Luke 16:6-8

16:6 The man ¹  replied, ‘A hundred measures ²  of olive oil.’ The manager ³  said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’ ⁴  16:7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ The second man ⁵  replied, ‘A hundred measures ⁶  of wheat.’ The manager ⁷  said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸  16:8 The ⁹  master commended the dishonest ¹⁰  manager because he acted shrewdly. ¹¹  For the people ¹²  of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries ¹³  than the people ¹⁴  of light.

[16:6]  ¹ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the first debtor) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:6]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the manager) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:7]  ⁸ sn The percentage of reduction may not be as great because of the change in material.

[16:8]  ⁹ tn Grk “And the.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[16:8]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Grk “sons” (an idiom).

[16:8]  ¹³ tn Grk “with their own generation.”

[16:8]  ¹⁴ 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.