Thus keeping apart the essentials of the Parable from the accidents of its narration, we have three distinct scenes, or parts, in this story. In the first, our new feelings towards our brethren are traced to our new relation towards God, as the proper spring of all our thinking, speaking, and acting. Notably, as regards forgiveness, we are to remember the Kingdom of God: Therefore has the Kingdom of God become like' - therefore:' in order that thereby we may learn the duty of absolute, not limited, forgiveness - not that of seven,' but of seventy times seven.' And now this likeness of the Kingdom of Heaven is set forth in the Parable of a man, a King' (as the Rabbis would have expressed it, a king of flesh and blood'), who would make his reckoning' (sunairein) with his servants' - certainly not his bondservants, but probably the governors of his provinces, or those who had charge of the revenue and finances. But after he had begun to reckon' - not necessarily at the very beginning of it - one was brought to him, a debtor of ten thousand talents.' Reckoning them only as Attic talents (1 talent = 60 minas = 6,000 dinars) this would amount to the enormous sum of about two and a quarter millions sterling. No wonder, that one who during his administration had been guilty of such peculation, or else culpable negligence, should, as the words brought to him' imply, have been reluctant to face the king. The Parable further implies, that the debt was admitted; and hence, in the course of ordinary judicial procedure - according to the Law of Moses, [4698] and the universal code of antiquity - that servant,' with his family and all his property, was ordered to be sold, [4699] and the returns paid into the treasury.
Of course, it is not suggested that the payment' thus made had met his debt. Even this would, if need were, confirm the view, previously expressed, that this trait belongs not to the essentials of the Parable, but to the details of the narrative. So does the promise, with which the now terrified servant,' as he cast himself at the feet of the King, supported his plea for patience: I will pay thee all.' In truth, the narrative takes no notice of this, but, on the other hand, states: But, being moved with compassion, the lord of that servant released him [from the bondage decreed, and which had virtually begun with his sentence], and the debt forgave he him.' [4700] A more accurate representation of our relation to God could not be made. We are the debtors of our heavenly King, Who has entrusted to us the administration of what is His, and which we have purloined or misused, incurring an unspeakable debt, which we can never discharge, and of which, in the course of justice, unending bondage, misery, and utter ruin would be the proper sequence. But, if in humble repentance we cast ourselves at His Feet, He is ready, in infinite compassion, not only to release us from meet punishment, but - O blessed revelation of the Gospel! - to forgive us the debt.
It is this new relationship to God which must be the foundation and the rule for our new relationship towards our fellow-servants. And this brings us to the second part, or scene in this Parable. Here the lately pardoned servant finds one of his fellow-servants, who owes him the small sum of 100 dinars, about 4l. 10s. Mark now the sharp contrast, which is so drawn as to give point to the Parable. In the first case, it was the servant brought to account, and that before the King; here it is a servant finding and that his fellowservant; in the first case, he owed talents, in the second dinars (a six-thousandth part of them); in the first, ten thousand talents; in the second, one hundred dinars. Again, in the first case payment is only demanded, while in the second the man takes his fellow-servant by the throat - a not uncommon mode of harshness on the part of Roman creditors - and says: Pay what,' or according to the better reading, if thou owest anything.' And, lastly, although the words of the second debtor are almost the same [4701] as those in which the first debtor besought the King's patience, yet no mercy is shown, but he is cast' [with violence] into prison, till he have paid what was due. [4702]