Lukas 16:8

16:8 The ¹  master commended the dishonest ²  manager because he acted shrewdly. ³  For the people ⁴  of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries ⁵  than the people ⁶  of light.

Lukas 20:36

20:36 In fact, they can no longer die, because they are equal to angels ⁷  and are sons of God, since they are ⁸  sons ⁹  of the resurrection.

[16:8]  ¹ tn Grk “And the.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[16:8]  ² sn Is the manager dishonest because of what he just did? Or is it a reference to what he had done earlier, described in v. 1? This is a difficult question, but it seems unlikely that the master, having fired the man for prior dishonesty, would now commend those same actions. It would also be unusual for Jesus to make that point of the story the example. Thus it is more likely the reference to dishonesty goes back to the earliest events, while the commendation is for the cleverness of the former manager reflected in vv. 5-7.

[16:8]  ³ sn Where this parable ends is debated: Does it conclude with v. 7, after v. 8a, after v. 8b, or after v. 9? Verse 8a looks as if it is still part of the story, with its clear reference to the manager, while 8b looks like Jesus’ application, since its remarks are more general. So it is most likely the parable stops after v. 8a.

[16:8]  ⁴ tn Grk “sons” (an idiom).

[16:8]  ⁵ tn Grk “with their own generation.”

[16:8]  ⁶ tn Grk “sons.” Here the phrase “sons of light” is a reference to the righteous. The point is that those of the world often think ahead about consequences better than the righteous do.

[20:36]  ⁷ sn Angels do not die, nor do they eat according to Jewish tradition (1 En. 15:6; 51:4; Wis 5:5; 2 Bar. 51:10; 1QH 3.21-23).

[20:36]  ⁸ tn Grk “sons of God, being.” The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle here.

[20:36]  ⁹ tn Or “people.” The noun υἱός (Juios) followed by the genitive of class or kind (“sons of…”) denotes a person of a class or kind, specified by the following genitive construction. This Semitic idiom is frequent in the NT (L&N 9.4).