Rather than get bogged down in the subjectivity of an answer to that particular question, let me note the similarity between this distinction between the owner and the hired manager and the familiar one about the shepherd (ποιμήν, the owner caring for the sheep) and the hired hand (μισθωτός).Wes Wood wrote:I believed the passage was dealing with whether the steward should be paid for his work like a builder. The only way that I could bring that out that idea was to add “worthy.” At the back of my mind I was thinking “is this something a slave could do for free?”Wesley Wood Rigid Translation wrote:“Socrates said, “Is it-this trade in which the steward has been trained, even if he does not happen to have property himself-the one managing the estate of another just as also the one building the house μισθοφορεῖν.”
That is not to say that there couldn't have been a distinction between stewarding an estate on behalf of an owner as a slave or as a μισθωτός, but here in Xenophon the owner-manager / hired-manager distinction is the one being made.John 10:12, 13 wrote:Ὁ μισθωτὸς δέ, καὶ οὐκ ὢν ποιμήν, οὗ οὐκ εἰσὶν τὰ πρόβατα ἴδια, θεωρεῖ τὸν λύκον ἐρχόμενον, καὶ ἀφίησιν τὰ πρόβατα, καὶ φεύγει· καὶ ὁ λύκος ἁρπάζει αὐτά, καὶ σκορπίζει τὰ πρόβατα. || Ὁ δὲ μισθωτὸς φεύγει, ὅτι μισθωτός ἐστιν, καὶ οὐ μέλει αὐτῷ περὶ τῶν προβάτων.
That is not surprising, actually. This use of τύχοι is the closest to the almost adverbial uses of εἰ τύχοι in the New Testament (1Corinthians 14:10, 1Corinthians 15:37). So perhaps this is a good starting point for you to start to come to terms with the optative...Wes Wood wrote:For the first time ever, I am pleased with my handling of “τύχοι” here.
I believe it is about whether it is permissible to do it for another. The question as to whether or how much he gets paid is perhaps another issue and would be dependent on the quality of his work, I think.Wes Wood wrote:I believed the passage was dealing with whether the steward should be paid for his work like a builder.Wesley Wood Rigid Translation wrote:“Socrates said, “Is it-this trade in which the steward has been trained, even if he does not happen to have property himself-the one managing the estate of another just as also the one building the house μισθοφορεῖν.”
Where is ἔστιν in your translation?