Luke 16:9

16:9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, ¹  so that when it runs out you will be welcomed ²  into the eternal homes. ³ 

Luke 16:12

16:12 And if you haven’t been trustworthy ⁴  with someone else’s property, ⁵  who will give you your own ⁶ ?

Titus 2:10

2:10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, ⁷  in order to bring credit to ⁸  the teaching of God our Savior in everything.

[16:9]  ¹ tn Grk “unrighteous mammon.” Mammon is the Aramaic term for wealth or possessions. The point is not that money is inherently evil, but that it is often misused so that it is a means of evil; see 1 Tim 6:6-10, 17-19. The call is to be generous and kind in its use. Zacchaeus becomes the example of this in Luke’s Gospel (19:1-10).

[16:9]  ² sn The passive refers to the welcome of heaven.

[16:9]  ³ tn Grk “eternal tents” (as dwelling places).

[16:12]  ⁴ tn Or “faithful.”

[16:12]  ⁵ tn Grk “have not been faithful with what is another’s.”

[16:12]  ⁶ tn Grk “what is your own.”

[2:10]  ⁷ tn Or “showing that genuine faith is productive.” At issue between these two translations is the force of ἀγαθήν (agaqhn): Is it attributive (as the text has it) or predicate (as in this note)? A number of considerations point in the direction of a predicate ἀγαθήν (e.g., separation from the noun πίστιν (pistin) by the verb, the possibility that the construction is an object-complement, etc.), though is not usually seen as an option in either translations or commentaries. Cf. ExSyn 188-89, 312-13, for a discussion. Contextually, it makes an intriguing statement, for it suggests a synthetic or synonymous parallel: “‘Slaves should be wholly subject to their masters…demonstrating that all [genuine] faith is productive, with the result [ecbatic ἵνα] that they will completely adorn the doctrine of God.’ The point of the text, then, if this understanding is correct, is an exhortation to slaves to demonstrate that their faith is sincere and results in holy behavior. If taken this way, the text seems to support the idea that saving faith does not fail, but even results in good works” (ExSyn 312-13). The translation of ἀγαθήν as an attributive adjective, however, also makes good sense.

[2:10]  ⁸ tn Or “adorn,” “show the beauty of.”