Luke 16

Jesus also said to his disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager in charge of his property. Someone accused the manager of wasting what belonged to the rich man.

1And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

NoteA steward here is a household manager, usually a trusted slave or freedman, who ran a wealthy man's estate: leasing land, collecting rents in kind, keeping the books, and making contracts in his master's name. His signature was legally his master's, which is what makes the scheme in verses 5 to 7 possible while his dismissal is not yet publicly known.

2So the rich man called him in and said, 'What is this I am hearing about you? Hand over the records of your work, because you cannot be my manager any longer.'

2And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

3The manager said to himself, 'What am I going to do? My master is taking my job away from me. I am not strong enough to dig, and I am too ashamed to beg.

3Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.

Note"I cannot dig" means digging as a hired field laborer, the hardest and lowest paid work an able man could take. Begging ranked below even that. A dismissed manager, known to be dismissed for dishonesty, could expect no comparable post anywhere else.

4I know what I will do, so that when I lose this job, people will welcome me into their homes.'

4I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

NoteIn this society a favor created a lasting obligation. By putting the debtors in his debt, the manager is buying himself a network of households that will be socially bound to feed and shelter him.

5So he called in every person who owed his master something. He asked the first one, 'How much do you owe my master?'

5So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?

6The man said, 'A hundred measures of olive oil.' The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.'

6And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.

NoteThe Greek word is batos, a Hebrew liquid measure of roughly 22 liters, about six gallons. A hundred of them is something like 2,000 liters of olive oil, the yield of a large grove, not a household order. The "bill" was the debtor's own promissory note, written in his own hand, which is why the manager tells him to sit down and rewrite it himself.

7Then he asked another one, 'And how much do you owe?' The man said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' The manager told him, 'Take your bill and write eighty.'

7Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.

NoteThe Greek word here is koros, a dry measure of about 220 liters, so a hundred of them is roughly 22,000 liters of wheat, the harvest of a very large acreage. The King James "fourscore" is eighty: a score is twenty. Note that the two reductions, fifty percent on the oil and twenty percent on the wheat, are close to the same value, which may reflect the different worth of the two commodities.

8The master praised the dishonest manager, because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more clever in dealing with their own kind than the people of light are.

8And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

Note"The lord commended" is ambiguous in the Greek: ho kyrios can mean the master in the story or the Lord, that is Jesus telling it. Most readers take it as the master. "Done wisely" translates a word meaning shrewd, canny, quick witted. It praises the man's skill, not his honesty, and the King James "wisely" can mislead a modern ear. "Children of this world" and "children of light" are a Semitic way of saying people who belong to, or are characterized by, one thing or the other.

9And I tell you, use the money of this world to make friends for yourselves. Then, when the money is gone, they will welcome you into homes that last forever.

9And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

Note"Mammon" is not English; it is an Aramaic word for wealth or property that the King James translators left untranslated. "The mammon of unrighteousness" is a Semitic phrase meaning dishonest, or simply worldly, wealth. "When ye fail" is uncertain in the manuscripts: some read "when it fails," that is when the money runs out, and others "when you fail," that is when you die. "Everlasting habitations" translates a word for tents or dwellings.

10Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little is also dishonest with much.

10He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.

11So if you have not been trustworthy with the money of this world, who will trust you with true riches?

11If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

12And if you have not been trustworthy with what belongs to someone else, who will give you anything of your own?

12And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?

13No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate the first and love the second, or he will be loyal to the first and look down on the second. You cannot serve both God and money."

13No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Note"Servant" here translates doulos, a slave, who was legally owned property rather than an employee. The point turns on ownership: a slave belongs to one owner and cannot be the property of two.

14The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this, and they made fun of Jesus.

14And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

NoteThe Pharisees were a movement devoted to careful observance of the Law and to working out how it applied in ordinary daily life; they were influential teachers among the general population rather than the temple establishment. The King James "covetous" translates a word that literally means lovers of silver. "Derided" translates a vivid Greek verb meaning to turn up the nose at someone.

15So he said to them, "You are the ones who make yourselves look right in front of other people, but God knows your hearts. What people think is of great value is disgusting in God's sight.

15And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

NoteThe word translated "abomination" is used throughout the Greek Old Testament for idols and for things ritually detestable. It is stronger than mere disapproval.

16The Law and the Prophets were until John came. Since that time the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is pushing his way into it.

16The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

Note"The law and the prophets" was the ordinary way of naming the Jewish scriptures as a whole. "John" is John the Baptist. The verb behind "presseth into it" is genuinely disputed: it can mean everyone is forcing his way in, whether eagerly or violently, or, read as a passive, everyone is being pressed or urged to enter.

17But it is easier for the sky and the earth to disappear than for the smallest stroke of a letter in the Law to drop out.

17And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

NoteA "tittle" translates keraia, literally a little horn: the tiny stroke or serif that distinguishes one Hebrew letter from another very similar one. The image is of the smallest mark a scribe's pen makes.

18Any man who divorces his wife and marries another woman is committing adultery, and the man who marries a woman divorced from her husband is committing adultery.

18Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.

Note"Putteth away" means divorces. In this period a man ended a marriage by handing his wife a written certificate of divorce; a woman could generally not initiate one. Jewish teachers argued over what grounds the certificate required, one school allowing almost any cause and another only serious sexual offense, so a statement about divorce was a live legal controversy, not an abstraction.

19"There was a rich man who dressed in purple cloth and fine linen, and every day he lived in great luxury.

19There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

NotePurple cloth was dyed with a secretion from murex shellfish, so costly that it marked out royalty and the very rich, and fine linen from Egypt was the luxury fabric worn next to the skin. The two together signal wealth on a spectacular scale. The rich man is never given a name in the Greek; the traditional name Dives is simply the Latin word for "rich man" borrowed from an early translation.

20At his gate lay a beggar named Lazarus, who was covered with sores.

20And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

NoteLazarus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Eleazar, which means "God has helped." He is the only character in any of Jesus's parables given a name. "Was laid" is passive: someone else carried him there and put him down, which implies he could not walk. The gate is the gateway of a walled town estate.

21Lazarus longed to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

21And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

NoteDogs in this setting were not pets but scavengers roaming the streets, and were counted unclean. Their attention adds to the degradation of his condition rather than relieving it.

22In time the beggar died, and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried.

22And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

Note"Abraham's bosom" is not an embrace but a place at table. Diners reclined on their left sides on couches, so the guest in the place of honor lay with his head level with the chest of the host. The picture is of Lazarus given the best seat at Abraham's banquet. Note also that the rich man is buried and nothing is said of any burial for Lazarus.

23In the place of the dead, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus at his side.

23And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Note"Hell" here translates Hades, the Greek name for the realm of the dead in general, the place where everyone who has died is. It is a different word from Gehenna, the term used elsewhere in the Gospels for final punishment, and the King James uses the same English word for both.

24So he called out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am suffering in this fire.'

24And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

Note"Father Abraham" is a claim of descent: the rich man is appealing to his standing as a member of Abraham's family. Abraham's reply in verse 25 addresses him as "Son," or child, granting the kinship without granting the request.

25But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in pain.

25But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

26Besides all this, a wide canyon has been set between us and you. So no one who wants to cross from here to you can do it, and no one can cross from there to us.'

26And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

27Then the rich man said, 'Father, I beg you, send Lazarus to my father's house.

27Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:

28I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they do not also end up in this place of pain.'

28For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

29Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.'

29Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

Note"Moses and the prophets" means the scriptures they already possess and hear read every week: the five books attributed to Moses and the prophetic writings.

30'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will turn from their sins.'

30And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

31Abraham said to him, 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

31And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.