CHAPTER 16. TWO ADDITIONAL PARABLES ON THE RIGHT USE OF WEALTH. These two parables, _the unjust steward_ and _Dives_, bear such a foreign aspect when compared with the general body of Christ's teaching as to give rise to a doubt whether they have any claim to a place in an authentic record of His s... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔλεγε δὲ καὶ : the same formula of transition as in Luke 14:12. The καὶ connects with ἔλεγε, not with πρὸς τ. μαθητὰς, and points not to change of audience (disciples now, Pharisees before) but to continued parabolic discourse. μαθητάς, disciples, quite general; might mean the Twelve, or the larger... [ Continue Reading ]
_The parable of the unjust steward_.... [ Continue Reading ]
τί τοῦτο, etc. τί may be exclamatory = what! do I hear this of thee? or interrogatory: what is this that I hear of thee? the laconic phrase containing a combination of an interrogative with a relative clause. τὸν λόγον : the reference may be either to a final account previous to dismissal, already r... [ Continue Reading ]
εἶπε ἐν ἑ.: a Hebraism, as in Matthew 3:9; Matthew 9:3. The steward deliberates on the situation. He sees that his master has decided against him, and considers what he is to do next, running rapidly over all possible schemes. σκάπτειν, ἐπαιτεῖν : these two represent the alternatives for the dismiss... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔγνων : too weak to dig, too proud to beg, he hits upon a feasible scheme at last: I have it, I know now what to do. ἔγνων is the dramatic or tragic aorist used in classics, chiefly in poetry and in dialogue. It gives greater vividness than the use of the present would. δέξωνται : his plan contempla... [ Continue Reading ]
ἕνα ἕκαστον : he sees them one by one, not all together. These debtors might be farmers, who paid their rents in kind, or persons who had got supplies of goods from the master's stores; which of the two of no consequence to the point of the parable. τῷ πρώτῳ, the first, in the parable = to one. Two... [ Continue Reading ]
τὰ γράμματα : literally, the letters, then a written document; here a bill showing the amount of indebtedness. The steward would have all the bills ready. γράψον, write, _i.e._, write out a new bill with fifty in place of a hundred; not merely change a hundred into fifty in the old bill. ταχέως, no... [ Continue Reading ]
ὀγδοήκοντα, eighty, a small reduction as compared with the first. Was there not a risk of offence when the debtors began to compare notes? Not much; they would not look on it as mere arbitrariness or partiality, but as policy: variety would look more like a true account than uniformity. He had not m... [ Continue Reading ]
_Application of the parable_. There is room for doubt whether Luke 16:8 should form part of the parable (or at least as far as φρονίμως ἐποίησεν), or the beginning of the application. In the one case ὁ κύριος refers to the master of the steward, in the other to Jesus, who is often in narrative calle... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐγὼ : the use of the emphatic pronoun seems to involve that here begins the comment of Jesus on the parable, Luke 16:8 being spoken by the master and a part of the parable. But J. Weiss (in Meyer) views this verse as a second application put into the mouth of Jesus, but not spoken by Him, having for... [ Continue Reading ]
These verses contain not so much an application as a _corrective_ of the parable. They may have been added by Lk. (so J. Weiss in Meyer, and Holtzmann, H. C.) to prevent misunderstanding, offence, or abuse, so serving the same purpose as the addition “unto repentance” to the saying, “I came not to c... [ Continue Reading ]
φιλάργυροι · an interesting and very credible bit of information concerning the Pharisees (2 Timothy 3:2). ἐξεμυκτήριζον (ἐκ and μύκτηρ, the nose), turned up the nose at, in contempt, again in Luke 23:35.... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:14-18 form a “somewhat heavily built bridge” (H. C.) between the two parables, which set forth the right and the wrong use of riches.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐνώπιον τ. ἀ.: _cf._ the statements in Sermon on Mount (Matthew 6) and in Matthew 23:5. ὅτι, etc.: a strong statement, but broadly true; conventional moral judgments are very often the reverse of the real truth: the conventionally high, estimable, really the low; the conventionally base the truly no... [ Continue Reading ]
= Matthew 11:12-13, inverted, introduced here in view of Luke 16:31.... [ Continue Reading ]
= Matthew 5:18, substantially. Luke 16:18 = Matthew 5:32. Its bearing here is very obscure, and its introduction in a connection to which it does not seem to belong is chiefly interesting as vouching for the genuineness of the _logion_. J. Weiss suggests that its relevancy and point would have been... [ Continue Reading ]
ἄνθρωπος δὲ, etc.: either there was a certain rich man, or a certain man was rich, or there was a certain man _rich_, this the first fact about him. καὶ introduces the second, instead of ὃς, after the Hebrew manner. πορφύραν καὶ βύσσον : his clothing of the costliest: “purple without, Egyptian byssu... [ Continue Reading ]
_Parable of the rich man and Lazarus_. This story is hardly a parable in the sense of illustrating by an incident from natural life a truth in the spiritual sphere. Both story and moral belong to the same sphere. What is the moral? If Jesus spoke, or the evangelist reported, this story as the comple... [ Continue Reading ]
Λάζαρος gives the impression of a story from real life, but the name for the poor man is introduced for convenience in telling the tale. He has to be referred to in the sequel (Luke 16:24). No symbolic meaning should be attached to the name. πρὸς τὸν πυλῶνα αὐτοῦ : Lazarus is brought into relation w... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπιθυμῶν, desiring, perhaps not intended to suggest that his desire was not gratified. Suppose morsels did come to him from the rich man's table, not meant for him specially, but for the hungry without, _including the wild street dogs_, would that exhaust the duty of Dives to his poor brother? But t... [ Continue Reading ]
The end comes to the two men. ἀπενεχθῆναι : the poor man dies, and is carried by angels into the bosom of Abraham; the _man_, body and soul (so Meyer), but of course this is _poetry_. What really happened to the carcase is passed over in delicate reserve. ἐτάφη : of course Dives was buried with all... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the other world_. ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ : from the O.T. point of view Hades means simply the state of the dead. Thus both the dead men would be in Hades. But here Hades seems = hell, the place of torment, and of course Lazarus is not there, but in Paradise. ἀπὸ μακρόθεν : Paradise dimly visible, yet within... [ Continue Reading ]
Πάτερ Ἀ.: the rich man, like Lazarus, is a Jew, and probably, as a son of Abraham, very much surprised that he should find himself in such a place (Matthew 3:8-9), and still hoping that the patriarch can do something for him. καταψύξῃ (καταψύχω, here only in N.T.): surely that small service will not... [ Continue Reading ]
τέκνον : answering to Πάτερ, introducing in a kindly paternal tone a speech holding out no hope, all the less that it is so softly and quietly spoken. τὰ ἀγαθά σου, τὰ κακά : you got _your_ good things what you desired, and thought you had a right to Lazarus got _the_ ills, not what he desired or de... [ Continue Reading ]
The additional reason in this verse is supplementary to the first, as if to buttress its weakness. For the tormented man might reply: surely it is pressing the principle of equity too far to refuse me the petty comfort I ask. Will cooling my tongue increase beyond what is equitable the sum of my goo... [ Continue Reading ]
οὖν = if no hope for _me_, there may be for those still dear to me. Possibility of transit from Paradise to _earth_ is assumed. That this is desired reveals humane feeling. No attempt to show that Dives is utterly bad. Is such a man a proper subject for final damnation?... [ Continue Reading ]
_Dives intercedes for his brethren_.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀδελφούς, brothers, in the literal sense. Why force on it an allegorical sense by finding in it a reference to the Pharisees or to the Jewish people, brethren in the sense of fellow-countrymen? _Five_ is a random number, true to natural probability; a large enough family to make interest in their et... [ Continue Reading ]
Μωσέα, etc.: _cf._ Luke 18:20, where Jesus refers the ruler to the commandments. Moses, or the law, and the prophets = the O.T., the appointed, regular means of grace.... [ Continue Reading ]
οὐχί, a decided negative = nay! that is not enough; so he knew from his own experience; the Scriptures very good doubtless, but men are _accustomed_ to them. τις ἀπὸ νεκρῶν : something _unusual_, the preaching of a dead man returned to life, that might do.... [ Continue Reading ]
εἶπε δὲ : Abraham does not plead impossibility as in reference to the first request; he simply declares his unbelief in the utility of the plan for converting the five. The denizens of Paradise set little value on the unusual as a means of grace. Abraham does not say that a short-lived sensation cou... [ Continue Reading ]