304 KATA MATOAION XXV. αὐτοῦ τὸ τάλαντον, καὶ δότε τῷ ἔχοντι τὰ δέκα τάλαντα. 29. TS γὰρ ἔχοντι παντὶ δοθήσεται, καὶ περισσευθήσεται: ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ 1 μὴ
o Lk. xvii. ἔχοντος, καὶ ὃ ἔχει, ἀρθήσεται dw αὐτοῦ. 30. Καὶ τὸν ’ ἀχρεῖον
Io
δοῦλον ἐκβάλλετε2 εἰς τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον.
ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθ-
μὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων.
31. “Ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ὁ vids τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ, καὶ πάντες ot ἅγιοι ὃ ἄγγελοι pet’ αὐτοῦ, 32. τότε καθίσει ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης αὐτοῦ, καὶ συναχθήσεται ΄ ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, καὶ ἀφοριεῖδ αὐτοὺς dm’ ἀλλήλων, ὥσπερ ὁ ποιμὴν ἀφορίζει τὰ
1 For απο δε του NBDL have τον δε (Tisch., W.H.).
2 exBadere in HABCLXAZ.
7 SSBDL omit αγιοι.
4 συναχθησονται in $BDL. The singular is a grammatical correction. Σαφορισει in $QLA (Tisch., W.H.). BD have αφοριει as in T. R. (Weiss).
trouble or risk, and with profit to the master.—éya, apparently intended to be emphatic, suggesting a distribution of offices between servant and master= yours to put it into the bank, mine to take it out. So Field (Otium ΝΟ.) who, following a hint of Chrys., trans- lates: ‘And I should have gone (ἐλθὼν) to the bank and received back mine own (or demanded it) with interest”.—ociv τόκῳ, literally, with offspring: a figura- tive name for interest on money.—Ver. 28. ἄρατε, etc., take the one talent from the man who made no use of it, and give it to the man who will make mos¢ use of it. —Ver. 29. General principle on which the direction rests pointing to a law of life, hard but inexorable——Ver. 30. ἀχρεῖον, useless. Palairet renders in- juriosum; Kypke, improbum, Being useless, he was both injurious and un- just. The useless man does wrong all round, and there is no place for him either in this world or in the Kingdom of God. His place is in the outer dark- ness.
Difference of opinion prevails as to whether this parable refers to the use of material goods for the Kingdom of God, or to the use of spiritual gifts. It is not, perhaps, possible to decide in ignorance of the historical occasion of the parable, nor is it necessary, as the same law applies.
ως Ὑν. 31-46. The fudgment programme.
—Much diversity of opinion has prevailed in reference to this remarkable passage ; as to the subjects of the judgment, and the authenticity of this judgment pro- gramme as a professed Jogion: of Jesus. Are the judged all mankind, Christian and non-Christian, or Christians only, or
non-Christian peoples, including un- believing Jews, or the Jewish people excluded? Even as early as Origen it was felt that there was room for doubt on such points. He says (Comm. in Ev. M.): ‘‘Utrum segregabuntur gentes omnes ab omnibus qui in omnibus genera- tionibus fuerint, an illae tantum quae in consummatione fuerint derelictae, aut illae tantum quaecrediderunt in Deum per Christum, et ipsae utrum omnes, an non omnes, non satis est manifestum. Tamen quibusdam videtur de differentia eorum, quae crediderunt haec esse dicta.” Recent opinion inclines to the view that the programme refers to heathen people only, and sets forth the principle on which they shall be judged. As to the authenticity of the logion critics hold widely discrepant views. Some regard it as a composition of the evangelists. So Pileiderer, e.g., who sees in it simply the literary expression of a genial humane way of regarding the heathen on the part of the evangelist, an unknown Christian author of the second century, who had charity enough to accept Christlike love on the part of the heathen as an equiva- lent for Christian faith (Urchristenthum, Ρ. 532). Holtzmann, H.C., also sees in it a second-hand composition, based on 4 Esdras vii. 33-35, Apoc. Bar, Ixxxiii. 12. Weiss, on the other hand, recog- nises as basis an authentic logion of Jesus, setting forth love as the test of true discipleship, which has been worked over by the evangelist and altered into a judgment programme for heathendom. Wendt (L. ¥., p. 186) thinks that the logion in its original form was such a programme. This seems to be the most probable opinion.