FREE, FREEDOM, FREELY. — The adj. free ' has been a chief heirloom from Saxon times, and has made a figure in all stages of the national story. Perhaps no other Saxon adj. is comparable for length and variety of career. Originally mean- ing lordly, noble, gentle, it has with each change of the national aim so changed its usage as still to take a prominent place. In the growth of the municipal bodies tlie privileged members were designated/rec-7»ew ; in the constitutional struggles it managed to represent the idea of liberty ; and in these latter days, when social equality is the universal pretension, it siOTities the manners thereon attendant in the modem couplingy"ree and easy.' — Earle, Philology of the Eng. Tongue^, 413.
■rhe most modern meaning to be found in AV is also the most common, and it may be best to begin with that and work backwards.
1. At liberty, not fettered, whether physically, as Milton, Samson Agonistes, 1235 —
' My heels are fetter'd, but my flat is free ' ;
or morally, as Locke, Human Vnderst. ii. xxi. 8, 'So far as a man has a power to tliink or not to think, to move or not to move, acconling to tlie preference or direction of his own mind, so far is a man free.' So Job 3'» 'Tlie small and great are there; and the servant is free from liis master' (pen, the common Heb. word), and 1 P '2'" 'As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God ' {4\evdefot, the common Gr. word).
Passages desennng attention are : (I) Pa 88' ' Free among the dead" (V?n cnj;, UV 'cast ofl among the dead,' RVm 'cast away'), fiitzig, Ewald, and others tr. 'among the dead is my couch ' (taking Ten from e'en, something spread, a couch, after the doubtful occurrence in Ezk 2720) ; hut most edd. now, as AV or RV (taking the word as the adj. usually tr" 'free'). Cheyne In 'Parchment' Pmhiw (IHH4) t'ives, 'I am one turned adrift among the dead ' ; but in Coofc of Psalrm (1888), ' I am a freedman among the dead,' remarking there, 'The psaJmist
alludes to the grim euloj^y of death in his f:ivnnritepocm.Job31' (see above]. But he gives a new turn to the phrase. Unlike Job, he reganla such freedom as the reverse of a benefit ' — which Kirkpatrick describes as 'a far-fetcheil interpretation.' There is ncj (piesfion, however, that the pbriise recalls Job Si* to our minds, and yet that the word is used here, and here only, in a bad sense. It means either separated from human friend- ship, or more probably from divine protection. Delitzsch'i inter^tretation, st't free, diicharjed, from the responsibilities of life, like Lat. de/unctu^, is less appropriate to the context. The cognate subst. n'ffiDri [niB'iJnl is used in 2 K 16» = 2Ch'2«2i ol the separate house or lazaretto to which Uzziah was confined. (2) Ac 2228 ' And Paul said. But I was free born.' The Gr. ia simply 'Eya. ii tut\ yiyiv*vif,ut.i, ' But I waa even born ' ; the word to be supplied is, however,'Pa»a«7fl'. 'Roman, 'from the previoua verse : so UV ' But I am a Roman born.'
KV adds Is 45" ' he shall let my exiles go free' for AV ' let go my captives' (n'?8';).
2. Unhindered, unimpeded, an Shaks. Love's Labour's Lost, v. ii. 732, ' For mine own part, £ breathe free breath.' So 1 Es 4"' 'And that all they that Avent from Babylon to build the city should have free liberty' {inrdpxe'i' ttji' iXevBeplav, RV ' should have their freedom ') ; 2 Tli ?.' ' Pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course' (rp^j;, lit. 'may run,' as AVm and RV). The AV tr° is a combination of Tind. ' maye have fre passage ' and Rliem. ' may have course ' ; RV is a return to AVyelif's 'that the word of God renne.' RV adds with this sense 1 Co 7™ ' If the husband be dead, she is free to he married to whom she will ' (Afi/fli^pa, AV 'at liberty').
3. Exempt, Dt 24' ' When a man hath taken a new wife he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business ; but he shall be free at home one year ' ('pj), i.e. exempt froni jiublic duties. 1 Ch 9^ ' the Levites, who remaining in the chambers were free' (ai'os, RV 'free from service') ; 1 Mac 15' 'And as concerning Jerusalem and the sanctuary, let them be free ' {i\ev8cpa, sc. from tribute); Mt 15»=i\Ik 7" 'he shall be free' — words added in italics to complete the sense without equivalent in Greek ; they are omitted by RV; Mt I7=" 'Then are the children free.' RV adds He 13' 'Be ye free from the love of money' {aipiXapynpo! 6 rpdwo^, AV ' Let your conversation oe without covetousness ' ; RVm ' Let your turn of mind he free ' : Vaughan is more modern and literal, ' Let your disposition be unavaricious ').
4. Acquitted after trial, often equivalent to innocent, as Shaks. Hamlet, II. ii. 590 —
' He would drown the stage with tears. And cleave the general ear with horrid speech ; Make mad the guilty, and appal the free. Confound the ignorant: and amaze, indeed, 'The very faculty of eyes and ears.'