The Rhetoric and Ethic of Translating and Representing Enslaved Persons in New Testament and Early Christian Studies
Ancient Mediterranean literature and artistic depictions portray enslaved persons as diminutive, marginal, and non-descript—when they are portrayed at all. In this article, we ask how scholars of the New Testament and early Christianity might navigate texts that deal with enslavement and/or enslaved...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
|
| In: |
Journal for the study of the New Testament
Year: 2025, Volume: 48, Issue: 1, Pages: 5-32 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Slavery
/ Slavery (Motif)
/ Translation science
/ Translation
/ Theory
/ Greek language
/ pais
/ Kyrios
/ kyrios (Word)
/ Plot
/ Plot (Motif)
|
| IxTheo Classification: | HC New Testament KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NCE Business ethics TB Antiquity ZA Social sciences ZB Sociology |
| Further subjects: | B
slavery studies
B Slavery B enslaved persons B Early Christianity B Translation Theory B New Testament |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Ancient Mediterranean literature and artistic depictions portray enslaved persons as diminutive, marginal, and non-descript—when they are portrayed at all. In this article, we ask how scholars of the New Testament and early Christianity might navigate texts that deal with enslavement and/or enslaved persons, and offer a guide to ethical translational theory pertaining to ancient slavery. We begin by offering an overview of key theoretical and methodological innovations from scholarship on slavery in the Atlantic World that might be applied to enslavement in the ancient Mediterranean. We then turn to four Greek terms—doulos/doulē, pais, paidiskē, and kurios—both to show how scholars have typically translated these words and to suggest how a ‘agency-centered’ translational approach might help validate the humanity of enslaved persons in antiquity as well as more accurately describe their experience of enslavement. |
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| ISSN: | 1745-5294 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the New Testament
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0142064X251326121 |