6—15.
κύριε, ἄνοιξον ἡμῖν. ὑμῖν, οὐκ οἶδα ὑμᾶς.
ἡμέραν οὐδὲ τὴν ὥραν, év ᾗ 6 υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔρχεται.]
ΕΥΑΕΓΙ ΕΛΙΟΝ 30% Χομένων δὲ αὐτῶν ἀγοράσαι, ἦλθεν 6 νυµφίος" καὶ ai ἔτοιμοι εἰσῆλθον pet αὐτοῦ εἰς τοὺς Ὑάμους, καὶ ἐκλείσθη ἡ θύρα. II. ὕστερον δὲ ἔρχονται καὶ at λοιπαὶ παρθένοι, λέγουσαι, Κύριε, 12. Ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν, ᾽Αμὴν λέγω 13. Γρηγορεῖτε οὖν, ὅτι οὖκ οἴδατε τὴν
δω, f Ch. xxi. 33.
14. “Ὥσπερ yap ἄνθρωπος " ἀποδημῶν ἐκάλεσε τοὺς ἰδίους Mic. xi
ντα,
a A * δούλους, καὶ παρέδωκεν αὐτοῖς τὰ ὑπάρχοντα αὐτοῦ" 15. καὶ ᾧ μὲν δὲ ἕν, ἑκάστῳ Ε κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν
ἔδωκε πέντε τάλαντα, ᾧ δὲ δύο, ᾧ
χαχα. g 2 Cor. viii. 3.
1 The words εν η ο vios 7. a. ερ. are omitted in MABCDLXAZ 33 al. plur., and
by modern editors.
into play a certain element of selfish- ness,” and take the advice of the wise as simply a refusal to be burdened with their neighbours’ affairs.
Ver. 10. ἀπερχομένων,είο. Thefoolish took the advice and went to buy, and in so doing acted in character ; foolish in that asin not having a good supply of oil. They should have gone on without oil, the great matter being to be in time. By reckoning this as a point in their folly we bring the foolish virgins into analogy with the foolish builder in chap. vii. 26. Vide notes there, and also The Para- bolic Teaching of Christ, p. 505 f. Of course, on this view the oil has no signi- ficance in the spiritual sphere. It plays a great part in the history of interpreta- tion. For Chrys. and Euthy., the lamp =virginity, and-the oil=pity, and the , moral is: continence without charity worthless ; a good lesson. ‘ Nothing,” says the former, ‘‘is blinder than vir- ginity without pity ; thus the people are used to call the merciless dark (σκο- tewovs),” Hom. Ixxviii.—éxAcio On ἠθύρα, the door was shut, because all the guests were supposed to be within; no hint given by the wise virgins that more were coming. This improbable in the natural sphere.—- Ver. II. κύριε, κύριε, etc., master, master, open to us; a last, urgent, desperate appeal, knocking hav- ing preceded (Lk. xiii. 25) without result. The fear that they are not going to be admitted has seized their hearts.—Ver. 12. οὐκ οἶδα ὑμᾶς, I do not know you; in the natural sphere not a judicial penalty for arriving too late, but an inference from the late arrival that those without cannot belong to the bridal party. The solemn tone, however (ἀμὴῆν λ. ὑ.), shows that the spiritual here invades the natural. Pricaeus refers to Lk. xi. 7 as helping to understand the temper of the speech
from within = do not trouble me, the door is shut.— Ver. 13. The moral, γρηγορεῖτε, watch ; not directed against sleep (ver. 5) but against lack of fore- thought. The reference of the parable to the Parusia, according to Weiss (Meyer), is imposed upon it by the evan- gelist.
Vv. 14-30. Parable of the Talents (cf. Lk, xix. 11-28), according to Weiss (Mt.- Ev., 535) and Wendt (L. J., i., 145) not a Parusia-parable originally, but spoken at some other time, and inculcating, like the parable of the unjust steward, skill and fidelity in the use of earthly goods. —Ver. 14. ὥσπερ: suggests a compari- son between the parabolic history and the course of things in the kingdom, but the apodosis carrying out the comparison is omitted.—yap implies that the point of comparison is in the view of the evan- gelist the same as in the preceding para- Ῥ]ε.---ἀποδημῶν, about to go abroad.— ἐκάλεσε, etc., called his own servants and delivered to them his means; not an un- natural or unusual proceeding intro- duced against probability for the sake of the moral lesson; rather the best thing he could do with his money in his ab- sence, dividing it among carefully selected slaves, and leaving them to do their best with it. Investments could not then be made as now (vide Koetsveld, p. 254).— Ver. 15. πέντε, δύο, ἕν: the number of talents given in each case corresponded to the master’s judgment of the capacity (δύναμιν) of each man. All were sup- posed to be trustworthy and more or less capable. Even one talent represented a considerable sum, especially for that period when a denarius was a day’s wage. —ral ἀπεδήμησεν, and then he went away. So ends the account of the master’s action.—ev8éws should be con- nected with πορευθεὶς, whereby it gains