. But the reasoning is sound especially given that we know for sure that scribes often changed the text to what they thought would be a more reverent reading when they were copying. I hope this helps and if this type of information is helpful to you I recommend to you "A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament" 2nd edition by Bruce Metzger. In Christ, Beja |
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Questions and/or Subjects for 1 Thess 3:2 | Author | ||
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chilidog | ||
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Beja | ||
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chilidog |