Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 19:16
Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.
16. thy pound hath gained ] Literally, “earned in addition.” As though there were no merit of his own in the matter.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
See the notes at Mat 25:20-21.
Ten cities – We are not to suppose that this will be literally fulfilled in heaven. Christ teaches here that our reward in heaven will be in proportion to our faithfulness in improving our talents on earth.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. Lord, thy pound hath gained ten] The principal difference between this parable and that of the talents above referred to is, that the mina given to each seems to point out the gift of the Gospel, which is the same to all who hear it; but the talents distributed in different proportions, according to each man’s ability, seem to intimate that God has given different capacities and advantages to men, by which this one gift of the Gospel may be differently improved.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then came the first,…. Who were set in the first place in the church, the apostles of Christ, and who had the greatest gifts, and laboured more abundantly, and were eminently useful; such an one was the Apostle Paul:
saying, Lord; acknowledging the sovereignty and dominion of Christ over them, owning they were accountable to him, and that he had a right to inquire, what use they had made of their gifts, and what advantages these had produced;
thy pound hath gained ten pounds; it had been increased tenfold; or it has turned to a tenfold account, in the conversion of sinners, in the edification of the saints, and in the advancement of the kingdom, and interest of Christ. This servant owns, that the gifts he had were Christ’s; he calls them, “thy pound”; and therefore did not glory in them as his own attainments, or, as if he had received them not; and ascribes the great increase, not to himself, but to the pound itself; to the gifts of Christ, as they were his, and as used by his grace and strength, and as blessed, and owned by him, to these purposes.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Hath made (). Only here in the N.T. Note – in addition, besides, more.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Hath gained [] . Only here in New Testament. Lit., hath worked besides [] the original sum. Rev., made.
Have thou authority [ ] . Lit., Be thou having authority.
Cities. “A city for a pound, yet not even a cottage could be bought for a pound” (Bengel).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Then came the first, saying,” (paregeneto de ho protos legon) “Then the first in order, in rank came saying, explaining,” with seeming gladness, and joy. Those who serve well will come gladly to meet when the bridegroom shout comes, Mat 25:6.
2) “Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.” (kurie he mna sou deka prosergasato mnas) “Master the pound you gave me to invest has gained ten pounds,” or one thousand percent, ten times its original amount, an high return, enlarged by proper usage of that which belonged to his nobleman master, Luk 6:38. The servant did not claim credit for, or brag about what he had done, but about what his master’s money had done.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(16) Thy pound hath gained ten pounds.The increase is on a larger scale than in the parable in Matthew 25. There each of the faithful servants gains as much again as he had received. Here the gain is tenfold (1,000 per cent.). Adopting the view which has been taken of the distinctive ideas of the two parables, it may be said that what is suggested is the almost boundless opening for good acquired by the simple acceptance of the truth, apart from the opportunities offered by special gifts and functions. So interpreted, the several grades of increase correspond to the thirty, sixty, and hundredfold in the parable of the Sower. (See Note on Mat. 13:23.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Thy pound hath gained The Lord in the last verse spake of what they had gained; the servant himself here speaks modestly of what the Lord’s gift had gained. Good works are from grace, and yet are performed freely. The power that is to perform is by grace; the exercise of the power is by freedom. And works freely performed from grace have a merit graciously ascribed to them, and a reward conferred. And the reward is proportioned to the work. The gainer of ten pounds is rewarded with ten cities, of five pounds, with five. Wise is the man who by grace and in faith makes a large investment in hope of the reward.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“And the first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ ”
The first servant who was brought before the King had a success story to unfold. With the mina he had been given he had traded and worked hard, and had produced ten minas. He had increased what he had been given tenfold.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 19:16. Thy pound* hath gained ten pounds. The modesty of these servants is remarkable: they do not say, that, they themselves have gained the ten or five pounds, but Thy pound hath gained, &c. attributing their success, not to themselves, but to the gifts of his grace. It is observable, that in Mat 25:20; Mat 25:46 where the servants are represented as doubling the different sums intrusted to each, the reward is spoken of as the same: but here the sum intrusted being the same, and the improvement described as different, there is a proportionate difference in the reward; which as it is a beautiful circumstance, was, no doubt, intended for our instruction. See Luk 19:20-21.
* The original word , here translated a pound, signifies a quantity of silver weighing twelve ounces and a half, which, according to five shillings the ounce, is three pounds, two shillings, and sixpence.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Luk 19:16-17 . . . .] “Modeste lucrum acceptum fert herili pecuniae, non industriae suae,” Grotius, comparing 1Co 15:10 . On ., has gained to it , comp. Xen. Hell . iii. 1. 28.
(see the critical remarks): well done! bravo ! Comp. on Mat 25:21 .
Since thou in the least hast become faithful (actually, not: hast been ), be thou ruler over ten cities . Comp. Luk 16:10 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.
Ver. 16. Thy pound hath gained ] Not my pains, but thy pound hath done it. “By the grace of God I am that I am,” saith Paul, that constantissimus gratiae praedicator, as Austin calleth him.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
16 23. ] See on Matt. It is observable here, however, how exactly and minutely in keeping is every circumstance. Thy pound hath gained ten pounds; the humility with which this is stated, where no account of is taken as in Matt., and then the proportion of the reward, so according with the nature of what the Prince went to receive, and the occasion of his return.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 19:16 . , thy pound, modestly, as if he had no hand or merit in the gain (Grotius). : a considerable increase, implying proportional length of time, the kingdom not near .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luke
THE TRADING SERVANTS
Luk 19:16
The Evangelist, contrary to his usual practice, tells us what was the occasion of this parable. It was spoken at Jericho, on our Lord’s last journey to Jerusalem, Bethany was but a day’s march distant; Calvary but a week ahead. An unusual tension of spirit marked our Lord’s demeanour, and was noticed by the disciples with awe. It infected them, and the excitable crowd, which was more than usually excitable because on its way to the passover festival. The air was electric, and everybody felt that something was impending. They ‘thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.’ So Christ spoke this parable to damp down that expectation which might easily flash up into the flame of rebellion. He tells them His real programme. He was to go a long way off to receive the kingdom. That was a familiar experience amongst the nations tributary to Rome, and more than one of the Herodian family had passed through it. In the meantime there was to be a period of expectancy. It was to be a long time, for he had to go to a ‘far country,’ and it was to be extended enough for the servants to turn their money over many times during His absence. When He did return it was not to do what they expected. They thought that the kingdom meant Jewish lordship over subject nations. He teaches them that it meant the destruction of the rebellious citizens, and a rigid scrutiny of the servants’ faithfulness.
Now, the words of my two texts bring out in connection with this outline of the future some large lessons which I desire to draw.
I. Notice the small capital that the servants receive to trade with.
Now, to suppose that these are but two varying versions of the same parable, which the Evangelists have manipulated is, in my judgment, to be blind to the plainest of the lessons to be drawn from them.
There are two sorts of gifts. In one, all Christian men, the Master’s servants, are alike; in another, they differ. Now, what is the thing in which all Christians are alike? What gift do they all possess equally; rich and poor, largely endowed or slenderly equipped; ‘talented’-as we use the word from the parable-or not? The rich man and the poor, the wise man and the foolish, the cultured man and the ignorant, the Fijian and the Englishman, have one thing alike-the message of salvation which we call the Gospel of the blessed Lord. That is the ‘pound.’ We all stand upon an equal platform there, however differently we are endowed in respect of capacities and other matters. All have it; and all have the same.
Now if that is the interpretation of this parable, there are considerations that flow from that thought, and on which I would dwell for a moment.
The first of them is the apparent smallness of the gift. You may feel a difficulty in accepting that explanation, and may have been saying to yourselves that it cannot be correct, because Jesus Christ would never compare the unspeakable gift of His message of salvation through Him, to that paltry sum. But throw yourselves back to the moment of utterance, and I think you will feel the pathos and power of the metaphor. Here was that handful of disciples set in the midst of a hostile world, dead against them, with its banded superstitions, venerable idolatries, systematised philosophies, the force of the mightiest instruments of material power that the world had ever seen, in the organisation and military power of Rome. And there stood twelve Galilean men, with their simple, unlettered message; one poor ‘pound,’ and that was all. ‘The foolishness of preaching,’ the message which to ‘the Jews was a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks was folly,’ was all that they were equipped with. Their Master, who left them to seek a Kingdom, had so little to bestow, before He received His crown, that all that He could spare them was that small sum. They had to go into business in a very poor way. They had to be content to do a very insignificant retail trade. ‘The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.’ The old experience of the leather sling and the five stones out of the brook, in the hand of the stripling, that made short work of the brazen armour of the giant, and penetrated with a whizz into his thick skull, and laid him prostrate, was to be repeated. ‘He called his servants, and gave them’-a pound apiece! If you and I, Christian men and women, were true to the Master’s legacy, and believed that we have in it more wealth than the treasures of wisdom and knowledge or force which the world has laid up, we should find that our mite was more than they all have in their possession.
Further, the texts suggest the purpose for which the pound is given. The servants had to live on it themselves, no doubt. So have we. They had to trade with it. So have we. Now that means two things. We get the Gospel, not as some of us lazily suppose, in order to secure that we shall not be punished for our past sins whilst we live, and go to heaven when we die. We get it, not only to enjoy its consolations and its sweetness, but to do business with.
And there are two ways in which this trading is to be done by us. The main one is the honest application of the principles and powers of the Gospel to the moulding of our own characters, and the making us better, purer, gentler, more heavenly-minded, and more Christlike. That is the first trading that we have to carry on with the Word. We get it not for an indolent assent, as so many of us misuse it. We receive it not merely to say, ‘Oh I believe it,’ and there an end, but that we may bring it to bear upon all our conduct, and that it may be the chief formative influence in our characters. Christian people! is that what you do with your Christianity? Is the Gospel moulding you, hour by hour, moment by moment? Have you brought all its great truths to bear upon your daily lives? Have you inwrought its substance into, not merely your understandings or your emotions, but your daily conduct? Is it indeed the life of your lives, and the leaven that is leavening your whole character? You have it to trade with; see that you do not wrap it in a napkin, and stow it idly away in some corner.
Then there is the other way of trading and that is, telling it to others. That is an obligation incumbent on all Christians. There may be differences in regard to other gifts, which determine the manner in which each shall use the equal gift which we all possess alike. But these are of subordinate importance. The main thing is to feel that the possession of Christian faith, which is our way of receiving the pound, carries with it indissolubly the obligation of Christian evangelism. However it may be discharged, discharged it is to be, by every true servant. I am sometimes half disposed to think that it would have been better for the Church if there had never been any men in my position, on whom the mass of unspiritual, idle because busy, and silent because little-loving, Christian professors contentedly roll the whole obligation to preach God’s Gospel. My brethren, the world is not going to be evangelised by officials. Until all Christian people wake up to the sense that they have the ‘pound’ to trade with, there will be nothing adequate done to bring the world to the obedience and the love of Jesus Christ. You say you have the Gospel; if you have it what are you doing with it?
Self-centred Christianity, if such a thing were possible, is a mistake. It is generally a sham; it is always a crime. A man that puts away his pound, and never goes out and says, ‘Come, share with me in the wealth that I have found in Jesus Christ’ will be like a miser that puts his hoardings into an old stocking, and hides it in the ground somewhere. When he goes to dig it up, he is only too likely to find that all the coins have slipped out. If you want to keep your Christianity, let the air into it. If you want it to increase, sow it. There are hosts of you who would be far happier Christian people, if you came out of your shells and traded with your pound.
II. Observe the varying profits of the trading.
Now, let us distinctly understand what sort of differences these are which our Lord signalises here. Let me clear away a mistake which may interfere with the true lessons of this parable, that the differences in question are the superficial ones in apparent results which follow from difference of endowments, or from difference of influential position. That is the kind of meaning that is often attached to the ‘ten pounds’ or the ‘five pounds’ in the text. We think that the ten pounder is the man who has been able to do some large spiritual work for Jesus Christ, that fills the world with its greatness, the man who has been set in some most conspicuous place, and by reason of intellectual ability or other talent has been able to gather in many souls into the kingdom; but that is not Christ’s way of estimating. We should be going dead in the teeth of everything that He teaches if we thought that such as these were the differences intended. No, no! Every man that co-operates in a great work with equal diligence and devotion has an equal place in his eyes. The soldier that clapped Luther on the back as he was going into the Diet of Worms, and said, ‘You have a bigger fight to fight than we ever had; cheer up, little monk!’ stands on the same level as the great reformer, if what he did was done from the game motive and with as full consecration of himself. The old law of Israel states the true principle of Christian recompense: they that ‘abide by the stuff’ have the same share in the spoil as they ‘that go down into the battle.’ All servants who have exercised equal faithfulness and equal diligence stand on the same level and have the same success; no matter how different may be their estimation in the eyes of men; no matter how different may be the conspicuousness of the places that they fill in the eyes of the world whilst they live, or in the records of the Church when they are dead. Equal diligence will issue in equal results in the development of character, and the only reason for the diversity of results is the diversity of faithfulness and of zeal in trading with the pound.
Notice, too, before I go further, how all who trade make profits. There are no bad debts in that business. There are no investments that result in a loss. Everybody that goes into it makes something by it; which is just to say that any man who is honest and earnest in the attempt to utilise the powers of Christ’s Gospel for his own culture, or for the world’s good, will succeed in reality, however he may seem to fail in appearance. There are no commercial failures in this trading. The man with his ten pounds of profit made them because he worked hardest. The man that made the five made all that his work entitled him to. There was no one who came and said, ‘Lord! I put thy pound into my little shop, and I did my best with it, and it is all gone!’ Every Christian effort is crowned with success.
III. Lastly, we have here the final declaration of profits.
The first is this, that all the profit is ascribed to the capital. Neither of the two men say: ‘I, with thy pound, have gained,’ but ‘Thy pound hath gained.’ That is accurately true. For if I accept, and live by, any great moral truth or principle, it is the principle or the truth that is the real productive cause of the change in my life and character. I, by my acceptance of it, simply put the belt on the drum that connects my loom with the engine, but it is the engine that drives the looms and the shuttle, and brings out the web at last. And so, Christian people who, with God’s grace in their hearts, have utilised the ‘pound,’ and thereby made themselves Christlike, have to say, ‘It was not I, but Christ in me. It was the Gospel, and not my faith in the Gospel, that wrought this change.’ Is it your teeth or your dinner that nourishes you? Is it the Gospel or your trust in the Gospel that is the true cause of your sanctifying?
With regard to the other aspect of this trading, the same thing is true. Is it my word or Christ’s Word ministered by me that helps any of my hearers who are helped? Surely! surely! there is no question about that. It is the ‘pound’ that gains the ‘pounds.’ ‘Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So, then, neither is he that planteth anything nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.’
The other consideration suggested by these words is the exact knowledge of the precise results of a life, which is possessed at last. Each servant knew precisely what was the net outcome of his whole activity. That is exactly what we do not know here, and never shall, and never can know. But yonder all illusions will have vanished; and there will be two sorts of disillusionising then. Men, for instance, of my profession, whose names are familiar, and who hold high places in the esteem of the Church, and may be tempted to suppose that they have done a great deal-I am afraid that many of us will find, when we get yonder, that we have not done nearly so much as our admirers in this world, and we ourselves, were sometimes tempted to think that we had done. The searching light that comes in will show a great many seamy places in the cloth that looks very sound when it is inspected in the twilight. And there will be another kind of disillusionising. Many a man has said, ‘Lord! I have laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought,’ who will find out that he was mistaken, and that where he saw failure there were solid results; that where he thought the grain had perished in the furrows, it had sprung up and borne fruit unto life everlasting. ‘Lord! when saw we Thee in prison, and visited Thee?’ We never knew that we had done anything of the sort. ‘Behold! I was left alone,’ said the widowed Jerusalem when she was restored to her husband, ‘these’-children that have gathered round me-’where had they been?’ We shall know, for good or bad, exactly the results of our lives.
We shall have to tell them. The slothful servant, too, was under this compulsion of absolute honesty. If he had not been so, do you think he would have ventured to stand up before his master, a king now, and insult him to his face? But he had to turn himself inside out, and tell then what he had thought in his inmost heart. So ‘every one of us shall give an account of himself to God’; and like a man in the bankruptcy court, we shall have to explain our books, and go into all our transactions. We are working in the dark today. Our work will be seen as it is, in the light. The coral reef rises in the ocean, and the creatures that made it do not see it. The ocean will be drained away, and the reef will stand up sheer and distinct.
My brother! ‘I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire’-and when you have bought your pound, see that you use it; for ‘it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Lord. App-98. B.
hath gained = hath gained by labour: i.e. made in addition. Occurs only here.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
16-23.] See on Matt. It is observable here, however, how exactly and minutely in keeping is every circumstance. Thy pound hath gained ten pounds; the humility with which this is stated, where no account of is taken as in Matt., and then the proportion of the reward,- -so according with the nature of what the Prince went to receive, and the occasion of his return.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 19:16. , thy pound [mina]) The servant ascribes the power not to himself, but to the goodness of his Lord.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Lord: 1Ch 29:14-16, 1Co 15:10, Col 1:28, Col 1:29, 2Ti 4:7, 2Ti 4:8, Jam 2:18-26
Reciprocal: Gen 41:42 – a gold chain 1Ch 29:16 – all this store Mat 25:20 – behold 2Co 9:6 – He which soweth sparingly
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7
This corresponds with Mat 25:20-21. In that place the faithful are told to “enter into the joy of their Lord.” In our present passage it is expressed by having authority over ten cities, but the meaning is the same.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 19:16. Thy pound; not I have gained (Matt.). In the latter case, the trust was according to ability, here it was the same in every case; there the gain was proportioned to the trust, but here there was no such proportion; hence the more modest answer. This also favors the view which interprets the pound as the one official gift, with varied results.
Hade ten pounds more, i.e., in addition to itself.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Luk 19:16-21. Then came the first The modesty of these servants is remarkable. They do not say that they themselves had gained the ten or the five pounds; but that the pound which their lord had intrusted to their management had gained them, attributing their success, not to themselves, but to the gifts of his grace. And he said, Well done, thou good servant The first servant, having been very diligent and successful, was greatly applauded by his Lord, who rewarded him by raising him to a considerable dignity in the kingdom which he had lately received, signified by setting him over ten cities. Thus the faithful apostles, evangelists, and ministers of Christ shall be rewarded with great honour and authority in his kingdom. And the second came, saying, Thy pound hath gained five pounds
Having also been both diligent and successful, though in an inferior degree. And he said to him, Be thou ruler over five cities He, also was approved, and rewarded accordingly. Thus the least of Christs faithful ministers and servants shall be rewarded with a proportionable share of honour and felicity in his kingdom. It is observable, that in Mat 25:20-23, where the servants are represented as doubling the different sums intrusted to each, the reward of each is spoken of as the same; but here the sums intrusted being the same, and the improvement described as different, there is a proportionable difference in the reward: which, as it is a beautiful circumstance, was no doubt intended for our instruction. Doddridge. And another came Who had been negligent and slothful, saying, Lord, here is thy pound Which was put into my hands; and which I have kept laid up in a napkin Very carefully, so that it is not at all diminished. For I feared thee, &c. I was apprehensive I might incur thy severity, if any accident should befall this money in trade, therefore I was determined not to venture it out of my hands, and now return it just as I received it. See on Mat 25:24-25. Because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, &c. This is a proverbial description of an unjust, rigorous character. The slothful servant, by impudently applying it to his lord, and assigning it as the true reason why he had not increased his talent as the others had done theirs, aggravated his crime not a little. Thus slothful ministers of religion, and pretended servants of Christ, will be ever ready to throw the blame of their unfaithfulness on God himself.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
19:16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, {d} thy pound hath gained ten pounds.
(d) This was a piece of money which the Greeks used, and was worth about one hundred pence, which is about ten crowns.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The first servant reported a 1,000 percent return on the master’s investment. This report earned the master’s praise and a great reward. The servant had faithfully fulfilled his responsibility. The master considered what the servant had received in trust as a very little thing. His reward consisted of authority over ten cities in the future and was great compared to what the servant had received to invest. In view of the time of this judgment the reward would apply to the messianic kingdom that would follow, and probably eternity after that. Authority to rule (serve) groups of other people under the King’s authority during the Millennium and throughout eternity was the reward. Throughout history kings have rewarded faithful servants by giving them positions of significant responsibility over others in their kingdoms (cf. Dan 6:3). Modern government leaders typically do the same thing. The Master’s decision reflects the principle that he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much (Luk 16:10-12).