denarii

• moneylender lent debtor 500

147:5.4When Si­mon saw all this, he said to him­self: “This man, if he were a prophet, would have per­ceived who and what man­ner of woman this is who thus touches him; that she is a no­to­ri­ous sin­ner.” And Je­sus, know­ing what was go­ing on in Si­mon’s mind, spoke up, say­ing: “Si­mon, I have some­thing which I would like to say to you.” Si­mon an­swered, “Teacher, say on.” Then said Je­sus: “A cer­tain wealthy mon­eylen­der had two debtors. The one owed him five hun­dred denarii and the other fifty. Now, when nei­ther of them had where­with to pay, he for­gave them both. Which of them do you think, Si­mon, would love him most?” Si­mon an­swered, “He, I sup­pose, whom he for­gave the most.” And Je­sus said, “You have rightly judged,” and point­ing to the woman, he con­tin­ued: “Si­mon, take a good look at this woman. I en­tered your house as an in­vited guest, yet you gave me no wa­ter for my feet. This grate­ful woman has washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss of friendly greet­ing, but this woman, ever since she came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil you ne­glected to anoint, but she has anointed my feet with pre­cious lo­tions. And what is the mean­ing of all this? Sim­ply that her many sins have been for­given, and this has led her to love much. But those who have re­ceived but lit­tle for­give­ness some­times love but lit­tle.” And turn­ing around to­ward the woman, he took her by the hand and, lift­ing her up, said: “You have in­deed re­pented of your sins, and they are for­given. Be not dis­cour­aged by the thought­less and un­kind at­ti­tude of your fel­lows; go on in the joy and lib­erty of the king­dom of heaven.”

• 200 d. would not buy bread for 5000

152:2.6This was the stage set­ting about five o’clock on Wednes­day af­ter­noon, when Je­sus asked James Al­pheus to sum­mon An­drew and Philip. Said Je­sus: “What shall we do with the mul­ti­tude? They have been with us now three days, and many of them are hun­gry. They have no food.” Philip and An­drew ex­changed glances, and then Philip an­swered: “Mas­ter, you should send these peo­ple away so that they may go to the vil­lages around about and buy them­selves food.” And An­drew, fear­ing the ma­te­ri­al­iza­tion of the king plot, quickly joined with Philip, say­ing: “Yes, Mas­ter, I think it best that you dis­miss the mul­ti­tude so that they may go their way and buy food while you se­cure rest for a sea­son.” By this time oth­ers of the twelve had joined the con­fer­ence. Then said Je­sus: “But I do not de­sire to send them away hun­gry; can you not feed them?” This was too much for Philip, and he spoke right up: “Mas­ter, in this coun­try place where can we buy bread for this mul­ti­tude? Two hun­dred denarii worth would not be enough for lunch.”

• steward owed 100

159:1.5“And this chief stew­ard, hav­ing thus re­ceived mercy and for­give­ness at the hands of the king, went about his busi­ness, and find­ing one of his sub­or­di­nate stew­ards who owed him a mere hun­dred denarii, he laid hold upon him and, tak­ing him by the throat, said, ‘Pay me all you owe.’ And then did this fel­low stew­ard fall down be­fore the chief stew­ard and, be­seech­ing him, said: ‘Only have pa­tience with me, and I will pres­ently be able to pay you.’ But the chief stew­ard would not show mercy to his fel­low stew­ard but rather had him cast in prison un­til he should pay his debt. When his fel­low ser­vants saw what had hap­pened, they were so dis­tressed that they went and told their lord and mas­ter, the king. When the king heard of the do­ings of his chief stew­ard, he called this un­grate­ful and un­for­giv­ing man be­fore him and said: ‘You are a wicked and un­wor­thy stew­ard. When you sought for com­pas­sion, I freely for­gave you your en­tire debt. Why did you not also show mercy to your fel­low stew­ard, even as I showed mercy to you?’ And the king was so very an­gry that he de­liv­ered his un­grate­ful chief stew­ard to the jail­ers that they might hold him un­til he had paid all that was due. And even so shall my heav­enly Fa­ther show the more abun­dant mercy to those who freely show mercy to their fel­lows. How can you come to God ask­ing con­sid­er­a­tion for your short­com­ings when you are wont to chas­tise your breth­ren for be­ing guilty of these same hu­man frail­ties? I say to all of you: Freely you have re­ceived the good things of the king­dom; there­fore freely give to your fel­lows on earth.”

• laborers in vineyard each given a denarius

163:3.6“When evening came, this owner of the vine­yard said to his stew­ard: ‘Call the la­bor­ers and pay them their wages, be­gin­ning with the last hired and end­ing with the first.’ When those who were hired about five o’clock came, they re­ceived a denar­ius each, and so it was with each of the other la­bor­ers. When the men who were hired at the be­gin­ning of the day saw how the later com­ers were paid, they ex­pected to re­ceive more than the amount agreed upon. But like the oth­ers ev­ery man re­ceived only a denar­ius. And when each had re­ceived his pay, they com­plained to the house­holder, say­ing: ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour, and yet you have paid them the same as us who have borne the bur­den of the day in the scorch­ing sun.’

• Caesar’s image on

174:2.2Tues­day morn­ing, when Je­sus ar­rived in the tem­ple court and be­gan to teach, he had ut­tered but few words when a group of the younger stu­dents from the academies, who had been re­hearsed for this pur­pose, came for­ward and by their spokesman ad­dressed Je­sus: “Mas­ter, we know you are a righ­teous teacher, and we know that you pro­claim the ways of truth, and that you serve only God, for you fear no man, and that you are no re­specter of per­sons. We are only stu­dents, and we would know the truth about a mat­ter which trou­bles us; our dif­fi­culty is this: Is it law­ful for us to give trib­ute to Cae­sar? Shall we give or shall we not give?” Je­sus, per­ceiv­ing their hypocrisy and crafti­ness, said to them: “Why do you thus come to tempt me? Show me the trib­ute money, and I will an­swer you.” And when they handed him a denar­ius, he looked at it and said, “Whose im­age and super­scrip­tion does this coin bear?” And when they an­swered him, “Cae­sar’s,” Je­sus said, “Ren­der to Cae­sar the things that are Cae­sar’s and ren­der to God the things that are God’s.”