2 Kings 5:20-24

5:20 Gehazi, the prophet Elisha’s servant, thought, ¹  “Look, my master did not accept what this Syrian Naaman offered him. ²  As certainly as the Lord lives, I will run after him and accept something from him.” 5:21 So Gehazi ran after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him and asked, “Is everything all right?” ³  5:22 He answered, “Everything is fine. ⁴  My master sent me with this message, ‘Look, two servants of the prophets just arrived from the Ephraimite hill country. ⁵  Please give them a talent ⁶  of silver and two suits of clothes.’” 5:23 Naaman said, “Please accept two talents of silver. ⁷  He insisted, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, along with two suits of clothes. He gave them to two of his servants and they carried them for Gehazi. ⁸  5:24 When he arrived at the hill, he took them from the servants ⁹  and put them in the house. Then he sent the men on their way. ¹⁰ 

Luke 16:6-8

16:6 The man ¹¹  replied, ‘A hundred measures ¹²  of olive oil.’ The manager ¹³  said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’ ¹⁴  16:7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ The second man ¹⁵  replied, ‘A hundred measures ¹⁶  of wheat.’ The manager ¹⁷  said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ¹⁸  16:8 The ¹⁹  master commended the dishonest ²⁰  manager because he acted shrewdly. ²¹  For the people ²²  of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries ²³  than the people ²⁴  of light.

John 12:6

12:6 (Now Judas ²⁵  said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money box, ²⁶  he used to steal what was put into it.) ²⁷ 

Acts 5:2-3

5:2 He ²⁸  kept back for himself part of the proceeds with his wife’s knowledge; he brought ²⁹  only part of it and placed it at the apostles’ feet. 5:3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled ³⁰  your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds from the sale of ³¹  the land?

[5:20]  ¹ tn Heb “said” (i.e., to himself).

[5:20]  ² tn Heb “Look, my master spared this Syrian Naaman by not taking from his hand what he brought.”

[5:21]  ³ tn Heb “Is there peace?”

[5:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “peace.”

[5:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “Look now, here, two servants came to me from the Ephraimite hill country, from the sons of the prophets.”

[5:22]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75 pounds of silver (cf. NCV, NLT, CEV).

[5:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “Be resolved and accept two talents.”

[5:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “before him.”

[5:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “from their hand.”

[5:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he sent the men away and they went.”

[16:6]  ¹¹ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the first debtor) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:6]  ¹² sn A measure (sometimes translated “bath”) was just over 8 gallons (about 30 liters). This is a large debt – about 875 gallons (3000 liters) of olive oil, worth 1000 denarii, over three year’s pay for a daily worker.

[16:6]  ¹³ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the manager) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

[16:6]  ¹⁴ sn The bill was halved (sit down quickly, and write fifty). What was the steward doing? This is debated. 1) Did he simply lower the price? 2) Did he remove interest from the debt? 3) Did he remove his own commission? It is hard to be sure. Either of the latter two options is more likely. The goal was clear: The manager would be seen in a favorable light for bringing a deflationary trend to prices.

[16:7]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the second debtor) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

[16:7]  ¹⁶ sn The hundred measures here was a hundreds cors. A cor was a Hebrew dry measure for grain, flour, etc., of between 10-12 bushels (about 390 liters). This was a huge amount of wheat, representing the yield of about 100 acres, a debt of between 2500-3000 denarii.

[16:7]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the manager) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:7]  ¹⁸ sn The percentage of reduction may not be as great because of the change in material.

[16:8]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And the.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[16:8]  ²⁰ sn Is the manager dishonest because of what he just did? Or is it a reference to what he had done earlier, described in v. 1? This is a difficult question, but it seems unlikely that the master, having fired the man for prior dishonesty, would now commend those same actions. It would also be unusual for Jesus to make that point of the story the example. Thus it is more likely the reference to dishonesty goes back to the earliest events, while the commendation is for the cleverness of the former manager reflected in vv. 5-7.

[16:8]  ²¹ sn Where this parable ends is debated: Does it conclude with v. 7, after v. 8a, after v. 8b, or after v. 9? Verse 8a looks as if it is still part of the story, with its clear reference to the manager, while 8b looks like Jesus’ application, since its remarks are more general. So it is most likely the parable stops after v. 8a.

[16:8]  ²² tn Grk “sons” (an idiom).

[16:8]  ²³ tn Grk “with their own generation.”

[16:8]  ²⁴ tn Grk “sons.” Here the phrase “sons of light” is a reference to the righteous. The point is that those of the world often think ahead about consequences better than the righteous do.

[12:6]  ²⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Judas) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:6]  ²⁶ tn Grk “a thief, and having the money box.” Dividing the single Greek sentence improves the English style.

[12:6]  ²⁷ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. This is one of the indications in the gospels that Judas was of bad character before the betrayal of Jesus. John states that he was a thief and had responsibility for the finances of the group. More than being simply a derogatory note about Judas’ character, the inclusion of the note at this particular point in the narrative may be intended to link the frustrated greed of Judas here with his subsequent decision to betray Jesus for money. The parallel accounts in Matthew and Mark seem to indicate that after this incident Judas went away immediately and made his deal with the Jewish authorities to deliver up Jesus. Losing out on one source of sordid gain, he immediately went out and set up another.

[5:2]  ²⁸ tn Grk “And he.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[5:2]  ²⁹ tn The participle ἐνέγκας (enenka") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[5:3]  ³⁰ sn This is a good example of the Greek verb fill (πληρόω, plhrow) meaning “to exercise control over someone’s thought and action” (cf. Eph 5:18).

[5:3]  ³¹ tn The words “from the sale of” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify the meaning, since the phrase “proceeds from the land” could possibly be understood as crops rather than money from the sale.