The Canaanite(Syro-Phonecian) Woman

[Doom]

If he wasn't cheating then he wasn't dishonest, how is he dishonest if his behavior is heroically virtuous? Then wouldn't it be called "The Parable of the Heroically Virtuous Steward"?

[BobCatholic]

He wasn't heroic virtuous.

He was simply doing business. He was very shrewd in business - and Christ acknowledges that.

[peregrinator]

But because the Gentiles say that wisdom is a virtue, and define it to be the experience of what is good, evil, and indifferent, or the knowledge of what is and what is not to be done, we must consider whether this word signifies many things, or one. For it is said that God by wisdom prepared the heavens. Now it is plain that wisdom is good, because the Lord by wisdom prepared the heavens. It is said also in Genesis, according to the LXX, that the serpent was the wisest animal, wherein he does not make wisdom a virtue, but evil-minded cunning. And it is in this sense that the Lord commended the steward that he had done wisely, that is, cunningly and evilly. And perhaps the word commended was spoken not in the sense of real commendation, but in a lower sense; as when we speak of a man being commended in slight and indifferent matters, and in a certain measure clashings and sharpness of wit are admired, by which the power of the mind is drawn out. (Origen, quoted by St. Thomas here: https://isidore.co/aquinas/english/CALuke.htm#16)

[Doom]

He wasn't heroic virtuous.

He was simply doing business. He was very shrewd in business - and Christ acknowledges that.

Read the parable, Christ specifically says that his behavior was DISHONEST, if you do not interpret it so that we did is dishonest, you are misreading the parable.

The parable goes even further than that and says that the master COMMENDED the steward FOR HIS DISHONESTY. Is this normal human behavior? "Wow, you're a really good liar, I admire that", do people ever say that in anything except a sarcastic way? No. So how do you deal with the fact that the steward is both described as dishonest and is told that his dishonesty is praiseworthy? IT MAKES NO SENSE.

[BobCatholic]

Read the parable, Christ specifically says that his behavior was DISHONEST, if you do not interpret it so that we did is dishonest, you are misreading the parable.

ok I'm wrong.

[anawim]

The reason he was dishonest is the same reason that the tax collectors were dishonest: they were engaging in extortionary amounts.

[Doom]

That isn't what the parable says, the point of the parable only makes sense if it is the way he settled his master's accounts by accepting less money than was owed that is dishonest.

[VeryTas]

Since this thread strayed over to The Unjust Steward without correction, I'll add this about that. Whether you look at the Douay-Rheims, NAB, or RSV, the steward's employer is the one who is called "lord" (lower case) or "master". It isn't our Lord (upper case) who admires the steward for his injustice; it is his employer, who (for all we know) may be just as underhanded. Jesus' only moral to his story is "the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth ..." By the way, our wealth being "dishonest" could be translated "uneven" or "ill-matched". And it isn't just my money wealth that is uneven when I compare myself to anyone else. It is also my natural endowments, talents, imperfections, etc. Whatever I do have, he seems to be saying, can be made use of so that I don't end up looking across a chasm at a Lazarus I could have had pity on.

[Doom]

I didn't say that Jesus said "I Jesus admire dishonesty", I said that in the parable, the Steward's master says "I the fictional master within this parable praise you the fictional steward within this parable for your dishonesty", or in short, I said exactly what you just said.

This passage right there is what makes this parable confounding to me. No one ever praises another person for being dishonest, except perhaps ironically. Even dishonest people do not admire other dishonest people, liars don't admire other liars, and in general, bad people do not admire other bad people.

[Stella]

Reading some of the different Catholic explanations of the parable, it strikes me that it affirms Gods pleasure in charitable giving/philanthropy/good works, even if the motivation is not strictly godly but merely natural.

This take is quite illuminating. https://pinsoflight.net/2019/09/22/in-p ... ishonesty/

[Tired]

Wayyyyy late. But there is nothing racist in the original post/saying. That's not at all what racist means.