Chapter 16

And he said to his disciples, There was a rich man that had a steward, and a report came to him that this steward had wasted his goods.

Whereupon he sent for him, and said to him, What is this that I hear of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou canst not be my steward any longer.

At this, the steward said to himself, What am I to do, now that my master is taking my stewardship away from me? I have no strength to dig; I would be ashamed to beg for alms.

I see what I must do, so as to be welcomed into men’s houses when I am dismissed from my stewardship.

Then he summoned his master’s debtors one by one; and he said to the first, How much is it that thou owest my master?

A hundred firkins of oil, he said; and he told him, Here is thy bill; quick, sit down and write it as fifty.

Then he said to a second, And thou, how much dost thou owe? A hundred quarters of wheat, he said; and he told him, Here is thy bill, write it as eighty.

And this knavish steward was commended by his master for his prudence in what he had done; for indeed, the children of this world are more prudent after their own fashion than the children of the light.

And my counsel to you is, make use of your base wealth to win yourselves friends, who, when you leave it behind, will welcome you into eternal habitations.

He who is trustworthy over a little sum is trustworthy over a greater; he who plays false over a little sum, plays false over a greater;

if you, then, could not be trusted to use the base riches you had, who will put the true riches in your keeping?

Who will give you property of your own, if you could not be trusted with what was only lent you?

No servant can be in the employment of two masters at once; either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will devote himself to the one and despise the other. You must serve God or money; you cannot serve both.

The Pharisees, who were fond of riches, heard all this, and poured scorn on him.

And he said to them, You are always courting the approval of men, but God sees your hearts; what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in God’s sight.

The law and the prophets lasted until John’s time; since that time, it is the kingdom of heaven that has its preachers, and all who will, press their way into it.

And yet it is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for one line of the law to perish.

Every man who puts away his wife and marries another is an adulterer, and he too is an adulterer, that marries a woman who has been put away.

There was a rich man once, that was clothed in purple and lawn, and feasted sumptuously every day.

And there was a beggar, called Lazarus, who lay at his gate, covered with sores,

wishing that he could be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table, but none was ready to give them to him; the very dogs came and licked his sores.

Time went on; the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; the rich man died too, and found his grave in hell.

And there, in his suffering, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

And he said, with a loud cry, Father Abraham, take pity on me; send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; I am tormented in this flame.

But Abraham said, My son, remember that thou didst receive thy good fortune in thy life-time, and Lazarus, no less, his ill fortune; now he is in comfort, thou in torment.

And, besides all this, there is a great gulf fixed between us and you, so that there is no passing from our side of it to you, no crossing over to us from yours.

Whereupon he said, Then, father, I pray thee send him to my own father’s house; for I have five brethren;

let him give these a warning, so that they may not come, in their turn, into this place of suffering.

Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to these.

They will not do that, father Abraham, said he; but if a messenger comes to them from the dead, they will repent.

But he answered him, If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will be unbelieving still, though one should rise from the dead.