A talent is 750 ounces of silver, which after five shil

24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand || talents. 25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, 72 Kings iv. 1. and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

lings the ounce is 1871. 10s.

Neh. v. 8.

Or, besought him.

26 The servant therefore fell down, and || worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

26. "Lord" omitted by B., D., a few Cursives, some old Latin, (a, c, e, &c.), Vulg., Cureton Syriac; but retained by N, all later Uncials, most Cursives, Sah., Copt., Syriacs, &c.

came to unite in the closest bonds all men in one Body by One Spirit.

23. 'Therefore is the kingdom of heaven." In this case the kingdom of heaven means the procedure of Christ in ruling His Kingdom.

"A certain king take account of his servant.... ten thousand talents." Evidently a great Oriental Sovereign who had under him rulers of provinces, who were bound to render to him accounts of the revenues of their respective provinces; which alone will account for the enormous debt which one man was able to contract. If the Jewish talent is the standard adopted, then the amount is above four millions of our pounds. If the Attic talent, then about 2,500,000l.

25. "His lord commanded him to be sold." Chrysostom supposes that this threat was intended to make him feel the weight of the debt, and so to bring him to repentance, which actually was its effect, and he remarks, "If he (the king) had not done it for this intent, he would not have consented to his request, neither would he have granted to him the favour (of having patience with him, and forgiving him)."

26. "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." Luther supposes that this was said in a spirit of self-righteousness and reliance upon his own power of fulfilling the law: but this is impossible; for if theological considerations of this sort are to be assumed in explaining the parable, it is evident that the lord ought not to have accepted the plea, and forgiven him. Instead of forgiving him

27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred | pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.

29 And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

The Roman penny is the eighth part of

an ounce,

which after five shillings the ounce is sevenpence halfpenny. ch. xx. 2.

28. "Took him by the throat." The original expresses more violence and brutality "was strangling; " tenens suffocabat eum. (Vulg.)

"Pay me."

"Me" perhaps to be omitted; redde quod debes. (Vulg.)

29. "At his feet." So E., F., H., K., M., S., other later Uncials, most Cursives, Syriac (Schaaf); but omitted by N, B., C*., D., G., L., about nine Cursives, most old Latin, Vulg., Cureton Syriac, Sah., &c.

"I will pay thee all." "All" omitted by N, B., C., D., E., F., G., H., M., other later Uncials, about one hundred Cursives, most old Latin; retained by L., 1, 33, many other Cursives, some old Latin, Vulg., Syriac (Schaaf), Sah., Copt., &c.

he would have rebuked him for self-righteousness. The words were simply the expression of terror.

27. "Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion . . . . forgave him," &c. "The severity of God only endures till the sinner is brought to recognize his guilt, it is indeed only love in disguise; and having done its work, having brought him to the acknowledgment of his guilt and misery, reappears as grace again, granting him more than he had ever dared to ask, or to hope, loosing the bands of his sins, and letting him go free." (Archbishop Trench.) Thiersch, whose remarks on this parable are very admirable, writes: "There exists a false interpretation of this parable, as though God forgave men without a Mediator and Redeemer, and as though we needed no sacrifice and no satisfaction of Christ; but the king in the Gospel, according to the tenor of the concluding words of the parable, is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . the Father whose loving kindness and condescension have appeared in the Son, and who, through the Son, will judge the world. . . . . The great remission of sins, which is now offered to Christendom, flows from the merits of Jesus Christ, and is the most glorious witness to the power of His Blood."

But the forgiveness in this case, so great and yet so free, was thrown away, for this same servant went out [apparently imme

30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

31 So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. 32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

diately] from the presence of his Lord, and found one of his fellowservants which owed him a hundred pence or denarii [under four pounds of our money], and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, "Pay that thou owest." And his fellow-servant did to him exactly what he but a short time before had done to his lord, he fell down at his feet, and used the same words of deprecation, "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.” And a very little patience exercised towards him would have enabled him to scrape together the hundred pence.

30. "And he would not." Chrysostom writes: "He did not regard even the words by which he had himself been saved (for he himself on saying this had been delivered from the ten thousand talents) and did not recognize so much as the harbour by which he escaped shipwreck; the gesture of supplication did not remind him of his master's kindness, but he put away from him all these things, from covetousness, and cruelty, and revenge, and was more fierce than any wild beast, seizing his fellow-servant by the throat." The fellowservants, here no doubt representing the faithful servants of God, were very sorry, grieved at the sin, and shocked at the harshness shown to the poor debtor. Trench well notices the difference between the minds and feelings of the servants and that of their lord. They were sorry. "In man the sense of his own guilt, the deep consciousness that whatever sin he sees come to ripeness in another, exists in its germ and seed in his own heart, the feeling that all flesh is one, and that the sin of one calls for humiliation from all, will ever cause sorrow to be the predominant feeling in his heart when the spectacle of moral evil is brought before his eyes."

31. "Came and told unto their lord," not seeking revenge, but even as the righteous complain to God, and mourn in their prayers over the oppressions that are wrought in their sight, "How long shall the ungodly triumph!"

33 Shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

Prov. xxi. 13.

ch. vi. 12.

35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not Mark xi. 26. every one his brother their trespasses.

33. "Compassion" and "pity are both the same word in the Greek,

James ii. 13.

34. "Unto him" omitted by B., D., a few Cursives, old Latin, Vulg., Cureton Syriae; retained by N, C., all later Uncials, Sah., Copt., Syriac, &c.

35. "Their trespasses" omitted by N, B., D,, L., a few Cursives, old Latin, Vulg., Cureton Syriac; retained by C., all later Uncials, Cursives, Syriac, Schaaf, &c.

32. "O thou wicked servant."

Observe how unmercifulness

is called wickedness, just as murder or adultery would be called wickedness.

34. "Delivered him to the tormentors." As no such thing as torture or imprisonment for life is recognized under the Jewish laws, it is rightly assumed that the structure of the parable represents what would take place in the court of some great heathen king, rather than amongst the chosen people.

35. "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you.. trespasses." This is our Lord's inference from his own parable.

The parable, then, is designed to assure us in the most impressive way conceivable that our continuing in a state of forgiveness entirely depends upon our continuing in a state of charity-charity towards all men. This parable is the converse of the Beatitude, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

If any words can, it teaches us that want of charity casts out of a state of grace. It is worse than useless to speak of the servant not having been really forgiven, because if he had really experienced forgiveness, it is assumed that he would necessarily have extended forgiveness to his fellow-servant. The parable seems designed to teach us exactly the contrary. Surely such words as "I forgave thee all that debt," must imply the reality of forgiveness. And surely there is enough in the so-called religious world to teach us that a man who is certain that God has forgiven him may use most uncharitable language about his neighbours, and sometimes do to them very malicious acts indeed.

A

CHAP. XIX.

8

ND it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judæa beyond Jordan;

a Mark x. 1. John x. 40.

b ch. xii. 15.

2 And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.

3 ¶ The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

3. "[The] Pharisees," probably without article.

"For a man." So C., D., all later Uncials, most Cursives, old Latin, Vulg., Syriac, Sah., Copt.; but omitted by &, B., L.

1. "He departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judæa beyond Jordan." That is unto Peræa. Probably this is the journey alluded to in John x. 40. Greswell makes all the events related in St. John's Gospel, from John vii. 2, to xi. 54, and all related between Luke x. 1, and Luke xviii. 14, to take place between the enunciation of the parable of the Unmerciful Servant in the last chapter, and the discourse respecting divorce in this.

3. "The Pharisees also came to him, tempting him . . . Is it lawful... every cause?" It has been supposed by some that, as this question was put to our Lord by the Pharisees whilst He was in Peræa, which was under the rule of Herod Antipas, it was their intention to involve Him in a quarrel with Herod. Others, on the contrary suppose that the inquiring Pharisees did not tempt our Saviour from malice, but from the desire to see what opinion He would pronounce upon a matter of controversy between two schools of rabbinical interpretation. One, of the school of Hillel, explained Deut. xxiv. 1 as allowing a husband to divorce his wife for any trivial cause; the other, the school of Schammai, only allowed divorce in cases of fornication or adultery, or something very dishonourable. Most probably, however, they came "tempting him" because they expected that He would give some strict views of the obligations of marriage which would render His doctrine unpopular in that