Master

A person who has servants under him; a ruler, or instructor. The duties of masters relate to the civil concerns of the family. To arrange the several businesses required of servants; to give particular instructions for what is to be done, and how it is to be done; to take care that no more is required of servants than they are equal to; to be gentle in our deportment towards them; to reprove them when they do wrong, to commend them when they do right; to make them an adequate recompense for their services, as to protection, maintenance, wages and character.

2. As to the morals of servants. Masters must look well to their servants’s characters before they hire them; instruct them in the habits of virtue; watch over their morals, and set them good examples.

3. As to their religious interests. They should instruct them in the knowledge of divine things, Gen 14:14. Gen 18:19. Pray with them and for them, Jos 24:15. Allow them time and leisure for religious services, &c. Eph 6:9.

See Stennett on Domestic Duties, ser. 8; Paley’s Moral Phil. vol. 1: 233, 235; Beattie’s Elements of Moral Science, vol. 1: 150, 153; Doddridge’s Lec. vol. 2: 266.

We use this term upon various occasions, and it is very commonly received among men, such as servants to their employers, children to their teachers, and the like; but strictly and properly speaking, it belongs to none but to the Lord Jesus Christ. So Christ himself enjoined: "Call no man your master, for one is your master, even Christ." (Matt. 23. 10.) There is certainly a somewhat of great softness in the expression in relation to Christ. We should not give this title to the person of God the Father, or God the Holy Ghost; itseems too familiar. But eyeing Jesus in our own nature, the heart feels a nearness of affection, and the terms then of master, honoured Lord, seem expressive both of duty and love. Every thing in Jesus, and every office in Jesus, makes this title pleasant. You call me master, and Lord, (saith that gracious Redeemer to his disciples when upon earth) "and you say well, for so I am." (John 13. 13.) I know not whether I shall offend, but I cannot forbear making a quotation from the writings of an eminently devout man of thesixteenth century upon the subject: I mean, George Herbert, who seemeth to have hung upon the name of Jesus his master, as the bee hangs upon the flower. How sweetly doth my master sound, my master! As ambergris leaves, a rich scent. Unto the taster - - . So doth these words a sweet content, An oriental fragrancy - - my master! My master! shall I speak? O that to thee My servant were a little so, As flesh might be, That these two words might creep and grow To some degree of spiciness to thee! For when my master, which alone is sweet, And ev’n my unworthiness pleasing, Shall call and meet My servant, as thee not displeasing, That call is but the breathing of the sweet. This breathing would with gains, by sweet’ning me, (As sweet things traffic when they meet) Return to thee: And so this new commerce, and sweet, Should all my life employ and busy me.

1. In the O.T. there are five words so translated, but only one that occurs frequently, adon, which is often rendered ’Lord,’ and signifies ’master’ either as owner or ruler. In the N.T. there is κύριος, often translated ’Lord:’ this is rendered ’master’ in reference to God in Eph 6:9; Col 4:1; and is often used as between master and servants.

2. διδάσκαλος, ’teacher.’ This is often translated ’master’ in the gospels in application to the Lord. Mat 8:19; Mar 4:38; Luk 3:12; Joh 1:38, etc. It is the same word in Jas 3:1, "Be not many teachers."

3. δεσπότης, master in the sense of ’owner,’ as of slaves. 1Ti 6:1-2; 2Ti 2:21; Tit 2:9; 1Pe 2:18.

4. ἐπιστάτης, ’superintendent, overseer.’ Luk 5:5; Luk 8:24; Luk 8:45; Luk 9:33; Luk 9:49; Luk 17:13.

5. καθηγητής, ’leader.’ Mat 23:8; Mat 23:10.

6. ῥαββί, ’Rabbi,’ a Jewish title. Mat 26:25; Mat 26:49; Mar 9:5; Mar 11:21; Mar 14:45; Joh 4:31, Joh 9:2; Joh 11:8.

7. κυβερνήτης, ’ship-master.’ Act 27:11; Rev 18:17.

MASTER (Lat. magister from root of magnus = ‘great.’ Hence ‘master’ corresponds to rabbi, which is from רַב ‘great’; and in Authorized Version ῥαββεί is frequently translation ‘master,’ e.g. Mat 26:25, Mar 9:5, Joh 4:31, though in all such cases Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 retains ‘rabbi’).—The word most generally rendered ‘master’ is διδάσκαλος, which strictly means teacher; and this meaning is given in every case as an alternative reading in (Revised Version margin) , e.g. Mat 8:19; Mat 22:16, Mar 5:35; Mar 10:17, Luk 3:12; Luk 8:49, Joh 11:28; Joh 13:13-14. In Luk 8:24; Luk 9:33 the Gr. word for ‘master’ is ἐπιστάτης, a word generally used in the sense not of ‘teacher’ but of ‘chief’ or ‘overseer.’ In Mat 23:10 καθηγητής, rendered ‘master,’ is more correctly translation ‘leader’ or ‘guide.’ ‘Master’ was the ordinary title of courtesy and respect paid to a religious teacher. See art. Rabbi.

Dugald Clark.

MASTER.—The Greek word for teacher is tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘master’ in 2Ma 1:10, Jas 3:1, and in all its occurrences in the Gospels except Luk 2:46, where it is ‘doctor,’ and Joh 3:2 ‘teacher.’ See Lord and Slave.

mas´ter (ארון, ’ādhōn, בּעל, ba‛al, רבּי, rabbı̄; δεσπότης, despótēs, διδάσκαλος, didáskalos, κύριος, kúrios, ῥαββί, rhabbı́): “Master,” when the translation of ’ādhōn, “ruler,” “lord” (Sir), often translated “lord,” denotes generally the owner or master of a servant or slave (Gen 24:9, etc.; Gen 39:2, etc.; Exo 21:4, etc.; Deu 23:15 bis; 2Sa 9:9, 2Sa 9:10 twice; Pro 30:10); elsewhere it is rather “lord” or “ruler” (often king, e.g. 1Sa 24:6, 1Sa 24:8; 1Sa 26:16); in the plural ’ădhonı̄m, it is, as the rule, used only of God (but see Gen 19:2, Gen 19:18; Deu 10:17; Psa 136:3, “Lord of lords”; Isa 26:13, “other lords”; Isa 19:4 (Hebrew “lords”); Isa 24:2). Ba‛al, “lord,” “owner,” is translated “master”: “the master of the house” (Exo 22:8; Jdg 19:22, Jdg 19:23); “the ass his master’s crib” (Isa 1:3). We have it also translated “masters of assemblies” (Ecc 12:11). See ASSEMBLIES, MASTERS OF. Compare Ecclesiasticus 32:1, “master (of a feast),” the Revised Version (British and American) “ruler”; Joh 2:9, “ruler of the feast”; rabh (Dan 1:3; Jon 1:6, “shipmaster”); rabh, Aramaic, “great,” “mighty,” “elder” (Dan 4:9; Dan 5:11,” master of the magicians”); also sar, “head” or “chief” (Exo 1:11, “taskmasters”; 1Ch 15:27, “master of the song,” the Revised Version margin “the carrying of the ark, Hebrew the lifting up”); ‛ūr, “to call,” “to awake,” is also rendered “master” in the King James Version, “The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar,” margin “him that waketh and him that answereth,” the Revised Version (British and American) as the King James Version margin (Mal 2:12).

The verb “to master” does not occur in the Old Testament, but we have in Apocrypha (The Wisdom of Solomon 12:18) “mastering thy power” (despózōn ischúos), the Revised Version (British and American) “being sovereign over (thy) strengh.”

In the New Testament despotēs answers to ’ādhōn as “master” (1Ti 6:1, 1Ti 6:2; 2Ti 2:21), rendered also “Lord” (Luk 2:29,etc.); kurios, is “Master,” “Lord,” “Sir,” used very frequently of God or of Christ (Mat 1:20, Mat 1:22, Mat 1:24), translated “Master” (Mat 6:24; Mat 15:27; the King James Version Mar 13:35; Rom 14:4, etc.); kathēgētḗs, a “leader,” is translated “Master” (Mat 23:8 (the King James Version), 10); didaskalos, a title very often applied to our Lord in the Gospels, is “Teacher,” translated “Master” in the King James Version Mat 8:19; Mat 9:11; Mar 4:38; Luk 3:12, etc.; the Revised Version (British and American) “Teacher”; also Joh 3:2, Joh 3:10; Jas 3:1, “be not many masters,” the Revised Version (British and American) “teachers”; rhabbi, rhabbei (“Rabbi”) (a transliterated Hebrew term signifying “my Teacher”) is also in several instances applied to Jesus, the King James Version “Master” (Mat 26:25, Mat 26:49; Mar 9:5; Mar 11:21; Joh 9:2 (the Revised Version (British and American) leaves untranslated) Mar 10:51, “Rabboni,” the King James Version “Lord”; Joh 20:16 (“Rabbouni”), the Revised Version (British and American) “Rabboni,” which see).

For “master” the Revised Version (British and American) has “lord” (1Sa 26:16; 1Sa 29:4, 1Sa 29:10; Amo 4:1; Mar 13:35; Rom 14:4); “master” for “lord” (Gen 39:16; 2Pe 2:1; Rev 6:10); for “good man of the house” (Mat 24:43; Luk 12:39), “master of the house”; in Eph 6:5, the Revised Version margin gives “Gr lords” (in Eph 6:9, “their Master and yours” is also Greek kurios); instead of “the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jud 1:4), the Revised Version (British and American) reads “our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ,” margin “the only Master, and our Lord Jesus Christ”; for “overcame them” (Act 19:16), “mastered both of them.”

In the Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse three words (êõâåñíÞôçò, äåóðüôçò, êýñéïò) are translated ‘master’ in the Revised Version . The Authorized Version has ‘masters’ for äéäÜóêáëïé in Jam_3:1, the etymological meaning of magistri (so the Rhem. [Note: Rhemish New Testament.] in Heb_5:12). The Revised Version uses ‘teacher’ uniformly.

1. In Act_27:11 the Revised Version has ‘the master’ for ὁ êõâåñíÞôçò (from êõâåñíᾶí, Lat. gubernare, ‘govern’), ‘governor.’ So also Rev_18:17. The notion is that of steersman (cf. Eze_27:8; Eze_27:27 f.).

2. The term äåóðüôçò is strictly the antithesis of äïῦëïò, and signifies ‘absolute ownership and uncontrolled power’ (Thayer Grimm’s Gr.-Eng. Lexicon of the NT). So we have it in 1Ti_6:1 f., a pertinent warning to the Christian äïῦëïé not to presume on the new fellowship in Christ with their äåóðüôáé, but to give them all the more honour and service. Christianity should make better äïῦëïé (cf. also Tit_2:9). In 1Pe_2:18 äåóðüôçò is in contrast with ïἰêÝôçò; so in 2Ti_2:21 it is ἡ ïἰêßá ôïῦ äåóðüôïõ. In 2Pe_2:1 Christ is called äåóðüôçò as One Who has purchased His servants. So also Jud_1:4 and possibly Rev_6:10, though the latter may refer to God as in the Septuagint (cf. Gen_15:2; Gen_15:8 etc.) and Act_4:24.

3. The other term, êýñéïò, has a wider meaning and is applicable to various relations and ranks of life, and does not necessarily suggest absolutism. The word is originally an adjective from êῦñïò, meaning ‘valid,’ ‘authoritative’ (ὁ ἔ÷ùí êῦñïò), and so the ‘master’ or ‘owner.’ It is applied to the ‘masters’ who exploited the poor girl for gain in Act_16:16; Act_16:19. It stands in opposition to äïῦëïé, as in Eph_6:5; Eph_6:9, Col_4:1-2. In Act_16:30 the jailer uses êýñéïé merely as a term of respect to St. Paul and Silas. In Act_9:5 (Act_22:8) St. Paul uses it in asking Jesus who He is, ‘Who art thou, Lord?’ It is not certain that St. Paul here meant more than respect. It is applied to God as the Ruler of the universe. êýñéïò used for God is translated ‘Lord’ (q.v. [Note: .v. quod vide, which see.] ) (cf. Act_17:24, 1Ti_6:15, Rev_4:8, etc.). With St. Paul, it may be noted, êýñéïò usually refers to Christ (cf. Rom_1:4, Gal_6:18) except in the OT quotations (cf. Rom_4:8; Rom_9:28 f.; but note 1Co_3:5). The use of êýñéïò for Nero makes ‘a polemical parallelism between the cult of Christ and the cult of Caesar’ (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, Eng. translation , 1911, p. 353).

A. T. Robertson.

Throughout the countries of the region of the Bible story, many households were very large and included slaves and hired workers. The head of the household was commonly referred to as the master, and he exercised considerable authority (Gen 14:14; Gen 24:2; Gen 24:9; 1Sa 25:14; 1Sa 25:17).

In recognition of the dangers that accompanied such authority, Israelite law laid down that a master did not have the right to treat his servants as he wished. He had to recognize their rights, and be fair and honest in all his dealings with them (Exo 21:8-11; Exo 21:20; Exo 21:26-27; see SLAVE).

The New Testament further emphasizes the responsibility of masters towards their servants. Christian masters in particular are to be careful the way they treat their servants, because they themselves are answerable to a master, Jesus the Lord (Eph 6:9; Col 4:1; see WORK).

All Christians are servants of this divine Master and must give him their total allegiance (Mat 6:24; see JESUS CHRIST, sub-heading ‘Jesus as Lord’). One day their Master will assess their faithfulness in service and reward them accordingly (Mat 25:14-30; Mar 13:33-37; Rom 14:4; 1Co 4:1-5; see also STEWARD).