Vv. 1-7. The parable of the unjust steward.—Ver. 1. €deye δὲ καὶ: the same formula of transition as in xiv, 12. The καὶ connects with ἔλεγε, not with
XVI. 1. "EAEFE δὲ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ, “'"Ανθρωπός τις ἦν πλούσιος, ὃς εἶχεν οἰκονόμον ‘Kat οὗτος διεβλήθη αὐτῷ ὡς
id - διασκορπίζων τὰ ὑπάρχοντα αὐτοῦ. αὐτῷ, Τί τοῦτο ἀκούω περὶ σοῦ ;
σου '
a Rom. xi. 27 (mid.) 3) Js - aw ἐμοῦ ;
οὐ γὰρ δυνήση 2 ἔτι οἰκονομεῖν. > , , , e ε een) a a 5 > ,
οἰκονόμος, Τι ποιήσω, OTL ὁ κύριός µου " ἀφαιρεῖται τὴν οἰκονομίαν σκάπτειν οὐκ ἰσχύω, ἐπαιτεῖν αἰσχύνομαι.
2. καὶ φωνήσας αὐτὸν εἶπεν ἀπόδος τὸν λόγον τῆς οἰκονομίας 3. Εἶπε δὲ ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὁ
4. ἔγνων τί
, o @ - 3 ~ 3 , / , > A ποιήσω, ἵνα, ὅταν μετασταθῶ ὃ τῆς οἰκονομίας, δέξωνταί µε εἰς τοὺς
οἴκους αὐτῶν."
5. Καὶ προσκαλεσάµενος ἕνα ἕκαστον τῶν χρεω-
Φειλετῶν τοῦ κυρίου ἑαυτοῦ, ἔλεγε τῷ πρώτῳ, Πόσον ὀφείλεις τῷ
1 Omit αντου NBDLR.
2 So in L and many others; SQBDP have ὄννη. 3 SBD 1, 69 al. have ex after µετασταθω.
4 εαυτων in NBPRX. avrev in DL.
πρὸς τ. μαθητὰς, and points not to change of andience (disciples now, Phari- sees before) but to continued parabolic discourse.—pebnrds, disciples, quite general ; might mean the Twelve, or the larger crowd of followers (xiv. 25), or the publicans and sinners who came to Him (xv.1,so Schleiermacher, εἴς.).---διεβλήθη, was accused, here only in N.T., often in classics and Sept.; construed with dative here; also with εἰς or πρὸς, with accusative. The verb implies always a hostile animus, often the accompaniment of false accusation, but not necessarily. Here the charge is assumed to be true.— ὡς διασκορπίζων, as squandering, that the charge; how, by fraud or by ex- travagant living, not indicated ; the one apt to lead to the other.—Ver. 2. τί τοῦτο, etc. τί may be exclamatory = what! do I hear this of thee? or in- terrogatory: what is this that I hear of thee? the laconic phrase containing a combination of an interrogative with a relative clause.—7rév λόγον : the reference may be either to a final account previous to dismissal, already resolved on (so usually taken), or to an investigation into the truth or falsehood of the accusation = produce your books that I may judge for myself (so Hahn). The latter would be the reasonable course, but not necessarily the one taken by an eastern magnate, who might rush from absolute confidence to utter distrust without taking the trouble to inquire further. As the story runs, this seems to be what happened.—Ver. 3. etme ἐν &: a Hebraism, as in Mt. iii. 9, ix. 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.—oxamretvy, ἐπαιτεῖν: these two represent the alternatives for ths dismissed: manual labour and begging ; digging naturally chosen to represent the former as typical of agricultural labour, with which the steward’s position brought him much into contact (Lightfoot), But why these two only mentioned? Why not try to get another situation of the same kind? Because he feels that dis-
_missal in the circumstances means degra-
dation. Who now would trust him? ἐπαιτεῖν = προσαιτεῖν (Mk. x. 46, John ix. 8).—Ver. 4. 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.—éyvwv 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.—8¢fwvrat: his plan contemplates as its result reception of the degraded steward into their houses by people not named ; probably the very people who accused him. Weare not to suppose that permanent residence in other people’s houses is in view. _ Something better may. offer. The scheme pro- vides for the near future, helps to turn the next corner.—Ver. 5. 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.—76 πρώτῳ, the first, in the