The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

1Now also He was saying to the disciples, “There was a certain rich man who had a manager, and was accused unto him as he is wasting his possessions. 2And having called him, he said to him, ‘What is this I hear concerning you? Give the account of your stewardship, for you are not able to manage any longer.’

3And the manager said within himself, ‘What shall I do, for my master is taking away the management from me? I am not able to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4I know what I will do, so that when I shall have been removed from the management, they might receive me into their homes.’

5And having summoned each one of his master’s debtors, he was saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe to my master?’

6And he said, ‘A hundred bathsa of oil.’

And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and having sat down quickly, write fifty.’

7Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’

And he said, ‘A hundred corsb of wheat.’

He says to him, ‘Take your bill and write eighty.’

8And the master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are more shrewd than the sons of the light in their own generation. 9And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails, they might receive you into the eternal dwellings.

10The one faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and the one unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much. 11If therefore you have not been faithful in unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true? 12And unless you have been faithful in that which is of another, who will give to you that which is yours?

13No servant is able to serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and he will love the other, or he will be devoted to one and he will despise the other. You are not able to serve God and mammon.”

The Law and the Prophets
(Matthew 11:7-19; Luke 1:5-25; Luke 7:24-35)

14Now the Pharisees, being lovers of money, were listening to all these things, and they were ridiculing Him. 15And He said to them, “You are those justifying themselves before men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is exalted among men is an abomination before God.

16The Law and the prophets were until John. From that time the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone forces his way into it. 17But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

18Everyone putting away his wife and marrying another commits adultery. And the one marrying her put away from a husband commits adultery.

The Rich Man and Lazarus
(John 5:39-47)

19And there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, making good cheer in splendor every day. 20And a certain poor man named Lazarus, being full of sores, was laid at his gate 21and desiring to be fed from that falling from the table of the rich man; but even the dogs, coming, were licking his sores.

22And it came to pass that the poor man died, and he was carried away by the angels into the bosom of Abraham. And the rich man also died and was buried. 23And in Hades, having lifted up his eyes, being in torment, he sees Abraham from afar, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24And having cried out, he said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he might dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am suffering in this flame.’

25And Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you did fully receive your good things in your lifetime, and Lazarus likewise the evil things. But now he is comforted here, and you are suffering. 26And besides all these things, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those desiring to pass from here to you are not able, nor can they pass from there to us.’

27And he said, ‘Then I implore you, father, that you would send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers—so that he might warn them, that they also might not come to this place of torment.’

29But Abraham says, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’

30And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if one from the dead should go to them, they will repent.’

31But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, not even will they be persuaded if one should rise out from the dead.’”