καταδουλόω

From the study of Galatians 2:4

Range of meaning

To reduce someone to slavery, subjugate, make utterly subservient. The prefix kata- strengthens the basic idea of douloō, 'enslave'.

Against the English

KJV and WEB 'bring us into bondage', YLT 'bring under bondage', BSB 'enslave us', NIV 'make us slaves'. These are all accurate. NLT adds an explanation that is not in the Greek ('force us to follow their Jewish regulations').

Used elsewhere in the period

In the NT also at 2 Cor 11:20 ('if someone enslaves you… exploits you'), again about rival teachers. In the LXX it is used of Egypt enslaving Israel (Exod 1:14 uses katadouloō in some witnesses; compare Exod 6:5) and of subjugation by foreign powers. The Exodus associations of slavery language were strong for Jewish hearers.

From the study of 1 Maccabees 8:18

Range of meaning

Καταδουλόω means to reduce to slavery, to subjugate or make subservient; it is used of conquerors enslaving peoples and also of exploiting individuals (2 Cor 11:20; Gal 2:4). Δουλεία means the state of being a slave, servitude or bondage, and in political language a people's subjection under a foreign power, as opposed to ἐλευθερία, 'freedom.'

Against the English

KJV/Brenton 'oppress … with servitude' and WEB 'kept … in bondage' soften the doubled Greek root, which literally says 'enslaving Israel with slavery.' The repetition is emphatic and probably reflects a Hebrew idiom of a verb followed by a noun from the same root.

How it drifted

Modern readers tend to hear 'slavery' as the chattel slavery of individuals. Here the word means national subjection: tribute, garrisons such as the Seleucid citadel in Jerusalem (the Akra), kings appointing high priests, and earlier the forced abandonment of the ancestral law.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Septuagint, δουλεία is the word for Israel's condition in Egypt ('the house of slavery,' οἶκος δουλείας, Exod 13:3; 20:2). Greek political writers from Herodotus on contrast the δουλεία of conquered peoples with ἐλευθερία. In 1 Macc 2:11 Mattathias laments that Jerusalem, once free, 'has become a slave' (εἰς δούλην).

From the study of 2 Corinthians 11:20

Range of meaning

To reduce to slavery, enslave, bring into bondage. The prefix κατα- strengthens the root δουλόω ('to enslave'), giving the sense of subjugating someone completely.

Against the English

BSB, NIV and ESV 'enslaves', KJV and WEB 'bring into bondage', YLT 'bringing under bondage': all are accurate. The danger is not the word itself but reading it only as an abstract 'spiritual bondage' and losing the concrete social picture of free people made into servants.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the NT it occurs only here and in Gal 2:4, where 'false brothers' slipped in to spy out 'our freedom… in order to enslave us', in a dispute about Torah requirements for gentiles. In the LXX it is used of Egypt holding Israel in servitude (Exod 6:5). In ordinary Greek it means literally reducing people or cities to slavery.