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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Luke 19:13 - 19:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
His ten servants (δέκα δούλους ἑαυτοῦ)
Rev., rightly, changes to ten servants of his, since the his is emphatic; lit., his own. Moreover, it would be absurd to suppose that this nobleman, of consequence enough to be raised to a royal dignity, had but ten servants. The number of slaves in a Roman household was enormous, sometimes reaching hundreds. Toward the end of the Republic, it was considered reprehensible not to have a slave for every sort of work.
Pounds (μνᾶς)
Minas. Between sixteen and eighteen dollars apiece. Meyer very aptly remarks: “The small sum astonishes us. Compare, on the other hand, the talents (Matthew 25). But in Matthew, the Lord transfers to his servant his whole property; here he has only devoted a definite sum of money to the purpose of putting his servants to the proof therewith; and the smallness of the amount corresponds to what is so carefully emphasized in our parable, viz., the relation of faithfulness in the least to its great recompense (Luk 19:17); which relation is less regarded in the parable in Matthew” (“Commentary on Luke”).
Occupy (πραγματεύσασθε)
The word occupy has lost the sense which it conveyed to the makers of the A. V. - that of using or laying out what is possessed. An occupier formerly meant a trader. Occupy, in the sense of to use, occurs Jdg 16:11 : “new ropes that never were occupied;” which Rev. changes to wherewith no work hath been done. Compare the Prayer-Book version of the Psalter, Psa 107:23 : “occupy their business in great waters.” So Latimer, “Sermons,” “He that occupieth usury.” Rev., trade ye. Wyc., merchandise ye. Tynd., buy and sell. See on traded, Mat 25:16.
Till I come (ἕως ἔρχομαι)
It is strange that the Rev. follows this reading without comment, while the Revisers' text takes no notice whatever of the reading of four of the leading manuscripts, which is adopted by both Tischendorf and Westcott and Hort; ἐν ᾧ ἔρχομαι, “while I come,” a condensed form of expression for while I go and return.