Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

Text and Plot

The parable appears only in Matthew 18:21–35; no other Gospel contains the same story. The account begins with a question from Peter. When Peter asks whether it is enough to forgive a brother who sins against him up to seven times, Jesus answers, "I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." He then tells this parable.

• When a king settles accounts with his servants, one servant owes ten thousand talents and has no means of repaying. The king orders that he, his wife and children, and all his possessions be sold to pay the debt.
• The servant falls down and begs for patience, and the king, moved with compassion, forgives the entire debt.
• That servant then goes out, seizes a fellow servant who owes him a hundred denarii, and takes him by the throat. The fellow servant pleads with the same words, but the first servant has him thrown into prison.
• The other servants, seeing this, report it to the king. The king calls him "thou wicked servant" and delivers him to the tormentors until he should pay all that was due.

The parable concludes with the words, "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses" (Matthew 18:35).

Background

The talent was originally a unit of weight, used in reckoning large sums of money. One talent is commonly reckoned at 6,000 denarii. The denarius was a silver coin equivalent to a laborer's daily wage (Matthew 20:2). By this reckoning, the first debt was several hundred thousand times larger than the second. Ten thousand talents is therefore understood as a hyperbolic expression for a debt that could never be repaid, even with a lifetime of work. Selling debtors and their families into slavery to satisfy a debt was an actual practice in the ancient Near East, and traces of it appear in the Old Testament (2 Kings 4:1).

The Greek expression rendered "seventy times seven" can be read either as "seventy-seven times" or as "490 times," and translations differ accordingly. Either way, it is generally understood to signify not a fixed number but forgiveness without limit. Some interpreters also see a contrast with Lamech's vengeance "seventy and sevenfold" (Genesis 4:24).

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

Matthew 18 gathers teachings concerning relationships within the community of the church. The parable is placed immediately after the procedure for admonishing a brother who has sinned (18:15–20). The same theme appears in the Lord's Prayer—"as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12)—and in the words that follow it (Matthew 6:14–15). The saying in Luke 6:37, "forgive, and ye shall be forgiven," belongs to the same line of teaching. The Epistles carry the theme forward, urging believers to forgive one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven them (Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13). The use of debt as a figure for sin is likewise shared with the Lord's Prayer.

Interpretation and Debated Questions

• Revoked forgiveness and salvation: Interpretations differ regarding the scene in which the king withdraws his forgiveness. Presbyterian and Reformed traditions following Calvinism hold, on the basis of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, that one who has truly been forgiven cannot fall from salvation. They therefore often read this scene as a warning that an unforgiving life reveals the absence of genuine conversion. Arminian traditions such as the Methodist and Holiness churches, which carry on Wesleyan theology, tend to read it as a real warning that one who spurns the grace received can fall from salvation.
• Condition or response: Another question is whether forgiving one's neighbor is a condition for obtaining God's forgiveness. Many Protestant interpreters emphasize the order of events: the king's forgiveness comes first, and the servant's forgiveness is required as a response to that grace.
• Overinterpretation of details: Many hold that the parable should be read for its single central lesson rather than by assigning a separate spiritual meaning to each element, such as the tormentors or the wife and children.
• Distinguishing popular misreadings: Interpreters largely agree that a literal understanding such as "one need forgive only up to 490 times" is far from the intent of the text. In addition, because the parable directly follows the procedure for church discipline, some interpreters hold that forgiveness is not the same as condoning wrongdoing. It is a different parable from the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25), which features the same monetary unit.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, the parable is also known as "The Debtor of Ten Thousand Talents." It is frequently cited in sermons on forgiveness and reconciliation. It is also used alongside the forgiveness petition of the Lord's Prayer, which is recited at every worship service, as a text for expounding that petition.