Over ten cities - This is to be understood as referring to the new kingdom which the nobleman had just received. His former trustiest and most faithful servants he now represents as being made governors, under him, over a number of cities, according to the capacity he found in each; which capacity was known by the improvement of the minas. read more
Lord, behold, here is thy pound - See Matthew 25:18 . read more
With usury? - Συν τοκῳ , With its produce, i.e. what the loan of the money is fairly worth, after paying the person sufficiently for using it: for, in lent money, both the lender and borrower are supposed to reap profit. read more
And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds - This whole verse is omitted by the Codex Bezae, a few others, and some copies of the Itala. It is probably an observation that some person made while our Lord was delivering the parable, with a design to correct him in the distribution: as if he had said, "Why give the mina to that person? he has got ten already; give it to one of those who has fewer." read more
Verse 12 12.A certain nobleman. Matthew interweaves this parable with others, without attending to the order of time; but, as his intention was, in the twenty-second chapter, to make a collection of Christ’s latest discourses, readers ought not to trouble themselves greatly with the inquiry which of them was delivered on the first, or the second, or the third day within that short period. But it is proper to observe the difference between Matthew and Luke; for, while the former touches only on... read more
Verse 13 13.And having called his ten servants. We must not inquire anxiously into the number of the servants, or into the sums of money. For Matthew, by expressing various sums, includes a more extensive doctrine, namely, that Christ does not lay on all an equal charge of trafficking, but commits to one a small, and to another a larger sum of money. Both agree in this, that till the last day of the resurrection Christ, in some respects, goes to a distance from his people, but yet that it would... read more
The parable of the pounds. This parable closely resembles that reported in Matthew 25:14-30 . The two are undoubtedly different, but they have much in common. We cannot rightly understand each without balancing it by the other. Certainly we realize the full effect of their application when, to borrow an expressive figure, we look on them "as twin parables, resembling one of those trees whose main trunk separates just above the earth into two equal towering stems." Thus connecting them,... read more
The law of capital in Christ's kingdom. Zacchaeus's conversion and all the stir on leaving Jericho led many in the crowd to imagine that Christ was immediately to assume a visible kingdom. To remove misapprehension, therefore, he proceeds to tell them a parable which would at once rouse them to the necessity of working instead of indulging in lackadaisical waiting. Comparing himself to a nobleman who is going into a far country to receive a kingdom and to return, he compares his disciples... read more
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Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 19:16
Lord, thy pound hath gained ten - The principal difference between this parable and that of the talents above referred to is, that the mina 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 in different proportions, according to each man's ability, seem to intimate that God has given different capacities and advantages to men, by which this one gift of the Gospel may be differently improved. read more