What Does Luke 16:2 Mean?
And he called him and said to him, How is it that I hear this of you? Give back the accounting of your household management, for you can no longer manage.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.THE KEY
Stewardship is management of another’s household, so the demand for an account reveals that the entrusted role is answerable and temporary.
THE MEANING
What is placed in your care remains answerable to the one who entrusts it. A report is heard, an account is demanded, and the steward’s tenure is exposed as something that can end.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The claim that being entrusted makes a position permanent is undone: the steward may lose the office.
THE ROOT
οἰκονομίας
oikonomias
GROWS FROM
οἰκονόμ-
oikonom-
Household management: arranging and administering what belongs to a house.
“household management” in this verse is oikonomias. The Greek word names the management entrusted to the steward, not something he owns outright. The account makes that arrangement visible, and the master’s authority to end it is part of the word’s relational sense.
ALSO GROWS
oikonomos: steward, household manager
οἰκονόμος
This is the person who holds the management role; it makes clear that the steward serves within another’s household.
oikonomia: administration, stewardship
οἰκονομία
The same word family names the administration itself, which is exactly what the master now requires him to account for.
λόγον
logon
GROWS FROM
λογ-
log-
A word, statement, or reckoning set out in speech.
The Greek noun λόγος can mean both “word” and “account.” The English “account” emphasizes the report, while the shared word-sense keeps it connected to what is spoken and set forth.
ALSO GROWS
logos: word, statement, account
λόγος
This is the same noun in its basic form; the demanded account is a λόγος, something rendered as a statement.
logizomai: reckon, calculate, consider
λογίζομαι
This related word carries the sense of reckoning, showing how an account brings management into considered view.
THE PATTERN
Entrusted responsibility becomes visible when the one who holds authority calls for an account.
For God brings every making into judgment, upon every hidden thing, whether good or harm.After a long while the lord of those servants comes and settles accounts with them.So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.THE THREAD
So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.Both verses use λόγος (logos), the Greek word for a word, statement, or account. Luke places that account within a steward’s management; Romans extends the accounting language to each person before God.
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