The Good News by Luke 16

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The Dishonest Manager

1 Then Isa said to his disciples, “There was a rich man who had [employed] a manager. An accusation was brought to the man that his manager was dispersing his wealth.* 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Present the account of your management. You will not be my manager from now on.’ 3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘My master is going to dismiss me from the management [position]. What shall I do? Shall I work at farming? I don't have the strength for that! Shall I beg? That's shameful! 4 I've hit upon an idea! Then if I lose my position, people will welcome me into their homes!’

5 “So the manager summoned each of those in debt to his master. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred barrels of olive oil.’* So the manager told him, ‘Take your promissory note, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’ 7 Then he asked the next one, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’ Then he told him, ‘Take your promissory note and write eighty.’*

8 “The master commended his dishonest manager because he had behaved shrewdly. For the people of this world, in their dealings with those like themselves, are shrewder than are the people of the light! 9 So I tell you, gain friends for yourselves with the wealth of this world,* so that when it is finished, they will welcome you into the eternal home.*

10 “One who is honest in minor matters is also honest in major matters, and one who is dishonest in minor matters is also dishonest in major matters. 11 So if you have been dishonest with the wealth of this world, then who can entrust you with true wealth? 12 And if you have been dishonest with something entrusted to you from another person, then who will give you wealth that endures?*

13 “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the first and love the second, or he will be devoted to the first and disregard the second. You cannot serve both Allah and money.”

14 The Pharisees were listening to all this, and they were ridiculing Isa, because they loved money. 15 So he said to them, “You appear righteous in people's sight, but Allah knows your hearts. What people consider great is detestable in the sight of Allah.

16 “The era of the Taurat and the Prophets* was until Yahya. Since that time the call to the Kingdom of Allah has begun, and everyone who enters it faces hostility. 17 But it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Scriptures to fall. 18 For example: Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.*

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 “There was a rich man who dressed in purple and [wore] fancy clothes and enjoyed banquets every day, 20 and there was a beggar named Lazarus who lay at his gate, and sores covered his body. 21 He longed to eat some of the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Worse than that, the dogs would come and lick his sores.

22 “The beggar died, and the angels carried him to Ibrahim's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 He looked, while he was suffering in the world of the dead, and he saw in the distance Ibrahim, with Lazarus at his side. 24 So he called and said, ‘Father Ibrahim, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering in this blaze.’

25 “But Ibrahim answered, ‘My son, remember that you received your good things during your lifetime, and Lazarus received misfortunes. Now he is comforted here, and you are suffering. 26 In addition to that, a deep chasm has been established between you and us. So those who want to cross over from here to you cannot [do so], and it is not possible for those with you to cross over to us.’ 27 So he said, ‘I beg you then, my father, to send Lazarus to my father's household — 28 for I have five brothers — to warn them, so that they themselves don't also come to this place of agony.’ 

29 “Then Ibrahim said, ‘They have the books of Musa and the prophets, so let them comply with what's [said] in them.’ 30 But he said, ‘No, Father Ibrahim; but if someone rose from death [and went] to them, they would repent.’ 31 Ibrahim replied, ‘If they are not complying with what is in the books of Musa and the prophets, then they will not be persuaded — not even if someone rises from death.’”

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Definitions

 *16:1 dispersing his wealth: It seems the manager was loaning out his master's wealth at high rates of interest. This is called usury in English, and ربا in Arabic. In the language of the Injil it is called something like مَالُ ٱلظُّلْمِ. Since interest was illegal, the manager had required each borrower to write an amount of debt on the promissory note that was greater than what he was actually borrowing. Then when the borrower paid off the debt, the manager would make a profit.

 *16:6 barrel: a large cylindrical container or a fixed quantity of a liquid. A modern petroleum barrel holds 200 liters (about 53 gallons), but the barrels in this story held 40 liters each (about 10 gallons), for a total of 4,000 liters of olive oil.

 *16:7 When the manager was discovered, he let the debtors rewrite the notes for a reduced amount, presumably the original amount they had borrowed, without the profit. The rich man had to approve this reduction, or else he would be guilty of usury. The borrowers then owed the manager a debt of gratitude.

 *16:9 wealth of this world: Isa used a phrase like illicit gain. This was a technical term for usury, as in the parable, but here he uses it to refer to worldly wealth in general.

 *16:9 so that when it is finished … the eternal home: in other words, so that when you die and leave all worldly wealth behind, they will welcome you into Paradise.

 *16:12 The alternative translation in the Arabic footnote means, And if you have been dishonest  with something entrusted to you from another person, then who will give you wealth that endures?

 *16:16 the Taurat and the Prophets: the Taurat of Musa and the Writings of the Prophets. Christians refer to these books as the Old Testament. The word Taurat  means “instruction” (from Allah), so Jewish scholars sometimes use the word to refer to the whole Old Testament, and Isa sometimes did as well.

 *16:18 adultery: sexual intercourse with a person who is married to someone else. This is a betrayal of the marriage covenant, and a breach of a sacred contract between two parties. Sayyiduna Isa says that divorcing one’s wife to marry another woman is also a betrayal of the marriage covenant and a form of adultery, and a man who marries the divorced woman is violating that same covenant.