Money, Trust, and the Gate Left Uncrossed

The audience shifts to the disciples, though verse 14 shows the Pharisees listening. A steward, oikonomos, ran an estate with power to make contracts in his master’s name. “Accused” is diaballō, to bring charges, often maliciously, the verb behind diabolos, the devil; whether the charge was fair is never said.

“Give an account” means hand over the books. The master asks for no defence: “thou mayest be no longer steward” is in the Greek a flat “thou canst no longer be”. The steward still holds office until the accounts are surrendered, and that interval is the whole plot.

Digging was the hardest manual labour, left to slaves and the unskilled. Sirach 40:28 says it is better to die than to beg. The steward talks to himself, like the rich fool (12:17), but reaches a different kind of decision.

“I am resolved” is egnōn, an aorist of sudden realisation: “I know!” The plan rests on how favours worked in that world: a man who cancels your debt can knock at your door later, and you cannot refuse him.

He calls them one at a time, so that each deal is private. The debtors were probably tenant farmers or merchants who owed rent or goods in kind, and the steward, not the master, is the one they see.

A “measure” here is a bath, about thirty-five litres, so a hundred baths is the yield of an olive grove of some size. The “bill” was the promissory note in the debtor’s own hand, so the new figure is written by the debtor himself. “Quickly” says the steward knows how little time he has.

This measure is a cor, perhaps ten bushels, so a hundred cors is a very large harvest. Joachim Jeremias calculated that the two reductions, fifty baths of oil and twenty cors of wheat, were worth roughly the same sum, about five hundred denarii, a reckoning others dispute.

“The lord” may be the master in the parable or Jesus himself, since Luke often calls Jesus “the Lord”; readers divide on where the parable ends. “Wisely” is phronimōs, shrewdly, the word of the “wise steward” in 12:42. “Children of light” was the name the Qumran community gave itself against the sons of darkness.

“Mammon” is the Aramaic mamona, wealth or property, possibly from a root meaning that in which one puts trust. Many manuscripts read “when it fails”, when the money runs out. “Habitations” are skēnai, tents, the word of Peter’s tabernacles in 9:33.

“That which is least” is a superlative, elachistos, the smallest thing. A later Jewish midrash says God tested Moses and David with small flocks of sheep before giving them Israel to shepherd, the same logic in another form.

“True riches” is to alēthinon, the genuine thing. Some scholars suggest an Aramaic wordplay beneath the Greek: mammon and amen, faithful or true, may share the root ’mn, so that false wealth is set against true, an ingenious but unproved suggestion.

David’s prayer at the temple offering says the same of all property: “all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee” (1 Chronicles 29:14). A few manuscripts read “that which is ours” in place of “your own”.

“Servant” here is oiketēs, a household slave. Slaves could be owned jointly, as the fortune-telling girl at Philippi had several masters (Acts 16:16), and the saying assumes the arrangement never works. “Hold to” is antechomai, to cling to one side.

“Covetous” is philargyroi, literally lovers of silver. “Derided” is ekmyktērizō, to turn up the nose at someone, a sneer; the rulers will use the same verb at the cross (23:35).

“Abomination” is bdelygma, the word the Old Testament uses for idols and what God loathes (Deuteronomy 7:25-26), and Proverbs 16:5 says, “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD.” “God knoweth your hearts” recalls 1 Samuel 16:7: “the LORD looketh on the heart.”

The Greek has no verb in the first clause: “the law and the prophets until John”. “Is preached” is euangelizetai, is announced as good news. John stands on the line between the two, as Jesus said in 7:28.

A “tittle” is keraia, a little horn, the tiny stroke that tells apart similar Hebrew letters such as bet and kaph. Losing it could change a word. Heaven and earth passing away is the longest horizon available, and the law outlasts even that.

Deuteronomy 24:1-4 allowed a man to divorce his wife with a written bill, and the rabbinic schools of Shammai and Hillel argued over the grounds. Herod Antipas had put away his wife to marry Herodias, his brother’s wife, which John rebuked (3:19); some hear that case behind the saying, though Luke does not name it.

Purple dye came from the murex shellfish and was so costly it marked royalty; “fine linen” is byssos, Egyptian linen for undergarments, so he is dressed in luxury inside and out. “Fared sumptuously” is literally “made merry splendidly”, euphrainō, the verb of the prodigal’s feast and the rich fool’s plan.

Lazarus is the Greek form of Eleazar, “God helps”, and he is the only character in Jesus’ parables, apart from Abraham, who is given a name. “Was laid” is a pluperfect passive, had been thrown down, as if dumped there by others. “Full of sores” is helkoō, covered in ulcers.

Diners at a feast wiped their hands on pieces of bread and threw them under the table, which may be what Lazarus longs for. The dogs are the scavenging street dogs of the town, unclean animals, and they give him more attention than anyone inside.

“Abraham’s bosom” is the place of honour at a banquet, reclining next to the host, as the beloved disciple leaned on Jesus’ breast at the supper (John 13:23). The rich man “was buried”, doubtless with ceremony; nothing is said of a burial for Lazarus.

“Lift up his eyes” is the Hebrew way of saying he looked, as Lot “lifted up his eyes” on the Jordan plain (Genesis 13:10). Some Jewish writings, such as 1 Enoch 22, describe the realm of the dead with separate places for the righteous and the wicked, within sight of one another.

John the Baptist had warned against saying, “We have Abraham to our father” (3:8), and the rich man calls on that descent three times. “The tip of his finger” asks for the least possible relief. “Cool” is katapsychō, found only here in the New Testament.

“Son” is teknon, the warm word the father used in 15:31. The possessive is telling: “thy good things”, but for Lazarus simply “evil things”, with no “his” attached. “Comforted” is parakaleō, echoing the woe of 6:24: “ye have received your consolation.”

“Gulf” is chasma, a chasm. “Fixed” is estēriktai, a perfect tense of stērizō, firmly set and staying set, the verb used when Jesus “stedfastly set his face” toward Jerusalem (9:51).

“I pray thee” is erōtaō, a polite request, softer than the cry “have mercy” of verse 24. He has given up asking for himself and turns to “my father’s house”, still thinking in terms of his family household.

“Testify” is diamartyromai, to warn solemnly, a word Luke uses in Acts for apostolic preaching (Acts 2:40, 20:21). Some early interpreters tied the five brothers to the high priestly family of Annas, whose five sons each became high priest, a guess the text does not support or rule out.

Moses and the prophets were read aloud in the synagogue every sabbath, a portion of the law and a portion of the prophets (Acts 13:15), so the brothers hear them weekly. “They have” is present tense: the testimony is already in their possession.

“Nay” contradicts Abraham outright. “They will repent” uses metanoeō, the word of joy in heaven in 15:7 and 15:10. The rich man thinks his brothers need a better messenger rather than better hearing.

“Persuaded” is peithō, and “rose” is anistēmi, the word for resurrection. Luke’s sequel shows both responses: when Paul preached the resurrection at Athens, “some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again” (Acts 17:32).