Why Does ESV Omit Torment/Torture in Matthew 18:34?

[InTheLight]

Today's sermon was on the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18. My church uses the ESV while I carry an NIV (and used a KJV for 35 years prior.) In verse 34, when the master learns the servant he forgave of his debt has not forgiven his own servant the Bible says the master turned his servant over:

"to the jailers to be tortured" NIV
"to the torturers" NKJV
"to the tormentors" KJV
"to the torturers" NASB

"to the jailers" ESV

The parable is clearly teaching the danger of being an unforgiving person and I believe the torment/torture aspect is a picture of Hell. So why is this important element of the parable missing from the ESV?

 

[go2church]

From the NET Bible, there is this note:

tn Grk "handed him over to the torturers," referring specifically to guards whose job was to torture prisoners who were being questioned. According to LN 37.126, it is difficult to know for certain in this instance whether the term actually envisions torture as a part of the punishment or is simply a hyperbole. However, in light of the following verse and Jesus' other warning statements in Matthew about "fiery hell," "the outer darkness," etc., it is best not to dismiss this as mere imagery.

My guess, only a guess, is that the translators thought that using the word "jailer" implied there would be torture as this was part of the jailers job. Using jailers isn't inaccurate, that is the word, and you can certainly draw that out of the text when preaching/ teaching the text, but maybe not as precise as other translations.

This happens in translations, accurate word choice, but perhaps not as finely tuned as possible.

 

[InTheLight]

OK, but not all jailers were torturers, right? Furthermore, the master was angry so throwing someone in debtors prison with no mention of torment doesn't seem like a very angry reaction. Also, verse 35 doesn't have much impact if only the term jailers is used with no promise of torment :

Matthew 18:35 ESV
So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

ESV implies God will send us to prison if we are unforgiving people.

 

[preacher4truth]

Omit from what? The KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV?

None of these are the standard. :thumbsup::wavey:

 

[go2church]

OK, but not all jailers were torturers, right? Furthermore, the master was angry so throwing someone in debtors prison with no mention of torment doesn't seem like a very angry reaction. Also, verse 35 doesn't have much impact if only the term jailers is used with no promise of torment :

Matthew 18:35 ESV
So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

ESV implies God will send us to prison if we are unforgiving people.

I don't know the exact job description of a jailer. It easily could be that it was an expectation. Like all translations, there are places where a home run is hit, other places, a bouncing single.

 

[Yeshua1]

OK, but not all jailers were torturers, right? Furthermore, the master was angry so throwing someone in debtors prison with no mention of torment doesn't seem like a very angry reaction. Also, verse 35 doesn't have much impact if only the term jailers is used with no promise of torment :

Matthew 18:35 ESV
So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

ESV implies God will send us to prison if we are unforgiving people.

believe jesus was teaching to us that IF one calims to be a chrsitian, and yet refuse to forgive others just as he forgive us, that God will allow us to keep ourselves in "jail/prison", for we will not be going to hell, but will be building up a boatload of anger, bile, and just very unproductive for Him and the kingdom!

 

[InTheLight]

believe jesus was teaching to us that IF one calims to be a chrsitian, and yet refuse to forgive others just as he forgive us, that God will allow us to keep ourselves in "jail/prison", for we will not be going to hell, but will be building up a boatload of anger, bile, and just very unproductive for Him and the kingdom!

Wrong. Jesus is saying if we have an unforgiving spirit then he won't forgive us our sins. We're not really saved. It's as plain as the text. That's why the omission of torment is crucial.

The master forgave the servant for debts of ten thousand talents (millions of dollars of debt) yet the servant could not forgive his own servant that owed him about $200?

 

[InTheLight]

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[Rhys]

So why is this important element of the parable missing from the ESV?

It is very unlikely that a majority of the translators (or, rather, revisers) did not see the parable as a metaphor of Hell. Rather, it is much more likely, especially in light of several commentaries on Matt. 18:34, that they chose not to highlight it as such beyond the lexical purview of the Greek.

Adam Clarke:

"Not only continued captivity is here intended, but the tortures to be endured in it. If a person was suspected of fraud, as there was reason for in such a case as that mentioned here, he was put to very cruel tortures among the Asiatics, to induce him to confess."

Joseph Benson:

"Delivered him to the tormentors. Not only revoked the grant of remission which he had just before made, as forfeited by so vile a behaviour; but put him in prison, commanding him to be there fettered and scourged; till he should pay all that was due unto him -- That is, without any hope of release, for the immense debt which he owed he could never be able to pay.

Instead of tormentors, here, Dr. Campbell reads jailers, observing that “the word βασανιστης, here used, properly denotes examiner, particularly one who has it in charge to examine by torture. Hence it came to signify jailer, for on such, in those days, was this charge commonly devolved. They were not only allowed, but even commanded, to treat the wretches in their custody with every kind of cruelty, in order to extort payment from them... it must be observed that imprisonment is a much severer punishment in the eastern countries than in ours."

John Gill was more subtle:

"Delivered him to the tormentors, or jail keepers... from both, the sense may be, that he was delivered over to proper judges of his case, to be treated as the nature of it required, to be cast into prison, and there endure all the severities of law and justice."

The use of "jailers" in the ESV is one of many examples where immediate clarity to the reader is sacrificed for the sake of literal adherence to the source text. Nothing is omitted, obscured, or concealed from us -- it simply means more context is required to understand the full meaning. This can be a good thing or a bad thing.

Consider, also, that the verse may contain multiple metaphors. Take, for example, 2 Thess. 1:9:

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might-

Hell will be separation from God, just as imprisonment is separation from the presence of family and community. Just as the wicked will be tormented in Hell, so were the bankrupt debtors in prison. Just as the bankrupts could never repay their debts, neither will sinners in Hell.

Tormentors/torturers captures only one meaning of the verse, just as 'jailers' does. Since there's no word in English that carries a double meaning, we can either leave it up to the reader to inform themselves, or we can add a couple of words to the text to bring it out; I do believe the NIV has captured the best literal sense of the verse here.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

The parable is clearly teaching the danger of being an unforgiving person and I believe the torment/torture aspect is a picture of Hell. So why is this important element of the parable missing from the ESV?

It's not. It simply acknowledges that jailors tortured their prisoners in those time. The word is basanistes in the Greek, and it means, "one who elicits the truth by the use of the rack; an inquisitor, torturer; also used of a jailer, doubtless because the business of torturing was also assigned to him." That is from Thayer's, and the NASB lexicon.

 

[InTheLight]

It's not. It simply acknowledges that jailors tortured their prisoners in those time. The word is basanistes in the Greek, and it means, "one who elicits the truth by the use of the rack; an inquisitor, torturer; also used of a jailer, doubtless because the business of torturing was also assigned to him." That is from Thayer's, and the NASB lexicon.

So the primary meaning of the Greek word is "one who elicits the truth by the use of the rack; an inquisitor, torturer; and a secondary meaning is "also used of a jailer"

 

[Yeshua1]

So the primary meaning of the Greek word is "one who elicits the truth by the use of the rack; an inquisitor, torturer; and a secondary meaning is "also used of a jailer"

Jesus was referring to us as Christians, who if we refuse to forgive others sins against us, we would put ourselves into "prison", as we would be the ones to suffer penalties for unforgiving spirit, such as stress, anger, not able to be used of God etc!

 

[InTheLight]

Jesus was referring to us as Christians, who if we refuse to forgive others sins against us, we would put ourselves into "prison", as we would be the ones to suffer penalties for unforgiving spirit, such as stress, anger, not able to be used of God etc!

You're still wrong about the meaning of the parable. Sorry for you....

 

[Yeshua1]

You're still wrong about the meaning of the parable. Sorry for you....

well,Jesus was addressing His own followers, and since none of them can lose their eternal life in him, have to seek another answer than what you postulate it means!

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

So the primary meaning of the Greek word is "one who elicits the truth by the use of the rack; an inquisitor, torturer; and a secondary meaning is "also used of a jailer"

Based on the duties of a jailer, yup.