Matthew 25:15

Matthew 25:15. Five talents two one. In Luke the trust is the same for each servant. So great a sum as even a single ‘talent' (comp. chap. 18 constituted a very valuable trust. The ‘pound' (of much smaller value) is an official gift; the ‘talents,' gifts of the Spirit in different degrees. The greater value of the talent suggests the superiority of spiritual endowments to merely official ones. This parable has led to the use of the word ‘talent' to denote natural endowments also.

According to his several ability. Here natural ‘talents' are referred to. Even spiritual gifts are regulated by personal susceptibility and capacity. The ‘ability' is as really but less directly the gift of God. Sufficiently our own to occasion strict responsibility, such ‘ability' is not enough our own to warrant pride. It is here, moreover, capacity for ‘spiritual' gifts.

Went on his journey. The order of the parable is that demanded by its form; but the Ascension (the departure) preceded the day of Pentecost (the distribution of gifts). This should caution us against theories about the order of events at the coming of Christ. ‘Straightway,' owing to a change of reading, must be placed in Matthew 25:16.