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From Mathew Henry's Concise Commentary: Whatever we have, the property of it is God's; we have only the use of it, according to the direction of our great Lord, and for his honour. This steward wasted his lord's goods. And we are all liable to the same charge; we have not made due improvement of what God has trusted us with. The steward cannot deny it; ...

I think it is significant that the rich man knows and uses Lazarus's name for the same reason that it's significant that he knows Moses name. It clearly shows that he knew who the man was and had been aware in life of his condition and done nothing about it -- in the same way he did not heed the teachings of Moses and the prophets. Leon Morris also suggests ...

The only way that I have ever had this explained to me which has made any sense was by my Biblical Hebrew professor. Basically, "Unjust manager" can mean, in Aramaic, "manager of the unjust." Basically: He wasn't unjust, he governed the unjust. He got caught up in one of his subordinate's scandals He cut out his commission (the top 20%) of the debt from ...

Your Bible is missing the double quotes. Jesus is quoting Isaiah: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!” And he replied: Go and say to this people: Listen carefully, but do not understand! Look intently, but do not perceive! Make the heart of this people sluggish, dull ...

In Luke's gospel, this parable is preceded by the parable of The Lost Son, and in both stories Jesus presents us with a character who has "squandered" money (Squandered - Gk: diaskorpizo appears in both parables). It is worth noting that both characters find mercy, despite their initial actions. Whereas in The Lost Son parable, it is the warm forgiveness of ...

Well, for sure is never really possible, but let me give this a shot. There is no difference between the two words in Greek—just like the English translations you provided. Both use the generic Greek term for house, "oikos." However, it's important to note that the second quotation (Mt. 21) is itself a quotation from Isaiah 56:7. In Hebrew, the word for ...

The answer to the question is obvious; asking it is rhetorical: of course the owner will seek retribution for the wrong done to him and his son by those he trusted. The purpose of the story - regardless of who fills in this answer - is made clear by the quote from Psalms that follows, and so it is explained (Matt, Mark) that his audience sees immediately ...

The normal way to find out what a Bible passage means is to look at a Bible Commentary. These are detailed books, explaining each passage of the Bible. Any Christian bookstore will have many to choose from. There are also a number online, though they tend to be old ones that have gone out of copyright. I'm going to direct you to Matthew Henry's Commentary, ...

There's an interesting theory expressed in Appendix Note 4 of J. B. Phillip's translation The Gospels in Modern English (1957). I'll quote some short extracts and summarise the rest. First, he says that the passage is "well-known for its difficulty of interpretation", then he offers the standard interpretation that the Christian should be "as shrewd about ...

Let us look at Luke 16:8: 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. What I think the parable is really saying is that we should take example of how an even a dishonest manager was able to prepare for future. ...

One thing that seems to distinguish parables from accounts of actual events is the absence of specific names for the people in the parables. In the parables we read, "A sower" (Luke 8), "A rich man" (Luke 12, 15), "A man" (Luke 13, 14), "A Samaritan" (Luke 10). However, in the account of the Rich Man and the Beggar, we are actually given the name of the ...

Jesus was saying that the Kingdom of God has a huge effect on whatever it interacts with. That is, the effect is disproportionately large in comparison to what we mortals perceive the Kingdom of God to be. The Kingdom of God refers to more than just Heaven. The Kingdom of God also includes his people, many of whom are still here on Earth.

+1 Very good question. Who are the sheep? Matthew 10:27 - My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me So the sheep are those who hear the voice of Jesus and follow him. So "sheep" cannot refer to those who have not yet come to God. Also, when Jesus said that he came "to seek and to save the lost", he, in all likelihood, was referring ...

Christ's parables can be dangerous to interpret outside of the interpretation given in the context. In almost every case there is one thing taught in a parable and everything else is just filler. The term "parable" can be loosely translated "to throw alongside", the idea is that a story is thrown alongside a single truth. In this context the teaching is: ...

This is my favourite summary of the parable: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.—Jim Elliot (October 28, 1949 journal entry) It refers to the pivotal verse: And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal ...

I think the problem is the initial understanding of what the soil and seeds are. The Gospel Mark 4:14 (NIV) The farmer sows the word This verse implies that the seeds are the gospel. However, if we look at the next sentence, there appears to be a contradiction: Mark 4:15a (NIV) Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. ...

God is always telling us that we need to bear good fruit and that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Matthew 3:10 NIV The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. However, at the same time God is kind and patient ...

The Bible was written particularly for a certain time, place, and reason. Questions you must ask is Why was Mark written, to whom was it written, when to name a few. People often a phrase out of context and apply it to any situation which changes the meaning of the original text. This is also a problem of translations as the more translations there are can ...

In your question, you recognize the inconsistency of the life and teachings of Jesus with the idea that Jesus did not want people to repent and be forgiven. Indeed, the Bible is very clear that salvation is offered to all the world. Just a few references: New Testament For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him ...

Here Jesus teaches that He has come to prepare us for the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 13.31) and this kingdom of heaven has to be first created within us if we have to be partners of that kingdom. This kingdom is created within us by His message of Gospel which is simplest of all. Luke 17:21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ For indeed, ...

To add to the answer @Narnian gave, the one thing that stands out to me is that it doesn't preface it as a parable like it does in the following citations for example: Matthew 13:18 Luke 6:39 Luke 12:16 Luke 15:3 Luke 18:1 Luke 18:9 Luke 19:11 So, you of course have to decide, but if The Bible stated the aforementioned as parable's, wouldn't it have here ...

This is a great question that opens the discussion of what the nature of scripture actually is. Your priest sounds like a thoughtful and well-educated man and he's pushing you to think more critically about this biblical passage. What you are describing is based off of the work The Parables of Jesus by Joachim Jeremias. The Basic premise is that the Gospel ...

Why does Jesus not want people to repent and be forgiven in Mark 4? It is not that Jesus didn't want people to repent. Remember they were under the Law, he also had to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah. If they understood what Jesus was teaching in the parable of the sower they would have not crucified him "Jesus". He was take them for a covenant of law to a ...

Mark 4:10-20 explains in a little more detail what 4:1-8 recorded. Jesus is explaining to the disciples the purpose of parables as a whole, and we see that he uses the Parable of the Sower again to describe the people that the disciples will encounter. 18And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19but the cares of the ...

I'm offering the following as a partial answer because the OP said he felt there was more to gain from this parable. I don't feel like what follows is anything new, but it helped me understand one of the ideas in it a little better by putting it in a context I can relate to. Specifically, this is in reference to verse 9, which in the KJV reads And I ...

Additional information. There is the possibility that this was a cultural "stock" parable that Jesus used for his own purposes. Think along the lines of Hansel and Gretel or something along those lines. As such, this common lore would be used by teachers to develop a lesson that suited the particular teaching situation. Sources: Interpreting the Parables ...

It is unclear whether this story is parable or not. The fact that Lazarus is named causes some to suggest this isn't a parable at all, but rather an actual account. The fact that this text follows the Parable of the Dishonest Manager leads some to believe that it is in fact a parable, but that analysis is by no means universal.