Novum Christianitatis Studium Bibrum

Luke 16:9

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9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.

Commentarius in hunc versum  

By Brian David

"Croesus showing his treasures to Solon" by Frans Francken, from the National Museum in Wrocław. Similar versions in the National Museum in Warsaw (by Gaspar van den Hoecke, inv. M.Ob.577) and in the Château de Blois (attributed to Cornelis de Vos, inv. 882.14.1 ; IP 104).

The debtors in this story had improved their spiritual states by submitting their "borrowed" ideas to external forms of religion - which had truth to teach even though they were infested with evil desires. The steward, meanwhile, improved his standing by applying his religious forms to the disordered ideas of the debtors - a step toward getting rid of those evil desires and replacing them with desires for good. Here the Lord begins to tell us to do the same.

"Unrighteous mammon" represents true knowledge held by those who are evil and used toward evil ends. In a way, that’s something both the steward and the debtors had - ideas about what is true and good, but no desire for good to bring those ideas to life. A "friend" is someone connected through ideas and thought; making friends out of unrighteous mammon means gathering and sharing that knowledge held by evil people, without sharing the evil. That’s something the steward and the debtors did, to the benefit of both.



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