If you find the use of the word “talent” in this Sunday’s Gospel reading even slightly confusing, you are not alone. In Koine Greek, the language of the Scriptures, the word “talent” had only one meaning; it referred to a vast sum of money, roughly the equivalent of a lifetime’s earnings for a laborer. The “talents” in the parable were large amounts of money entrusted to several managers.
The word “talent” came into the English language directly from the parable in this Sunday’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel. The word was introduced similarly into the German, French, Italian, and Spanish languages. In modern languages, however, a “talent” is understood to be a natural ability such as an intellectual capacity or athletic skill. This meaning is quite different from the meaning intended by the Gospel author.
The confusing word “talent” has a parallel in the confusing message of the parable. In the economies of the ancient world, wealth could not be created as it can be today. In those ancient economies, the only way to increase one’s wealth was to take it by force or fraud from someone else. For that reason, Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 19:23) The parable seems to praise behavior that Jesus found reprehensible.
If the parable is instruction to multiply one’s possessions, it would have scandalized the disciples. If, on the other hand, it is merely a recommendation to develop one’s natural skills or abilities, it offers wisdom no more profound than the encouragement given routinely by relatives or friends. Rather than promoting greed or personal improvement, this parable serves as an interpretative key for the two parables that precede and follow it in Matthew’s Gospel.
Immediately prior to telling the disciples the parable of the “talents,” Jesus told them the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. All the young women were relatives of the bridegroom, yet five were admitted to the wedding celebration and five others were excluded. The parable wants its hearers to ask about the cause of the difference between wisdom and foolishness among the bridegroom’s unmarried female relatives.
Immediately after the parable of the “talents,” Jesus told his disciples the parable of the sheep and the goats. In that parable, some of the people known to the Son of Man were rewarded and others were penalized. This parable wants its hearers to ask about the cause of the difference between the compassionate “sheep” and the thoughtless “goats.”
The answer to these questions about the criterion for judgment in the preceding and subsequent parables is explained by the “talents.” The three servants were given vast wealth that they neither earned nor owned, and they were judged on the basis of what greater wealth they produced for someone who owned an unimaginable fortune already. Matthew’s Gospel contains numerous references to massive wealth; all the various references to “treasure” are references to the interpersonal knowledge of God that the Gospel defines as faith.
In this parable, the vast treasure of a “talent” represents the knowledge of God that Jesus reveals through his preaching. The two servants who multiplied the treasures given to them were rewarded for their faithfulness; the servant who safeguarded the gift, but did not multiply it, was condemned. The knowledge of God that Jesus communicates through his teaching is a gift of incalculable value. This gift is meant to be multiplied, and the only way to multiply eternal truth is to share it with others so that they, too, come to faith in the One, True God.
The word “talent” in this parable cannot be understood adequately through any ancient or modern language except the language of knowledge of God. Knowledge of God confers the wisdom that makes one ready to greet the Lord when he appears (like the wise young women) and the insight that allows one to recognize the Lord present in the poor and suffering (like the compassionate “sheep”). Of course, accepting this great treasure incurs certain obligations. Those who enjoy the vast wealth of knowledge of God are obliged to share it with the world because this wealth can be neither owned nor merited.
Like the incredibly wealthy master in the story, God has no need for more of what God already possesses. On the other hand, the world is starved, deprived, and impoverished of the wealth of knowledge of God. We have received a gift of immeasurable value; it was given freely to us with the sole expectation that it will be shared freely with the world. At the Judgment, the possessions and accomplishments we have accumulated will no longer have value. On that Day, our destiny will be determined by wealth we neither merit nor own, the wealth we multiply by bringing others to knowledge of God.
