What Does Luke 16:6 Mean?
And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, Take your writing, sit down quickly, and write fifty.
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 said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.THE KEY
The Greek word-family names both the bill and the act of writing, so the steward changes the debt by changing its written form.
THE MEANING
A written claim can seem settled, yet its stated amount can be rewritten and the burden shifts with it. Here one line turns a claim for one hundred measures of oil into fifty.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that a recorded obligation is untouchable: the written figure changes, and so does what the debtor is asked to carry.
THE ROOT
γράμματα
grammata
GROWS FROM
γραφ-
graph-
To write or inscribe; to make marks that record something.
“bill / write” in this verse is grammata. The bill (γράμματα, grammata, written records) and the command to write (γράψον, grapson, write!) come from the same Greek word-family. The verse makes the debt’s written form part of the action: changing the account changes the amount the debtor is asked to carry.
ALSO GROWS
gramma: A written mark, letter, or document.
γράμμα
The bill in this verse is a written document, not merely an abstract amount owed.
graphē: Writing or a written text.
γραφή
This branch keeps the focus on the record itself, the written form that can state an obligation.
THE PATTERN
A recorded obligation can be changed, shifting the weight of what is owed and who bears it.
Then he said to another, And how much do you owe? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, Take your writing, and write eighty.If he has been out of alignment with you, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.Wiping away the handwriting of decrees against us, which stood opposite us, and lifting it out of the midst, nailing it to the cross.THE THREAD
Wiping away the handwriting of decrees against us, which stood opposite us, and lifting it out of the midst, nailing it to the cross.The Greek word translated “handwriting” is χειρόγραφον (cheirographon, a handwritten record), built from the same γράφω (graphō, write) word-family as Luke’s bill and command to write. Luke shows the written amount being altered; Colossians describes a written record being blotted out.
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