🇬🇧 Glory be to Jesus Christ! 🌞
I wrote earlier about the reading, see here:
04082023.html
Matthew XVIII, 24 – ‘μυριων’ – ‘myrion’ – ‘ten thousand; an innumerable number’. It is traditionally translated as ten thousand, although the point is not the number, but the innumerability, the impossibility of even counting them completely.
Matthew XVIII, 26, 29 – ‘μακροθυμησον’ – ‘makrothymeson’ – ‘be
long-suffering, enduring’. ‘εμοι’ – ‘emoi’ – ‘me’ (over me). The
requests of the slaves differ only in one word – the first debtor says:
I will return everything
, while the second one says I will return
.
You can see that the first debtor overestimates his abilities and
exaggerates his capabilities with his words. In reality, he cannot pay
back what he cannot even count. Nevertheless, the master of the slaves
does not pick up on the details, but shows general mercy.
It is known that a talent was equal to 6,000 denarii, and a denarius was a day’s wage for a labourer. A myrion of talents is an astronomical amount (if we assume that it is 10,000, as is often translated, then it is 60,000,000 denarii, i.e. if a year has 365 days (on average, a little more – almost 365.25), then it will be 164,271 something years without days off and breaks), and if we assume that this is a figurative expression of innumerability, then the number cannot even be calculated.
Matthew XVIII, 32 – ‘πονηρε’ – ‘ponere’ – evil (in terms of the
result of activity, as a final result), wicked
.
Matthew XVIII, 35 – ‘αφητε’ – ‘aphete’ – ‘let go, release, lose, set
free; destroy (as an army in battle); forgive debts; leave, let go (also
has other meanings that do not seem appropriate in this context, in
general, the word is very multivalent)’. Let me focus on the many
meanings of this word. In general, its clearest meaning in the New
Testament is forgive
, and the form of forgiveness (as it should be, as
it manifests itself) is let go, allow to go
. That is, in the most
general sense, the Gospel’s forgiveness and commandments relate to the
letting go
of sins and debts, allowing them to not affect us
,
becoming invulnerable to them
because they passed us by
, etc. In
this sense, an unforgiven sin hits
the person who does not forgive,
and thus hurts them. And forgive
means to make the sin pass by
without hitting
. This corresponds to dodging a blow in martial arts -
sin hits
a person, and the one who forgives it in the Gospel sense
dodges the blow
. But the same word also has the meaning of to defeat
an army in a battle or war
– that is, in certain cases, forgiveness is
equivalent to a complete and final victory in a war or battle. Sometimes
forgiveness can mean setting aside, i.e. being safe, not just dodging
the attack
but moving to a safe place
. And so on, in other words,
Christian forgiveness is multifaceted and has many manifestations and
forms.
Generally speaking, the master in the parable refers to God (most often the Father is understood, but the Trinity in general can be spoken of). And the debtors are people. Debts are sins, anything that violates or is not consistent with God’s will and purpose.
I will focus on whether people really owe God so much.
To understand the case, you need to consider what is written in the
works at the links:
06042023.html
19052023.html
https://oleksandr-zhabenko.github.io/en/DialogueOnWordsChristFear.html
Each person’s relationships with God are qualitatively different from those with other people, and therefore the debts people owe to God are innumerable. nevertheless, God shows mercy and longsuffering to people. And He teaches us to be similar to Him.
See also the following links:
06062023.html
15072023.html
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!