Word of the Week
October 18, 2025
Hupēretēs: Serving on Staff
Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
1 Corinthians 4:1 NASB
Dr. John MacArthur wrote an influential book titled Slave: The Hidden Truth about Your Identity in Christ, arguing that we need to see ourselves as slaves belonging to Christ, not merely voluntary helpers.
He has a point. The Roman Empire was built on slavery. More than half of the population of Rome were slaves, and there were many slaves in the early churches. The most common Greek word for “servants” is doulos, the standard term for a slave. The other word usually used for servant is diakonos, the source of our word “deacon.”
But when Paul called himself a “servant of Christ” in 1 Corinthians 4:1, he didn’t use either of those mainstream terms. Let’s take a closer look at this less used word for “servant.”
Paul chose the Greek word hupēretēs [hoo-pay-REH-tayss] to describe himself. It’s an interesting term which appears 20 times in the New Testament.
In secular Greek, a hupēretēs was an assistant working under the supervision of a leader or an organization. It could be a medical assistant or a business apprentice, a legal assistant or a military aide. Or it might be an officer of the court who would carry out the judge’s decisions.
The common thread of meaning is (1) a person working for a superior and (2) carrying out any tasks assigned to him.
Most of these roles appear in the New Testament:
- When Jesus spoke in the synagogue, he read a passage from the scroll of Isaiah and then “gave it back to the attendant” (Luke 4:20), evidently a man designated to handle the Scripture scrolls.
- The Lord warned his hearers to settle lawsuits quickly “so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison” (Matthew 5:25). Here the hupēretēs is the bailiff who hauls you off to your cell.
- The account of Christ’s arrest and trial makes it clear that the Sanhedrin had its own corps of officers, a temple guard who formed part of the contingent that arrested Jesus and were involved in the hearings that followed (John 18:3, 12, 18, 22; 19:6; Matthew 26:58; Mark 14:54, 65). Peter was warming his hands at the fire in the midst of a group of these temple police when he first denied Jesus.
- The same temple attendants were involved in the later arrest of the apostles (Acts 5:26). The Sanhedrin made the decisions and then sent the hupēretēs to carry out their orders.
A key fact about a hupēretēs: He serves, but he is not a slave.
John 18:18 says that Peter was standing around the fire with “the slaves and the officers.” Slaves and officers were not the same thing. These people were free to quit if they chose. They did their job and obeyed their superiors – not because they were forced to, but because they had an allegiance to their duties.
Luke begins his Gospel by referring to the eyewitnesses who handed down the facts about Christ’s life. These original witnesses were “servants of the word” (Luke 1:2), faithfully transmitting the message entrusted to them by the Lord.
Paul himself testified that the Lord had appointed him as a minister, carrying out His Master’s will in testifying to the truth of the gospel (Acts 26:16).
One other observation: A hupēretēs was in a long-term relationship. He didn’t sign up for a one-shot project; he was there all the time, available to carry out any task assigned by his superior. What a fitting title for our role as servants of Jesus! We have signed up for the long haul, delighting to do anything that He asks us to do.
As Ephesians 2:10 reminds us, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Study Hint:
If you take this word apart, it comes from two Greek words: “under” and “rower.” Some commentators have made a point of using this nautical image as a way to visualize the meaning of the word. You can imagine a Roman galley with dozens of rowers propelling it through the water. It’s easy to see ourselves as just a low-level person pulling on an oar.
This is a colorful image, but we should avoid the idea that it is the actual meaning of the word. New Testament scholar D. A. Carson points to this word as an example of a common error in interpretation: using etymology (the history of a word or it’s component parts) to determine meaning (see his book Exegetical Fallacies). It’s interesting to know what a word meant 400 years before the New Testament, but Carson says that the nautical use of the word had fallen out of use long before Paul’s day. In other words, usage (1st century) trumps etymology (400 BC).
Coming Up
Have you ever thought of suffering as an achievement? Next week we are going to examine a Greek word that throws an unexpected light on our tough times.
Ezra Project 2025
7 Responses
This is so good. These lessons are helping me in my teaching.
Doulos- Greek was spoken in my home. My dad referred to his going to ‘work’ and ‘I am working’, as ‘doulia’ and ‘doulevo’ naturally and without any negative connotations. I wonder if ‘worker’ is a good translation of ‘doulos’ or if ‘slave’ is meant to have the harsh connotations it has in the English.
How interesting! I think this is an example of how a word’s meaning can change over the centuries. In the first century, it pretty clearly meant someone who was not free. He or she was considered the property of a master. Life as a doulos might be easy or hard, depending on the master, but it was definitely different from our modern employment.
I love all your emails I’ve been receiving, the scriptures make more sense reading it in the way it was meant to be read
I really appreciate
Thank you
Scripture tells us to be followers of Christ. We’re called to assist Him in leading others to Him.
Thank you again!
I believe that most, myself included, have not yet understood the magnitude of God’s Word, nor what we are really intended to become. We do however press forward toward the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. “Calling” is very interesting in that verse.