16:7a

Then he asked another: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as another refers to another of the men who owed something to the rich man. While versions such as the NET Bible and New International Version describe this as “the second” debtor, he was not necessarily the second one who spoke to the manager. Here is another way to translate this:

Then he said to another (Revised English Bible)

16:7b

And how much do you owe: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as And introduces the same question as in 16:5b. The manager was now asking it to a different person. In some languages it may be natural to indicate the change to a different person by putting the pronoun you in a more emphatic position. For example:

And you, sir, how much do you owe? (New Jerusalem Bible)

16:7c

A hundred measures of wheat: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as A hundred measures of wheat refers to a “measure” that was a dry measure of about ten bushels. Some ways to translate this quantity are:

• Use a standard dry measure. For example:

A thousand bushels of wheat (New International Version)

• Use a measure of weight. For example:

44,000 pounds
-or-
20,000 kilos

• Use a commonly known local container or unit of measure for wheat or other grain. For example:

One hundred bags (NLV)
-or-
A hundred containers (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
one hundred sacks/baskets

wheat: In this context the word wheat refers to just the grain kernels, not to the stalks. In some areas wheat may not be known. If that is true in your area, other ways to translate it are:

• Use a more general term. For example:

grain

• Use a different type of grain that is grown in your area and is similar to wheat. For example:

barley/rice

See the note and picture of wheat in 3:17b.

16:7d–e

Take your bill and write eighty: This command is similar to what the manager told the first man (see the notes on 16:6b and 16:6c). The second man had to pay only eighty measures of wheat instead of one hundred measures. Whatever amount you use in 16:7c should be reduced by one-fifth in 16:7e. In other words, 16:7e must be four-fifths (80%) of whatever measure you use in 16:7c.

If it is necessary to understand the parable, you may need to put the following implied information in a footnote:

The manager helped in a similar way each of the men who owed things to the rich man.

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.