¹ sn A creditor was a moneylender, whose business was to lend money to others at a fixed rate of interest.

² tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

³ tn Grk “five hundred denarii.”

sn The silver coins were denarii. The denarius was worth about a day’s wage for a laborer; this would be an amount worth not quite two years’ pay. The debts were significant: They represented two months’ pay and one and three quarter years’ pay (20 months) based on a six day work week.

⁴ sn The rock in Palestine would be a limestone base lying right under the soil.

⁵ tn Here κατά (kata) has been translated “up to”; it could also be translated “upon.”

⁶ tn The clause containing the aorist active participle ἐλθών (elqwn) suggests that the Levite came up to the place, took a look, and then moved on.

⁷ sn The temple is on a hill in Jerusalem, so one would go up to enter its precincts.

⁸ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

⁹ sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

¹⁰ sn Herod and Pilate became friends with each other. It may be that Pilate’s change of heart was related to the death of his superior, Sejanus, who had a reputation for being anti-Jewish. To please his superior, Pilate may have ruled the Jews with insensitivity. Concerning Sejanus, see Philo, Embassy 24 (160-61) and Flaccus 1 (1).

¹¹ tn Grk “at enmity with each other.”