Matthew 18:24 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 18:24 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.”

When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. The ten thousand talents is the largest imaginable debt in the ancient world — probably the equivalent of many years of the entire Roman Empire's tax revenue. The impossibility of the debt communicates the impossibility of repaying it: this servant could never repay what he owes the king.

Church Fathers on Matthew 18:24

That none should think that the Lord had enjoined something great and burdensome in saying that we must forgive till seventy times seven, He adds a parable.
Chrysostom · 4th century

For it is customary with the Syrians, especially they of Palestine, to add a parable to what they speak; that what their hearers might not retain simply, and in itself, the instance and similitude may be the means of retaining.
Jerome · 4th century

30): The Son of God, as He is wisdom, righteousness, and truth, so is He a kingdom; not indeed any of those which are beneath, but all those which are above, reigning over those in whose senses reigns justice and the other virtues; these are made of heaven because they bear the image of the heavenly. This kingdom of heaven then, i.e. the Son of God, when He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, was then like to a king, in uniting man to himself.
Origen · 3rd century · (vid. 1 Cor 1

Read all 37 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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