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Beg God to "send out laborers"?

(Garth D. Wiebe, 8/23/2023)

Matt 9:38 (also repeated in Luke 10:2), says,

δεηθητε ουν του κυριου του θερισμου οπως εκβαλ(λ)η εργατας...

This is usually mistranslated:

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers... (KJV, etc.)

The word they translate "pray" isn't even the normal word translated "pray" (προσευχομαι), but δεομαι, which is usually translated beg, beseech, petition, or (more traditionally) pray. It is the verb form of "must" and it is in the passive voice, not the active voice.^* It should be, "be necessitated," or "be required," or "be compelled," or "be committed," as so,

"Be required (aorist passive), then, of the Lord of the harvest, which-how (pronoun+adverb contraction) should (be) cast(ing) out workers..."

It is awkward to translate into proper English, but the popular translations read as if we should beg God to do something God told us to do, which makes no sense (see Matt 28, Mark 16, and what Jesus is telling his audience to do right there in Matt 9 and Luke 10), whereas the first verb imperative is in the passive voice, not active voice, and the subject of the second verb is the relative pronoun "which," which is in the contraction. The imperative mandate is from God (Jesus) to us, not us to God.

Keep in mind that all English Bibles are translated by or with heavy influence by Roman/Anglican Catholic or Calvinist academia. The KJV, for example, is from the Anglican-Catholic Church of England, and the Geneva Bible of the Protestants/Reformers also said the same thing. Either you are begging God (Catholic) to do something for you, only hoping he will, or you are stuck in inaction waiting/speculating for God to move according to his "sovereign" predestined will (Calvinist). These things make it into English Bible translations and then become translation traditions that nobody would dare challenge, especially in keeping with the sacred cow doctrines and the status quo.

^*Note to scholars: The so-called "deponency" idea has been thoroughly debunked. Refer to A.T. Robertson here and other scholars here, here, here, here, here, and here.