Luke 19:23

Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(23) Into the bank.—Literally, the table, or counter. The Greek substantive is the root of the word translated “exchangers” in Matthew 25:27 (where see Note).

That at my coming I might have required . . .—Literally, And when I came I should have got it with interest.

Usury.—The word is used (as in Matthew 25:27) in its older meaning, as including interest of any kind, and not exclusively that which we call usurious.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:11-27 This parable is like that of the talents, Mt 25. Those that are called to Christ, he furnishes with gifts needful for their business; and from those to whom he gives power, he expects service. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, 1Co 12:7. And as every one has received the gift, so let him minister the same, 1Pe 4:10. The account required, resembles that in the parable of the talents; and the punishment of the avowed enemies of Christ, as well as of false professors, is shown. The principal difference is, that the pound given to each seems to point out the gift of the gospel, which is the same to all who hear it; but the talents, distributed more or less, seem to mean that God gives different capacities and advantages to men, by which this one gift of the gospel may be differently improved.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The bank - The treasury, or the place of exchange. Why did you not loan it out, that it might be increased?

Usury - Interest.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15-26. (See on [1698]Mt 25:19-29.)

ten … five cities—different degrees of future gracious reward, proportioned to the measure of present fidelity.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 19:12"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank,.... Or "on the table", at which the bankers sat, and received and delivered money on interest. The Complutensian edition reads, "to the tablers", or "bankers": had Christ been such a person as he represents him, he ought to have been the more diligent, and made the greater use of his gifts, since he knew that he would, in a rigid manner, as he suggests, demand an account of them:

that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? not that Christ approves of usury in an unlawful way, by extortion, but reproves hereby the sloth of this man, and exposes his folly and wickedness upon his own principles.

Geneva Study Bible

Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the {e} bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?

(e) To the bankers and money changers. Usury or loaning money at interest is strictly forbidden by the Bible, Ex 22:25-27 De 23:19,20. Even a rate as low as one per cent interest was disallowed, Ne 5:11. This servant had already told two lies. First he said the master was an austere or harsh man. This is a lie for the Lord is merciful and gracious. Next he called his master a thief because he reaped where he did not sow. Finally the master said to him that why did you not add insult to injury and loan the money out at interest so you could call your master a usurer too! If the servant had done this, his master would have been responsible for his servant's actions and guilty of usury. (Ed.)

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 19:23-24. The question comes in abruptly with καί, laying bare the contradiction between the clauses. See Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 147.

ἐπὶ τράπεζαν (without an article, see the critical remarks), on a banker’s table. The sign of interrogation is to be placed, with Lachmann and Tischendorf, after τράπεζαν. καὶ ἐγὼ (Lachmann, Tischendorf; κἀγώ) κ.τ.λ. is then the result which, in the event hinted at by διὰ τί κ.τ.λ. (ἄν, see Buttmann, Neut. Gr. p. 187 [E. T. 216]), would have followed.

Luke 19:24. τ. παρεστ.] i.e. the satellites, i. 19.

τὰς δέκα μνᾶς] the ten minae mentioned at Luke 19:16, therefore not those which he had from the beginning, but those which he has acquired for himself with the mina that was entrusted to him.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 19:23. ἐπὶ τράπεζαν = τοῖς τραπεζίταις in Mt.—ἔπραξα = ἐκομισάμην in Mt.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

23. into the bank] Rather, into a bank. The Greek word for ‘bank’ is trapeza (‘a table’); hence a banker is trapezites. This touch contains the germ of the unrecorded saying (agraphon dogma) of our Lord, which is one of the most certainly genuine of those which are preserved by tradition—“Shew yourselves approved money-changers” (γίνεσθε τραπεζῖται δόκιμοι).

I might have required mine own with usury] Rather, I might have exacted it with interest (on epraxa, see Luke 3:13).

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 19:23. Τραπέζαν, the counting-table) in our days, the Bank.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 23. - Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? Many in "the bank" have seen mirrored those Christian societies and religious organizations to which every believer may entrust the resources which he is uncertain how best to use himself. Without particularizing, however, it seems better to understand the Lord here simply intending to teach, by his image of the bank, that no man in this world is doomed to inactivity or uselessness, but that there will be opportunity afforded to every one who is willing to use his talent in a humble and obscure, if not in a heroic and conspicuous, way. Luke 19:23

Vincent's Word Studies

Bank (τράπεζαν)

Lit., the table of the money-changer. Wyc., board. See on exchangers, Matthew 25:27.

Usury (τόκῳ)

Better interest, as Rev. See on usury, Matthew 25:27.