Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 18:24 - 18:24
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
24. μυρίων ταλάντων. Even if silver talents are meant, the sum is enormous—at least two million pounds of our money. It was probably more than the whole annual revenue of Palestine at this time; see Joseph. Ant. XII. 4. 4. The modern kingdoms of Norway or Greece or Denmark hardly produce a larger national income.
It is the very sum which Demosthenes records with pride to have been stowed in the Acropolis at the height of Athenian prosperity: πλείω δʼ ἢ μύρια τάλαντα εἰς τὴν ἀκρόπολιν ἀνήγαγον. Olyn. III. 24.
The vast amount implies the hopeless character of the debt of sin.