Discovery BoxLuke 14:28 
Context14:28 For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t sit down 1 first and compute the cost 2 to see if he has enough money to complete it?
Luke 15:17
Context15:17 But when he came to his senses 3 he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food 4 enough to spare, but here I am dying from hunger!
Luke 16:3
Context16:3 Then 5 the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position 6 away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, 7 and I’m too ashamed 8 to beg.
1 tn The participle καθίσας (kaqisas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
2 tn The first illustration involves checking to see if enough funds exist to build a watchtower. Both ψηφίζω (yhfizw, “compute”) and δαπάνη (dapanh, “cost”) are economic terms.
3 tn Grk “came to himself” (an idiom).
4 tn Grk “bread,” but used figuratively for food of any kind (L&N 5.1).
5 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events in the parable.
6 tn Grk “the stewardship,” “the management.”
7 tn Here “dig” could refer (1) to excavation (“dig ditches,” L&N 19.55) or (2) to agricultural labor (“work the soil,” L&N 43.3). In either case this was labor performed by the uneducated, so it would be an insult as a job for a manager.
8 tn Grk “I do not have strength to dig; I am ashamed to beg.”
sn To beg would represent a real lowering of status for the manager, because many of those whom he had formerly collected debts from, he would now be forced to beg from.
