MATTHEW 25:

“It will be like a man going on a journey who summoned his slaves and handed over his property to them; and to one he gave 5 Talenta, to another 2 Talenta and to another one, to each according to ability. Then he left immediately..

The one who had received 5 talenta went out and traded with them and made another 5. In the same way the one who had received 2 gained another 2. But the man who had received 1 went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

Now after a long time, the master comes back, and settles accounts with them. The one who had received 5 Talenta approached bringing with him the extra 5 Talenta, saying, “You put in my charge 5 Talenta. Look, I have gained five Talenta more.”

Then the master said to him, “Well done, excellent and trustworthy slave! You have been trustworthy in small matters, I will put you in charge of great ones. Come, share your master’s joy!”

Then the one with the 2 Talenta approached and said,”Master, you put in my charge 2 Talenta, Look, I have gained two more.”

Then the master said to him, “Well done, excellent and trustworthy slave! You have been trustworthy in small matters. I will put you in charge of great ones. Come, share your master’s joy!”

Then the one who had received the one Talentum approached and said,” Master, since I knew that you were a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter, I was afraid. and went and hid your Talentum in the ground. Look, you have back what is yours.”

Responding to him the master said, “Bad and slothful slave! You knew that I was a hard man reaping where I had not sown and gathering where I had not scattered? Well then, should you not have put my money with the bankers, so that when I came back I could get what is mine, with interest? Now take the Talentum from him and give it to the one with ten! For to everyone who has, more will be given, and they will have more than enough. And from those who have nothing, anything they do have will be taken away. And throw this useless slave into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

The coincidence of the Roman silver coin “talentum” used in Matthew’s Greek, and the English word “talent” signifying a natural ability or skill, resulted in centuries of wrong interpretation in Britain and its colonies, including the famous phrase of John Milton in his sonnet “On his blindness”: “and that one talent which is death to hide/ lodged with me useless.”

The parable is not about the use of our natural abilities.

Nor is God to be equated with the master in this or any parable. Masters of rich households in Jesus’ day were likely to be “reaping where they did not sow and gathering where they had not scattered.” Proto- capitalists, they were about profit. The use of language appropriate to them being used for God is gravely mistaken. I have deliberately not used the famous, ” Well done good and faithful servant” as a translation for this reason.

The key question is, what is the meaning of “money handed over”? The use of the verb, to hand over, is a clue, since it is often used by professional scholars for the handing on of religious or legal tradition either written down or verbal. Jesus’ followers are handed over the tradition of his teachings, actions, dying and awakening. What is expected of them? That it should be put to use. “Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28) Scrolls of the Jewish Torah were not kept to be reverenced, but stored in the Synagogue to be studied, read, copied, argued over. The Tradition of Jesus, oral and written, was also to be used, in the break-out of the assemblies of Jesus, into new societies. Of course there was a risk that these new followers, untrained in Jewish tradition, would interpret and perhaps pass on, the Jesus’ tradition with novel meanings. There may already have been in Matthew’s day, groups of probably Jewish believers who detested what was being done to the tradition by the newer assemblies, and would have preferred to put it in a hole in the ground, so that when he returned the Lord would see who had preserved it in pristine condition. But those true to what they regarded as Jesus’ command to go out to new places offering a witness to him, were more concerned that it should be shared than that it should be pristine. To compare something with money is to say that it must be used, handled, exchanged, be seen in different coinages, become worn, become dirty. There will almost certainly be fakes.

This favourable use of money as a parable of sharing and exchange does not mean as is sometimes alleged, an approval of capitalism. This form of economy did not exist in Matthew’s time, although here and there in the Empire there were forms of proto -capitalism which prospered and failed. Nor should we forget that a phrase from this parable was frequently used by Karl Marx, “from each according to ability.”

Matthew was engaged in handing on the Jesus tradition in this gospel. We have seen how he could take what he received from Mark, clothe it in new language, alter details, change the number of people involved, all with the intention of allowing Jesus to live and speak in a new context. You could say that he is using this parable to defend the storytellers’ prerogative of changing the details to preserve the message.

More broadly, he is communicating Jesus’ desire that the gospel must be shared with people, where it will transform lives and be itself transformed by their faith.