KJV: And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
YLT: and I say to you, Make to yourselves friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye may fail, they may receive you to the age-during tabernacles.
Darby: And I say to you, Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails ye may be received into the eternal tabernacles.
ASV: And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.
| ὑμῖν | to you |
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Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Dative 2nd Person Plural Root: σύ Sense: you. |
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| λέγω | say |
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Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 1st Person Singular Root: λέγω Sense: to say, to speak. |
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| ἑαυτοῖς | for yourselves |
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Parse: Reflexive Pronoun, Dative Masculine 3rd Person Plural Root: ἑαυτοῦ Sense: himself, herself, itself, themselves. |
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| ποιήσατε | make |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Imperative Active, 2nd Person Plural Root: ποιέω Sense: to make. |
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| φίλους | friends |
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Parse: Adjective, Accusative Masculine Plural Root: φίλος Sense: friend, to be friendly to one, wish him well. |
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| μαμωνᾶ | wealth |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular Root: μαμωνᾶς Sense: mammon. |
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| τῆς | - |
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Parse: Article, Genitive Feminine Singular Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| ἀδικίας | of unrighteousness |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Feminine Singular Root: ἀδικία Sense: injustice, of a judge. |
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| ἵνα | that |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: ἵνα Sense: that, in order that, so that. |
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| ἐκλίπῃ | it fails |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: ἐκλείπω Sense: fail. |
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| δέξωνται | they might receive |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Middle, 3rd Person Plural Root: δέχομαι Sense: to take with the hand. |
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| εἰς | into |
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Parse: Preposition Root: εἰς Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among. |
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| αἰωνίους | eternal |
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Parse: Adjective, Accusative Feminine Plural Root: αἰώνιος Sense: without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be. |
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| σκηνάς | dwellings |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Plural Root: σκηνή Sense: tent, tabernacle, (made of green boughs, or skins or other materials). |
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Greek Commentary for Luke 16:9
By the use of what is so often evil (money). In Matthew 6:24 mammon is set over against God as in Luke 16:13 below. Jesus knows the evil power in money, but servants of God have to use it for the kingdom of God. They should use it discreetly and it is proper to make friends by the use of it. [source]
Second aorist active subjunctive with οταν hotan future time. The mammon is sure to fail.That they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles (ινα δεχωνται υμας εις τας αιωνιους σκηνας hina dexōntai humas eis tas aiōnious skēnas). This is the purpose of Christ in giving the advice about their making friends by the use of money. The purpose is that those who have been blessed and helped by the money may give a welcome to their benefactors when they reach heaven. There is no thought here of purchasing an entrance into heaven by the use of money. That idea is wholly foreign to the context. These friends will give a hearty welcome when one gives him mammon here. The wise way to lay up treasure in heaven is to use one‘s money for God here on earth. That will give a cash account there of joyful welcome, not of purchased entrance. [source]
This is the purpose of Christ in giving the advice about their making friends by the use of money. The purpose is that those who have been blessed and helped by the money may give a welcome to their benefactors when they reach heaven. There is no thought here of purchasing an entrance into heaven by the use of money. That idea is wholly foreign to the context. These friends will give a hearty welcome when one gives him mammon here. The wise way to lay up treasure in heaven is to use one‘s money for God here on earth. That will give a cash account there of joyful welcome, not of purchased entrance. [source]
Compare Virgil, “Aeneid,” vi., 664:. Among the tenants of Elysium he sees “those who, by good desert, made others mindful of them.” [source]
The same idiom as in Luke 16:8, steward of injustice. Compare unrighteous mammon, Luke 16:11. Mammon should be spelt with one m. It is a Chaldee word, meaning riches. It occurs only in this chapter and at Matthew 6:24. “Of the mammon” is, literally, by means of. In the phrase of unrighteousness, there is implied no condemnation of property as such; but it is styled unrighteous, or belonging to unrighteousness, because it is the characteristic and representative object and delight and desire of the selfish and unrighteous world: their love of it being a root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Wyc., the riches of wickedness. [source]
But all the best texts read ἐκλίπῃ , “when it (the mammon) fails.” [source]
The friends. [source]
Lit., tents or tabernacles. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Luke 16:9
Plural active present, not passive: “They are demanding thy soul from thee.” The impersonal plural (aitousin) is common enough (Luke 6:38; Luke 12:11; Luke 16:9; Luke 23:31). The rabbis used “they” to avoid saying “God.” [source]
The only wealth that matters and that lasts. Cf. Luke 16:9; Matthew 6:19. Some MSS. do not have this verse. Westcott and Hort bracket it. [source]
The three preceding parables in chapter 15 exposed the special faults of the Pharisees, “their hard exclusiveness, self-righteousness, and contempt for others” (Plummer). This parable is given by Luke alone. The και kai (also) is not translated in the Revised Version. It seems to mean that at this same time, after speaking to the Pharisees (chapter 15), Jesus proceeds to speak a parable to the disciples (Luke 16:1-13), the parable of the Unjust Steward. It is a hard parable to explain, but Jesus opens the door by the key in Luke 16:9. [source]
Literally, the steward of unrighteousness. The genitive is the case of genus, species, the steward distinguished by unrighteousness as his characteristic. See “the mammon of unrighteousness” in Luke 16:9. See “the forgetful hearer” in James 1:25. It is a vernacular idiom common to Hebrew, Aramaic, and the Koiné.Wisely (προνιμως phronimōs). An old adverb, though here alone in the N.T. But the adjective προνιμος phronimos from which it comes occurs a dozen times as in Matthew 10:16. It is from προνεω phroneō and that from πρην phrēn the mind (1 Corinthians 14:20), the discerning intellect. Perhaps “shrewdly” or “discreetly” is better here than “wisely.” The lord does not absolve the steward from guilt and he was apparently dismissed from his service. His shrewdness consisted in finding a place to go by his shrewdness. He remained the steward of unrighteousness even though his shrewdness was commended.For Probably by this second οτι hoti Jesus means to say that he cites this example of shrewdness because it illustrates the point. “This is the moral of the whole parable. Men of the world in their dealings with men like themselves are more prudent than the children of light in their intercourse with one another” (Plummer). We all know how stupid Christians can be in their co-operative work in the kingdom of God, to go no further.Wiser than (προνιμωτεροι υπερ phronimōteroi huper). Shrewder beyond, a common Greek idiom. [source]
Explanatory of τῶν ἁγίων . The form of expression is emphatic: the tabernacle, the genuine one, as compared with the tabernacle in the wilderness. For ἀλιθινός realgenuine, see on John 1:9. Σκηνή atent. For different shades of meaning, comp. Matthew 17:4; Luke 16:9; Acts 7:43. In this epistle always of the tabernacle in the wilderness. [source]
Shall not be ended. With this exception the verb only in Luke's Gospel. See Luke 16:9; Luke 22:32; Luke 23:45. Very frequent in lxx. [source]