Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 19:11-27, The nobleman who went to receive a kingdom
Because people think the kingdom is about to appear, Jesus tells of a nobleman who travels to a far country to be made king while citizens who hate him send a delegation after him, and of the servants who trade with his money.
Luke 19:11-27, in every translation this tool compares.
Because his hearers think God's kingdom is about to appear immediately, Jesus tells of a nobleman who travels abroad to be made king. Before leaving he gives ten servants a sum of money each to invest, while his own people send messengers after him to reject his rule. On his return he rewards the servants who multiplied the money with authority over cities, takes the money from one who hid it out of fear, and has the opponents of his reign executed.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rome-in-charge\/","n":"Rome in charge","s":"Rome ruled through client princes, local elites and governors. It kept the power to execute, and its soldiers, coins and taxes were everywhere.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/slavery\/","n":"Slavery and slave managers","s":"Slaves were everywhere in the Roman world, from field hands to stewards who ran whole estates and handled their master's money. A master away and slaves left in charge was a familiar story.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/debts-and-lending\/","n":"Debts, talents and lending","s":"A denarius was a day's pay and a talent about six thousand of them. Creditors could jail a debtor until someone paid, and people with spare money buried it or lent it at steep interest.","r":""}
Herod the Great and his son Archelaus both had to go to Rome to be granted their rule (Keener and his notes). Josephus tells the story of Archelaus: in Rome "the number of the ambassadors that were sent by the authority of the nation were fifty," asking that he not rule; Augustus made him ethnarch of half the kingdom, not king; and in his tenth year the leading men of Judea and Samaria had him accused before Caesar and banished. Wright and Blomberg both see Archelaus behind the parable. A mina was about a hundred days' wages, and rulers rewarded able servants with authority over cities (Keener and his notes). Keener writes that "Wrapping money in a perishable handkerchief was considered one of the most irresponsible ways" to keep it. Readings of the returning king differ. The ESV and CSB Study Bibles read the nobleman as Jesus going away and returning at the end of the age, and Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, agrees, taking the slaughter as the final judgment; Wright reads the vengeance as judgment falling on Jerusalem through Roman armies, and the CSB Study Bible also thinks AD 70 likely in the last verses.
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 17.9.3, 17.11.1, 17.11.4 and 17.13.1-2, trans. William Whiston
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 19:12, 19:13, 19:14, 19:15-19, 19:20 and 19:27
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 19:12, 19:13, 19:14, 19:15-19, 19:20 and 19:27
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Luke 19:12-13 and 19:14
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Luke 19:12-13 and 19:26-27
- Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, 7.1 The Talents
- N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, ch. 13, The Return of the King, section (b) Talents and Pounds
- N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, comment on Luke 19:11-27
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 19:11-27, 19:12, 19:14, 19:17, 19:20, 19:23 and 19:27
