Matthew 18:21-35
18:21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”
18:22 Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
18:23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.
18:24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him;
18:25 and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made.
18:26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
18:27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.
18:28 But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’
18:29 Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’
18:30 But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.
18:31 When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place.
18:32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
18:33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’
18:34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.
18:35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
21 Τότε προσελθὼν αὐτῷ ὁ Πέτρος εἶπε· Κύριε, ποσάκις ἁμαρτήσει εἰς ἐμὲ ὁ ἀδελφός μου καὶ ἀφήσω αὐτῷ; ἕως ἑπτάκις;
22 Λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· οὐ λέγω σοι ἕως ἑπτάκις, ἀλλ᾿ ἕως ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά.
23 Διὰ τοῦτοὡμοιώθη ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀνθρώπῳ βασιλεῖ, ὃς ἠθέλησε συνᾶραι λόγον μετὰ τῶν δούλων αὐτοῦ.
24 Ἀρξαμένου δὲ αὐτοῦ συναίρειν προσηνέχθη αὐτῷ εἷς ὀφειλέτης μυρίων ταλάντων.
25 Μὴ ἔχοντος δὲ αὐτοῦ ἀποδοῦναι ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὸν ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ πραθῆναι καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ τέκνα καὶ πάντα ὅσα εἶχε, καὶ ἀποδοθῆναι.
26 Πεσὼν οὖν ὁ δοῦλος προσεκύνει αὐτῷ λέγων· κύριε, μακροθύμησον ἐπ᾿ ἐμοὶ καὶ πάντα σοιἀποδώσω.
27 Σπλαγχνισθεὶς δὲ ὁ κύριος τοῦ δούλου ἐκείνου ἀπέλυσεν αὐτὸν καὶ τὸ δάνειον ἀφῆκεν αὐτῷ.
28 Ἐξελθὼν δὲ ὁ δοῦλος ἐκεῖνος εὗρεν ἕνα τῶν συνδούλων αὐτοῦ, ὃς ὤφειλεν αὐτῷ ἑκατὸν δηνάρια, καὶ κρατήσας αὐτὸν ἔπνιγε λέγων· ἀπόδος μοι εἴ τι ὀφείλεις.
29 Πεσὼν οὖν ὁ σύνδουλος αὐτοῦ εἰς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ παρεκάλει αὐτὸν λέγων· μακροθύμησον ἐπ᾿ ἐμοὶ καὶ ἀποδώσω σοι.
30 Ὁ δὲ οὐκ ἤθελεν, ἀλλὰ ἀπελθὼν ἔβαλεν αὐτὸν εἰς φυλακὴν ἕως οὗ ἀποδῷ τὸ ὀφειλόμενον.
31 Ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ σύνδουλοι αὐτοῦ τὰ γενόμενα ἐλυπήθησαν σφόδρα, καὶ ἐλθόντες διεσάφησαν τῷ κυρίῳ ἑαυτῶν πάντα τὰ γενόμενα.
32 Τότε προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτὸν ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ λέγει αὐτῷ· δοῦλε πονηρέ, πᾶσαν τὴν ὀφειλὴν ἐκείνην ἀφῆκά σοι, ἐπεὶ παρεκάλεσάς με.
33 Οὐκ ἔδει καὶ σὲ ἐλεῆσαι τὸν σύνδουλόν σου, ὡς καὶ ἐγώ σε ἠλέησα;
34 Καὶ ὀργισθεὶς ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν τοῖς βασανισταῖς ἕως οὗ ἀποδῷ πᾶν τὸ ὀφειλόμενον αὐτῷ.
35 Οὕτω καὶ ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ ἐπουράνιος ποιήσει ὑμῖν, ἐὰν μὴ ἀφῆτε ἕκαστος τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν καρδιῶνὑμῶν τὰ παραπτώματα αὐτῶν.
Comments
The parable makes up the bulk of the pericope. It is sandwiched between, on the one side, an introduction in the form of Peter’s query and Jesus’ answer anticipating the moral (21-23), and on the other, a reformulation of the answer, the epimythium proper (35). The parable is cast as a linear narrative animated with quoted speech. Aorist participles, all coming at the opening of each sentence (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34), propel the narration; two participles (24, 25) are genitive absolutes. The hyperbolic verses (the mind-boggling debt of 10, 000 talents in v. 24), as noted in today’s Preaching Paths, may put us in mind of the highly ancient genre of the fable, the earliest example of which, incidentally, is an animal tale from Mesopotamia (in the Wisdom of Surrupak, 2,500 BC). Commercial expressions abound: συναίρω λόγον, ὀφειλέτης, ὀφείλω, ἀποδίδωμι, ἀφίημι, πραθῆναι, δάνειον, etc. Commercial parlance is converted to spiritual usages, esp. ἀφίημι (‘I cancel a debt’ becomes ‘I forgive’) and ὀφείλω (‘I owe’ becomes ‘I trespass against someone’). In St Matthew’s text the parable reverses the pattern of the ‘obtuse master and the downtrodden clever slave’ such as occurs in the late antique novelistic Life of Aesop. Generally speaking, masters and hierarchical superiors receive bad press in Greek fables.
[21] ποσάκις ἁμαρτήσει εἰς ἐμὲ ὁ ἀδελφός μου καὶ ἀφήσω αὐτῷ: the question that launches the parable-narrative. For ἁμαρτήσει εἰς ἐμὲ see my comments on Mt 18:15 on the controversial ἁμαρτήσῃ εἰς σὲ.
ἀφήσω, fut. < ἀφ- ίημι, a cmpd vb < ἀπό + ἵημι. Τhe last means ‘release’, ‘throw, hurl’ (Hom. & cl. Gk)—hence ἀφίημι = ‘cast off’; ‘let go, set free’ (Hom. & cl Gk, cf. LSJ). In cl. Gk ἀφίημι has a special legal sense: ‘I cancel an accusation (hence acquit), cancel a debt or punishment’, and takes a dat. of person and an acc. obj. (LSJ). Peter construes the vb with only a dat. of pers. (which is a dat. of advantage). ἀφίημι is used already in the LXX to express forgiveness, which is the meaning here. (See EDNT s.v., pp. 181-2.)
[22] ἕως ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά: numerical adverbs with the suffix -άκις (‘fold’) mean ‘X-fold, X times over’. Seventy is a multiple of the sacred number seven: see today’s Preaching Paths ad loc. Jesus takes a high number, seventy, and multiplies it (‘as many as/ up to seventy seven times’), on which see again today’s Preaching Paths ad loc. This is Jesus’ first resort to hyperbole (ὑπερβολή, ‘overshooting’), a rhetorical figure recognised by, e.g., Aristotle, Art of Rhetoric 1412b 12 (who observes that the figure adds force and vehemence in a speech); see on v. 24 below on the staggering, fanciful debt.
[23] συνᾶραι λόγον μετὰ τῶν δούλων αὐτοῦ: συνᾶραι, aor. inf. < συναίρω; the inf. depends on the vb ἠθέλησε (‘wished’, ‘wanted’). Λόγος is notoriously meaningful, but its core-sense is ‘account’, as in an explanation and narration and by extension, a (commercial) account, a reckoning. An explanation and a reckoning presuppose rationality, another sense of the term. The expression συναίρω λόγον, apparently a koine usage, means ‘settle accounts together’; this is business language.
[24] ὀφειλέτης μυρίων ταλάντων: ὀφειλέτης, a noun < ὀφείλω, ‘I owe (money); then in an overtly legal sense, ‘I am bound to render’, denoting obligation (cf. LSJ). Τάλαντον (whence the Engl. talent) was a unit of weight and subsequently a monetary unit; cf. the British ‘pound sterling’. The classical Athenian-Euboic standard talent weighed 25.86 kg (OCD, 3rd edn, 1996, p. 1621), and referred to weight in gold or silver. EDNT s.v. τάλαντον, p. 332 notes that ‘[r]oughly speaking, we might compare one talent with the modern “million”.’
Jesus’ claim that the slave owed the equivalent of 10,000 X 1 million dollars is meant to drive home the enormousness of the debt, not its literal value; this is hyperbole of the kind we find in colloquial speech today (‘I haven’t seen you for ages’) and in folk genres, e.g., fables and tall tales: see today’s Preaching Paths ad loc. for the latter.
[25] πραθῆναι: aor. inf., pass. voice < πέρνημι and the Attic alternative πωλῶ (έω), ‘I sell’.
[26] μακροθύμησον ἐπ᾿ ἐμοὶ: μακροθυμῶ (έω), ‘I am long-suffering, am patient’, first exampled in the LXX. The μακρο- component suggests length, duration, etc. as opposed to quickness, impulsiveness, etc. Like an importunate undergraduate the slave asks for an ‘extension’.
[27] Σπλαγχνισθεὶς: aor. part. < σπλαγχνίζομαι, mid. voice (with pass. aor.), ‘I feel pity’, a koine word; cf. the Hom. & cl. σπλάγχνα (pl.), ‘innards’, the seat of emotion.
τὸ δάνειον ἀφῆκεν αὐτῷ: δάνειον, ‘loan’ (< δανείζω, δανίζω, ‘Ι lend’). For ἀφῆκεν (pf.) see above on v. 21, ἀφίημι.
[29] μακροθύμησον ἐπ᾿ ἐμοὶ καὶ ἀποδώσω σοι: repeats almost verbatim the plea in v. 26, μακροθύμησον ἐπ᾿ ἐμοὶ καὶ πάντα σοιἀποδώσω.
[30] The creditor slave throws his fellow slave (σύνδουλος, vv. 28, 29, 31, 33) into prison. In classical Athens the first thing a freed slave did was buy a slave; here the creditor slave imitates the behaviour of many citizens.
[31] διεσάφησαν τῷ κυρίῳ ἑαυτῶν:διασαφῶ (έω), ‘Ι state clearly’, ‘report in detail’ (cl. Gk).
[33] ἐλεῆσαι τὸν σύνδουλόν σου: ἐλεῆσαι, aor. inf. < ἐλεῶ (έω), ‘I have pity on’, c. acc. (Homer & cl. Gk). Cf. Kyrie eleeson.
[34] ὀργισθεὶς: pass. aor. part. < ὀργίζομαι, ‘I grow angry’.
τοῖς βασανισταῖς: βασανιστής (cf. the vb βασανίζω) = ‘tormentor, torturer’ in cl Gk. The sense here is ‘jailer’ (LSJ & Montanari s.v.).
[35] τὰ παραπτώματα: a verbal noun, παράπτωμα (neut.) is literally a ‘misstep, a faux pas’ (cf. παρά + πίπτω, ‘I fall’). This koine term means ‘offence, failure, sin, fall’ (EDNT s.v., p. 33-4). The Engl. tr. does not render this word.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 