ver, which after
five shillings the ounce is 187 pounds, ten shillings." This would be in
American money over nine and a quarter millions of dollars as the sum of
the ten thousand talents. The same authority gives as the value of the
penny (Roman) sevenpence half-penny, or fifteen cents, making the second
debt equivalent to about fifteen dollars. Comparison with talents
mentioned elsewhere may be allowable. Trench says: "How vast a sum it
was we can most vividly realize to ourselves by comparing it with other
sums mentioned in Scripture. In the construction of the tabernacle,
twenty-nine talents of gold were used (Exo. 38:24); David prepared for
the temple three thousand talents of gold, and the princes five thousand
(1 Chron. 29:4-7); the queen of Sheba presented to Solomon one hundred
and twenty talents (1 Kings 10:10); the king of Assyria laid upon
Hezekiah thirty talents of gold (2 Kings 18:14); and in the extreme
impoverishment to which the land was brought at the last, one talent of
gold was laid upon it, after the death of Josiah, by the king of Egypt
(2 Chron. 36:3)." Farrar estimates the debt owed to the king as
1,250,000 times that owed by the lesser to the greater debtor.

6. An Assumed Approval of Slavery.--Some readers have assumed that they
find in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant an implied approval of the
institution of slavery. The greater debtor, who figures in the story,
was to be sold, together with his wife and children and all that he had.
A rational consideration of the story as a whole is likely to find at
most, in the particular incident of the king's command that the debtor
and his family be sold, that the system of buying and selling
bondservants, serfs, or slaves, was legally recognized at the time. The
purpose of the parable was not even remotely to endorse or condemn
slavery or any other social institution. The Mosaic law is explicit in
matters relating to bondservants. The "angel of the Lord" who brought to
Hagar a message of encouragement and blessing respected the authority of
her mistress (Gen. 16:8, 9). In the apostolic epoch, instruction was
directed toward right living under the secular law, not rebellion
against the system (Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22; 1 Tim. 6:1-3; 1 Peter 2:18).
Recognition of established customs, institutions, and laws, and proper
obedience thereto, do not necessarily imply individual approval. The
gospel of Jesus Christ, which shall yet regenerate the world, is to