Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Matthew 18:24 - 18:24
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat_18:24 ff. According to Boeckh, Staatshaush. d. Athener, I. p. 15 ff., an (Attic) talent, or sixty minae, amounted to 1375 thalers [about £206 sterling]. Ten thousand talents, amounting to something considerably over thirteen millions of thalers, are intended to express a sum so large as to be well-nigh incalculable. So great was the debt of one ( εἷς ).
ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὸν … ἔχει ] according to the Mosaic law; Lev_25:39; Lev_25:47; 2Ki_4:1; Exo_22:2. See Michaelis, M. R. § 148; Saalschütz, M. R. p. 706 f. The word αὐτόν is emphatic: that he should be sold, etc. On the present indicative ἔχει (see critical notes), which is derived from the idea of the narrative being direct, comp. Kühner, II. 2, p. 1058.
καὶ ἀποδοθῆναι ] and that payment be made. This was the king’s command: it must be paid, viz. the sum due. The fact of the proceeds of the sale not proving sufficient for this purpose did not in any way affect the order; hence ἀποδοθ . is not to be referred merely to the proceeds (Fritzsche). The king wants his money, and therefore does the best he can in the circumstances to get it.
πάντα σοι ἀποδώσω ] in his distress and anguish he promises far more than he can hope to perform. And the king in his compassion goes far beyond what was asked ( ἀφῆκεν αὐτῷ ).
For δάνειον , money lent, comp. Deu_24:11; found frequently in classical writers since the time of Demosth. 911. 3.