It would be a mistake to take a philosophical notion of freedom as the starting-point for an investigation of the biblical texts, on the assumption that though there was no literal equivalent for it, the “thing itself” was there. For we find that a number of senses in which the word freedom is used are not to be found in Scripture. Thus LXX translates תפשה by έλευϑερία, while both תפש and חר (noble, freeborn) are rendered by ἐλεύϑερόω, there being no Hebrew equivalent for έλευϑερόω. The use of παρρησία is a…