Bible Dictionary
BONDSERVANT
A slave or bondservant. In biblical usage it may describe an actual slave under Israelite law or, in the New Testament, a person obligated to serve another.
Definition
A bondservant is a slave or person obligated to serve another. The word may describe actual slavery or service under an obligation.
Biblical Usage
In Leviticus it refers to a slave whose service must not be imposed as ordinary bondservice. The New Testament uses “bondservant” where the King James Version often has “servant,” including passages concerning slavery and sonship.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>bond'-sur-vant: Appears only once in the King James Version (Le 25:39) where it translates `ebhedh, "a slave": "Thou shalt not cause him to render the service of a bondservant" or slave. the Revised Version (British and American) frequently uses bondservant (doulos) instead of the word "servant" of the King James Version (Joh 8:34,35; 1Co 7:21; Ga 4:7).</p><p>See SLAVERY.</p>