Luke 16 — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 16
The steward, the Law, and the rich man and Lazarus
Verse 16:1
Greek–English Saints Priority
He also said to the disciples, “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and this man was accused before him of scattering his possessions.
Textual & Reception Notes
διεβλήθη reports that an accusation was made; it does not by itself prove that the charge was false. ‘Scattering’ connects the steward’s conduct with the younger son’s scattering of his property in fifteen:thirteen.
Verse 16:2
Greek–English Saints Priority
He called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:3
Greek–English Saints Priority
And the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:4
Greek–English Saints Priority
I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their own houses.’
Textual & Reception Notes
NA28 reads εἰς τοὺς οἴκους αὐτῶν (SBLGNT εἰς τοὺς οἴκους ἑαυτῶν); the rendering above follows SBLGNT and would read “into their houses” under NA28 (collated against TAGNT edition marks, not a printed NA28 apparatus).
Verse 16:5
Greek–English Saints Priority
And he called each one of his own master’s debtors and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:6
Greek–English Saints Priority
He said, ‘A hundred baths of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your document, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’
Textual & Reception Notes
A bath is an ancient liquid measure, and a kor in verse seven is an ancient dry measure. Both the original units and the unequal reductions, from one hundred to fifty and from one hundred to eighty, are retained.
Verse 16:7
Greek–English Saints Priority
Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred kors of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your document and write eighty.’
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:8
Greek–English Saints Priority
And the master praised the unrighteous steward because he had acted prudently. For the sons of this age are more prudent toward their own generation than the sons of light.
Textual & Reception Notes
κύριος is taken as the steward’s master within the story. The commendation names his prudence; the narrator still calls him unrighteous. No theory about cancellation of interest or commissions is supplied by this verse.
Verse 16:9
Greek–English Saints Priority
And I tell you, make friends for yourselves from the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they may welcome you into the eternal tents.
Textual & Reception Notes
Mammon transliterates μαμωνᾶς, wealth or property. The base has singular ‘when it fails,’ not plural ‘when you fail.’ ‘They may welcome’ leaves the reception’s agents as the source states them. σκηναί is tents or dwellings.
Verse 16:10
Greek–English Saints Priority
The one who is faithful in the least is faithful also in much, and the one who is unrighteous in the least is unrighteous also in much.
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:11
Greek–English Saints Priority
So if you have not been faithful with unrighteous mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you?
Textual & Reception Notes
‘Riches’ supplies the understood contrast after the substantival ‘the true [thing].’ It is an English clarification of the contrast with mammon, not another Greek noun.
Verse 16:12
Greek–English Saints Priority
And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:13
Greek–English Saints Priority
No household servant can serve two masters as a slave. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Textual & Reception Notes
οἰκέτης is a household servant; δουλεύειν specifies slave service. The repeated service language is retained.
Verse 16:14
Greek–English Saints Priority
Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things and sneered at Him.
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:15
Greek–English Saints Priority
And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before people, but God knows your hearts, because what is exalted among people is an abomination before God.
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:16
Greek–English Saints Priority
The Law and the Prophets were until John. From that time the kingdom of God is proclaimed as good news, and everyone presses into it.
Textual & Reception Notes
βιάζεται can be read as a middle, pressing or forcing one’s way, or as a passive, being compelled. ‘Presses into it’ adopts the middle construction; the difficult saying requires further syntactic and interpretive review.
Verse 16:17
Greek–English Saints Priority
But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one small stroke of the Law to fall.
Textual & Reception Notes
κεραία denotes a small projecting stroke; the saying stresses even a minute element of the Law rather than naming a particular modern punctuation mark.
Verse 16:18
Greek–English Saints Priority
Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and the one who marries a woman divorced from a husband commits adultery.
Textual & Reception Notes
This verse’s formulation contains no expressed exception clause. Wording from other passages is not added.
Verse 16:19
Greek–English Saints Priority
Now there was a certain rich man, and he clothed himself in purple and fine linen, making merry splendidly every day.
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:20
Greek–English Saints Priority
And a certain poor man named Lazarus had been laid at his gateway, covered with sores
Textual & Reception Notes
The poor man is named Lazarus; the rich man is unnamed in this source.
Verse 16:21
Greek–English Saints Priority
and longing to be filled with what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
Textual & Reception Notes
The Greek says ‘what fell’ without the noun ‘crumbs.’ No explanation of the dogs’ licking as either treatment or deliberate cruelty is added.
Verse 16:22
Greek–English Saints Priority
And it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
Textual & Reception Notes
‘Abraham’s bosom’ retains κόλπος and the image of intimate proximity. It is not replaced by a later topographical definition.
Verse 16:23
Greek–English Saints Priority
And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted his eyes and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
Textual & Reception Notes
Hades renders ᾅδης and remains distinct from Gehenna. The narrative explicitly describes torment here; the translation does not use that description to collapse the two Greek names.
Verse 16:24
Greek–English Saints Priority
And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in pain in this flame.’
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:25
Greek–English Saints Priority
But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you received your good things during your life, and Lazarus likewise bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in pain.
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:26
Greek–English Saints Priority
And besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those who want to cross from here to you cannot, nor may they cross over from there to us.’
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:27
Greek–English Saints Priority
And he said, ‘Then I ask you, father, to send him to my father’s house,
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:28
Greek–English Saints Priority
for I have five brothers, so that he may solemnly warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:29
Greek–English Saints Priority
But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:30
Greek–English Saints Priority
But he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 16:31
Greek–English Saints Priority
And he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’”
Textual & Reception Notes
The conclusion contrasts hearing Moses and the Prophets with persuasion by someone rising from the dead; it does not identify the hypothetical risen person by name.