The Talents: The Parable Read Through

This is a companion to the breakdown The Talents. Nothing is argued here. The parable runs start to finish, with the meaning of each image carried alongside the words it belongs to.

MATTHEW 25:14–30 — KJV

For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, [Yahushua, days from leaving the men in front of Him] who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. [the same goods He had named a chapter earlier — what the household is fed with, the law of Yahuah kept so that it can be handed out]

And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; [different measures of one charge, and not one of them is handed nothing] and straightway took his journey.

Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. [he put the word out where it passed through other hands, and it came back multiplied]

And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.

But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. [the priest’s lips keep knowledge, and no one is permitted to seek the law at his mouth]

After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. [the watchman is called to account for what he did with the word he was given]

And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.

His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. [more of the charge, not release from it]

He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.

His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. [word for word what the first man heard — the size of the portion never governed the verdict]

Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: [the excuse is offered before any account is given]

And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. [handed back whole, and it fed no one the whole time it was in his keeping]

His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. [even the least effort would have moved it through other hands, so the fear was the excuse and not the reason]

Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. [I will raise me up a faithful priest — the office moved out of the house that buried it]

For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. [the same sentence He gave for understanding of the word, given to the man who uses it and taken from the man who does not]

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [nothing was lost, and nothing was fed]

Put together, the parable says this. A master leaves and places his own goods in the hands of servants so that the household will be fed while he is gone. Two of them hand out what they were given and it multiplies. One of them keeps it whole and hands it back untouched, and hands it back to a house that starved. The measures were unequal and the commendation was identical, because the master was never weighing the size of the portion. He was weighing whether the word he entrusted ever left the man’s hands.

The warning stands where Yahushua set it. A charge that is kept and never given out is a charge that has already been failed, and the office does not stay with the man who buries it. It was taken from Eli’s house and given to a faithful priest, and it was taken from the men who shut up the kingdom and given to men who would open it. Preserving the trust is not the same as keeping it. The unprofitable servant returned every coin and was still put out of the house, because the household he was set over was never fed.