Luke 19:21-26

19:21 For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe ¹  man. You withdraw ²  what you did not deposit ³  and reap what you did not sow.’ 19:22 The king ⁴  said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, ⁵  you wicked slave! ⁶  So you knew, did you, that I was a severe ⁷  man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow? 19:23 Why then didn’t you put ⁸  my money in the bank, ⁹  so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’ 19:24 And he said to his attendants, ¹⁰  ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten.’ ¹¹  19:25 But ¹²  they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten minas already!’ ¹³  19:26 ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more, ¹⁴  but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. ¹⁵ 

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¹ tn Or “exacting,” “harsh,” “hard.”

² tn Grk “man, taking out.” The Greek word can refer to withdrawing money from a bank (L&N 57.218), and in this context of financial accountability that is the most probable meaning. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the pronoun “you” as subject and translating the participle αἴρεις (airei") as a finite verb.

³ tn The Greek verb τίθημι (tiqhmi) can be used of depositing money with a banker to earn interest (L&N 57.217). In effect the slave charges that the master takes what he has not earned.

⁴ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the nobleman of v. 12, now a king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Grk “out of your own mouth” (an idiom).

⁶ tn Note the contrast between this slave, described as “wicked,” and the slave in v. 17, described as “good.”

⁷ tn Or “exacting,” “harsh,” “hard.”

⁸ tn That is, “If you really feared me why did you not do a minimum to get what I asked for?”

⁹ tn Grk “on the table”; the idiom refers to a place where money is kept or managed, or credit is established, thus “bank” (L&N 57.215).

¹⁰ tn Grk “to those standing by,” but in this context involving an audience before the king to give an accounting, these would not be casual bystanders but courtiers or attendants.

¹¹ tn Grk “the ten minas.”

¹² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context. Those watching the evaluation are shocked, as the one with the most gets even more. The word “already” is supplied at the end of the statement to indicate this surprise and shock.

¹³ tc A few mss (D W 69 pc and a few versional witnesses) omit this verse either to harmonize it with Matt 25:28-29 or to keep the king’s speech seamless.

¹⁴ tn Grk “to everyone who has, he will be given more.”

sn Everyone who has will be given more. Again, faithfulness yields great reward (see Luke 8:18; also Matt 13:12; Mark 4:25).

¹⁵ sn The one who has nothing has even what he seems to have taken away from him, ending up with no reward at all (see also Luke 8:18). The exact force of this is left ambiguous, but there is no comfort here for those who are pictured by the third slave as being totally unmoved by the master. Though not an outright enemy, there is no relationship to the master either. Three groups are represented in the parable: the faithful of various sorts (vv. 16, 18); the unfaithful who associate with Jesus but do not trust him (v. 21); and the enemies (v. 27).