<p>25:15&nbsp;<em>And to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one</em>- This is one of the most programmatic, persistent and widespread translational problem in the New Testament. A talent is a weight, a measure. The Lord did not have in view &lsquo;talent&rsquo; as in the natural ability in a particular area which a person may have. These talents are given to us by Him when we are called to Him; they are not something we had of ourselves. A Roman talent weighed 71 pounds or 32.2 kg. The servants were given&nbsp;<em>His</em>&nbsp;goods; something they previously did not have was given to them. And to each servant was weighed out a different amount, suggesting that gold or silver is in view. The use of <em>argurion&nbsp;</em>in :18 confirms it is silver. The suggestion that the one talent could have been left with the bank in order to receive interest confirms that a precious metal is in view. The figures are large- 32 kg. of silver for the one talent man. The story line of the parable suggests he thought he had not been given much- but 32 kg. of silver is a huge amount. Even if we think we have little or no capacity for service, we need to consider that in fact we have been given a huge amount. And the five talent man was given 160 kg. of silver. As I write this in 2014, 1 kg. of silver is worth around 700 US. The one talent man was therefore given the equivalent of around 22,000 . And he considered it not enough to do anything much with. The story line suggests that many of us have been given far more than one talent. The five talent man was therefore given something like 110,000 . This is all a picture of the great riches in Christ which are given to us- each one of us. The relative lack of guidance they were given, with their Lord leaving immediately and leaving them to get on with it, is an insightful picture into how&nbsp;<em>so&nbsp;</em>much has been delegated to us to get on with according to our own initiative, and how we are tempted to think we have not really been given that much. And it&rsquo;s a powerful statement of what huge potential we have.&nbsp;</p><p>The parables several times speak of the relationship between our Master and ourselves. They do so in somewhat unreal and arresting terms. It would&rsquo;ve made everyone think when the Lord spoke of how a master handed over a total of eight talents to His servants and told them to use them as best they could. This was, humanly speaking, a huge and unreal risk for a master to take. He&nbsp;<em>so</em>&nbsp;trusted those servants And so much has the Lord delegated to each of us, entrusting us with the Gospel. And we can imagine His joy when they lived up to the trust He placed in them. We can also imagine them walking away from their meeting with Him, wondering why ever He had entrusted so much to them, feeling nervous, praying for strength to act responsibly and zealously. The talent was worth 6,000 denarii, i.e. 20 years&rsquo; wages for the workers in the parable of the labourers (Mt. 10:1-16). In 2014 the average annual income in the USA was 50,000- 20 years wages would therefore be 1 million in dynamic terms. For one talent. But most of the Lord&rsquo;s servants are given more than one talent. Looked at in this way, the church is a millionaire&rsquo;s club. The element of unreality in the story is that this is a huge and unrealistic amount to give to a servant to have responsibility for But this is the huge responsibility which passes to us in having been called to the Gospel. Likewise, what human Owner of a vineyard who give out his vineyard to&nbsp;<em>other</em>&nbsp;tenants, after the first lot had proven so wicked, and killed not only His servants but His beloved Son? But this speaks of God&rsquo;s amazing desire to keep on delegating His affairs to frail mortals. And just as people typically fail to manage large sums of money which they are unaccustomed to, so we too miserably mismanage the Lord&rsquo;s wealth. But it was and is His will that we should use our own initiative in progressing His work and managing His wealth.</p><p>Note how valuable just one talent was- equivalent to 20 years earnings of a working man. This seems to me to be an element of unreality in the story, that flags up a lesson. The point is, we have been entrusted with a&nbsp;<em>huge</em>&nbsp;amount. We tend to see it as something ordinary; that we have a faith, a denomination, just like many others do. But the personal, individualized gift which we have been given is simply&nbsp;<em>huge</em>. Imagine if you were given say 1 million to use for the Lord&rsquo;s service. You&rsquo;d be quite busy working out how to spend it all. But the point is, we have each been given&nbsp;<em>far more</em>&nbsp;than this. The parable has specific application to our witness; for it was just prior to the Lord&rsquo;s departure that He gave us the great preaching commission, corresponding to how in the parable, the Master leaves His servants but just beforehand, gives His servants the talents to go and trade with. Hence the one talent man is criticized for not having lent the talent on usury, a practice which Jews could only practice with Gentiles. He should&rsquo;ve taken his talent, the riches of the Gospel, to the Gentiles. And yet I&rsquo;d suggest that 21st century disciples aren&rsquo;t one talent people. We have been given&nbsp;<em>so</em>&nbsp;much- not least literacy and having the Bible in our own native languages.</p><p><em>To each</em>- This idea is repeated and alluded to so often in the New Testament. Each man shall be judged individually according to his works because to each servant something has been given, and he must answer for its usage (16:27). This parable leads on from the Olivet discourse, which concluded with the Lord&rsquo;s teaching about the household which &ldquo;the Son of Man&rdquo; departed from, &ldquo;and gave authority to his servants, and to every man s.w. his work&rdquo; (Mk. 13:34). In a culture where religious specialists were thought to be God&rsquo;s workers, this was a radical teaching- that each and every one of us has been given specific work to do. And the culture of our present age is a no less difficult one into which to introduce this teaching. Our fear of responsibility, our desire to retreat deep within ourselves, to live only semi-aware lives in an age of abstraction and minimalism&hellip; all this makes it difficult to accept that we have been given specific work to do, for which we shall be judged at the last day. &lsquo;Every man&hellip; each of you&rsquo; is a very common term in the New Testament, seeking to persuade people of their personal connection with God and Jesus, and not to rely on mere group membership. Hence &quot;Be baptized&nbsp;<em>every one of you</em>&hellip; in turning away&nbsp;<em>every one of you&nbsp;</em>from his sins&rdquo; (Acts 2:38; 3:26) would appear redundant until we realize this personal appeal that was necessary against a culture of group mentality.&nbsp;<br />Analysing the later NT allusions to this term &ldquo;to every man&rdquo;, we have an insight into what in practice the talents may represent. God has &ldquo;dealt to every man the measure of faith&rdquo; (Rom. 12:3); we have each been given a specific ministry, and according to Romans 12, we are to develop that ministry. If we have no idea what that ministry is, what hopes the Lord has for us, we need to earnestly ask Him to reveal it to us. But if we&rsquo;re not perceiving it, this may well be because we don&rsquo;t want to perceive it. On a more obvious level, it may be that faith itself is a gift of God, and different people are given different amounts of it- but we are to develop whatever we are given and not leave the potential dormant. This would explain the great diversity of spiritual levels and of faith which there clearly is within the body of believers. Life and especially psychological and spiritual life is not experienced by each person on an even playing field. There are background factors which affect how easy it is for a person to believe; and the Lord is aware of this and will judge accordingly.</p><p>When we read of how &ldquo;the Lord gave to each man&rdquo; (1 Cor. 3:5 s.w.) we have a very clear allusion to the parable. But the context is of how the Lord &lsquo;gave&rsquo; converts to both Paul and Apollos. This too is a gift which we must use. Some make much brave effort to preach and never win a single convert. Others seem to keep stumbling across folks eager to hear and respond to the message. But that is all a gift from the Lord, for us to use and develop. And so the testing of &lsquo;each man&rsquo;s work&rsquo; in the day of judgment will be a testing of the quality and extent to which they have worked with people (1 Cor. 3:8,10,13). Another allusion to this part of the parable is in 1 Cor. 7:7, where singleness or marital situation is described as &ldquo;every man has his&nbsp;<em>idios</em>&nbsp;gift s.w. &ldquo;his own /&nbsp;<em>idios</em>&nbsp;ability / power&rdquo;&hellip; one this way&hellip; one that way&rdquo;. This is the same wording used in speaking of how this one was given five talents, that one was given two talents. As God has distributed to and called every man, so we are to develop our lives in that calling (1 Cor. 7:17), whether as slaves, single people, married or whatever. Many lament their marital situation, considering that if only it were otherwise, they would be able to serve God better. But it is in fact a gift from God, to be used for Him.</p><p>1 Cor. 12:7,11,18 again allude to the parable in saying that the gift of the Spirit &ldquo;is given to every man&hellip; the Spirit&hellip; dividing to every man&nbsp;<em>idios</em>, personally&rdquo;. The talents therefore refer to the Spirit, spiritual gifts to be used within the body of Christ- so the passage continues. Likewise &ldquo;unto every one of us is given grace&rdquo; (Eph. 4:7). &ldquo;Grace&rdquo;,&nbsp;<em>charis</em>, does indeed mean simply a gift. But it is so often used in the context of God&rsquo;s forgiveness that we can overlook the obvious fact that the gifts of God to us are His recurrent acts of patient forgiveness, given so freely to &ldquo;every man&rdquo; in Christ. These gifts of grace, and so many other such gracious gifts, are to not merely be&nbsp;<em>accepted</em>&nbsp;but developed and used. Again in allusion to this parable, Peter pleaded: &ldquo;As every man s.w. has received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God&rdquo; (1 Pet. 4:10).</p><p><em>According to his abilities</em>- The Lord recognizes that we each have unique abilities in some areas- and thereby unique inabilities in others. And He gives us work to do according to those abilities and not according to our inabilities. It may be that understanding of &lsquo;correct doctrine&rsquo; is a gift given to one and not another; because not all are wired as Bible students. The giving of such different gifts, in different amounts, suggests that there can never be uniformity of spiritual level or achievement in the church. And yet so much church structure, hope, intention and expectation is geared towards achieving such uniformity. We each start at a different point and much more is expected of those who start further down the road.&nbsp;<em>Kata&hellip; dunamis</em>&nbsp;is the very phrase Paul uses in 2 Cor. 8:3 in commending some brethren for responding to others&rsquo; needs &ldquo;according to their ability <em>kata&hellip; dunamis</em>, yes, and beyond their ability&rdquo;. Surely this is an allusion to the Lord&rsquo;s words here. The point is that the Lord understands our ability and asks us to work according to that; but those brethren excelled themselves in that they responded beyond what the Lord even expected or hoped for from them.</p><p>The goods are distributed &quot;to every man according to his several (Gk.&nbsp;<em>idios</em>, individual, s.w. &ldquo;private&quot;) ability&quot; (Mt. 25:15). We each have our own private spirituality which we must develop in our own private way. The talents parable is alluded to in 1 Cor. 12:7-12: &quot;The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each man (RV) to profit withal&quot;. In the first century, this was seen in the way in which different believers were given different gifts of the Spirit. In our dispensation, each of&nbsp;us is called to manifest a different aspect of the Lord Jesus, the Lord the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18 RV). But the principle of 1 Cor. 12:7-12 remains true, as indicated by the way Paul reasons that we each have a different aspect of the Spirit to manifest because &ldquo;by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit&quot;. In principle, these words are true of our baptisms. At baptism we were given our talents, our different aspects of the Spirit / mind of Christ to manifest. We are all in the Christ body, and manifest His spirit / mind in different aspects. And as the manifestation of different aspects of the Spirit in the first century caused frictions, so too today. &nbsp;</p><p>However, there is no equivalent of the pronoun &ldquo;his&rdquo; in the Greek text here.&nbsp;<em>The Lord</em>&nbsp;gave the talents to the three servants &ldquo;according to his own power and immediately took his journey&rdquo;. The &lsquo;he&rsquo; in view could quite easily be the Lord, and the &lsquo;His&hellip; ability / power&rsquo; would then refer to that of the Lord. This is rather confirmed by the recurrence of&nbsp;<em>kata&hellip; dunamis</em>&nbsp;in Paul&rsquo;s writings which allude once every three verses at least to the Lord&rsquo;s words in the Gospels, especially His parables. &ldquo;<em>Kata&nbsp;</em>the gift&hellip; given unto me&nbsp;<em>kata</em>&hellip; His power <em>dunamis</em>&rdquo; (Eph. 3:7)&hellip; that He would give you,&nbsp;<em>kata</em>&hellip; the might <em>dunamis</em> through His Spirit&rdquo; (Eph. 3:16). &ldquo;He that is of power <em>dunamai</em>&hellip;&nbsp;<em>kata&nbsp;</em>the power <em>dunamis</em> that works in us&rdquo; (Eph. 3:20). Each of these verses associates&nbsp;<em>kata&hellip; dunamis</em>&nbsp;with the&nbsp;<em>gift</em>&nbsp;of the Lord, and the same word is used as in the parable for the giving of the talents to believers. Note too 2 Tim. 1:8 &ldquo;<em>Kata&nbsp;</em>the power <em>dunamis</em> of God&rdquo;.</p><p>I suggest there is a purposeful ambiguity of meaning here. We are given some aspects of the Lord&rsquo;s goods according to&nbsp;<em>our&nbsp;</em>power / ability, and in order to develop them and use them we are given&nbsp;<em>His&nbsp;</em>power / ability. For His Spirit is to be merged with our spirit. Maybe Paul appreciated this when he wrote: &ldquo;I also labour&nbsp;<em>kata</em>&nbsp;His working, which works in me with power <em>dunamis</em>&rdquo; (Col. 1:29).&nbsp;</p><p><em>And he went on his journey</em>- Perhaps an element of unreality in the story. For we would expect Him to train them and explain to them how He intends the wealth to be used. The one talent man&rsquo;s response at the end suggests that he had not been given any clear commands by his Lord as to how to use his one talent. But this is the point. We have been given the talents we have, and we are to use them- at our initiative, and not in response to a legal code which defines how we use them. And therefore one believer will make more than another out of what God gives.&nbsp;</p><p>The same word for &lsquo;took his journey&rsquo; has just been used by the Lord at the end of the Olivet prophecy in saying that the Son of Man &lsquo;took a far journey&rsquo; and &ldquo;left His house&rdquo; (Mk. 13:34). The leaving of His house surely connects with the introduction to the Olivet prophecy, in which the Lord stated that &ldquo;Your house is left unto you desolate&rdquo; (23:38). It was no longer His house, but theirs. And in departing from the temple, He was leaving the house of Israel. The structure of Judaism was no longer going to be used- instead, He would give His wealth to a few individual servants and leave it to their initiative what they did with it. And this is what was and is so hard for so many- to serve the Lord on our initiative, without religious, legalistic structures. And these are rebuilt exactly because people generally struggle with the calling to take ownership and responsibility for what the Lord has given them.</p><p>This idea of using one&rsquo;s own initiative was more startling then than it is now. Today, students are 'trained' to think for themselves, be creative, develop their own opinions, push forward their own independent research, using question / problem-based learning as a paradigm for their education. 'Education' in the first century wasn't like that at all. The idea was that &quot;every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher&quot; (Lk. 6:40). The idea was that a person born into a certain social situation was trained to take their place in society, given that 'station and place' into which they had been born. Initiative in that sense was not encouraged; it was all about training up a person to correctly fulfil societies' expectation of them. The idea of being personally taught by the invisible Master / teacher Jesus, becoming like Him rather than like the person whom society expected, being given talents by Him which we are to trade and multiply at our initiative (Mt. 25:15-28)... this was all totally counter-cultural stuff. What was so vital in the Mediterranean world was that a person achieved conformity to accepted values. Cicero advised that in any good presentation of a legal case or encomium, emotions and passions shouldn't be referred to. Individualism was seen as a threat to tradition and the collective society. The huge New Testament emphasis on becoming disciples, learners, of an invisible Lord, Master and teacher located in Heaven, serving Him alone, worried about<em> His</em>&nbsp;standards, perceptions and judgment of us- that was and is so totally opposite to the expectations of society. People were educated to be embedded in society, rather than to come out of their world and live in the new world in which Christ was the light, and all things were made new in a new creation, a new set of values.</p><p>Several times Paul alludes to the parable of the talents; in Rom. 12:6 he suggests that this parable has an application to each having a different gift within the ecclesia; whilst in 1 Cor. 12:11 and Eph. 4:7 he implies that he saw the talents as representing miraculous Holy Spirit gifts. This shows how Paul applied the basic principles of Christ's teaching to local situations, even though it may seem strictly to be slightly out of context. He does the same with Christ's commands concerning personal offences in Mt. 18; he applies them, strictly out of context, to dealing with doctrinal problems at Corinth. But this, presumably, is how we are to read the Gospels; understanding the basic principles, and applying them in different situations in practice. &nbsp;</p>