What Does Luke 16:3 Mean in the King James?
Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Greek names his stewardship as household administration: what is being taken from him is an entrusted function, not something he owns.
THE MEANING
When an assigned role is being taken from you, the question rises: what remains when the work that sustains you disappears? The steward sees two limits at once, the labor he cannot do and the dependence he feels ashamed to accept.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief this undoes is that an entrusted role is permanent security; the steward recognizes that his master can remove it.
THE ROOT
οἰκονομία
oikonomía
GROWS FROM
οἰκονόμ-
oikonom-
Household management: administering affairs entrusted to you.
The Greek word family names the management of a household, making the steward’s crisis a delegated function being withdrawn. In this passage, the same family describes the steward, his managing, and the stewardship itself; the authority belongs to the household’s master.
ALSO GROWS
oikonomos: steward, household manager
οἰκονόμος
The passage names the man by the entrusted role that his master is taking from him.
oikonomeō: manage, administer
οἰκονομέω
This related verb appears in the surrounding scene, linking his stewardship to the act of managing what belongs to another.
THE PATTERN
Authority entrusted over what belongs to another remains accountable to the one who entrusts it.
And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.THE THREAD
And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?Luke 12:42 uses οἰκονόμος (oikonomos, steward), from the same household-management word family as οἰκονομία (oikonomia, stewardship) in Luke 16:3. Here the role is appointed; in Luke 16:3 it is withdrawn, showing that the steward’s authority is received rather than owned.
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