Talent

There was no such coin as a talent, which had too high a value.

Matthew 18:21–35: In this parable the significance of the amount of the debts of the two servants is not in their precise value but rather in the huge difference between them. There seems to be a secondary significance to the size of the debt of the first servant, hinting at the great debt of sin that Jesus’ hearers have toward God. The amount of the large debt would be something like the salaries of 1,000 day laborers for 200 years. However, it would be awkward to try to include this information in the translation itself. The Greek text compares two different monetary instruments, the talent and the denarius. While the ancient hearer may have known that a talent was equal to 6000 denarii, this knowledge cannot be assumed for the modern reader. One effective way to emphasize the difference between the two debts may be to convert the 10,000 talents into denarii and render the last half of verse 24 as “one of them was brought in who owed him 60 million denarii.” This will then contrast with the 100 denarii in verse 28. This may be a problem in cultures where very large numbers are difficult to express. In such cultures translators may follow GNT “millions of dollars … a few dollars” or PV “millions of silver pieces … 100 pieces of silver.”

Matthew 25:14–30: The actual value of the talent in this parable is of secondary importance. It is of primary importance to retain the 5:2:1 ratio. Numerous ways have been found in translation to express the amount given to each servant. Here are a few examples for the first half of verse 15: “he handed five thousand coins to the first servant, two thousand to the second, and one thousand to the third” (CEV); “He gave one man ten thousand dollars, another four thousand dollars, and another two thousand dollars” (GW); “He gave one servant five bags of gold, another servant two bags of gold, and a third servant one bag of gold” (NCV); and “to one he gave five thousand gold coins, to another he gave two thousand, and to another he gave one thousand” (GNT).

Translations do not agree as to whether the master gave them gold or silver. While this makes considerable difference in the values, it does not affect the meaning of the text and so makes no difference to the translation. A particular metal should be included only if it is required by the language. The context in which this parable occurs is different from that in which the parallel in Luke 19:11–27 appears. Furthermore, Luke gives the amounts in minas while Matthew has talents, which were worth 60 times as much. While the translator does not need to find a precise modern currency equivalent, the amount chosen in Matthew should indicate that these were large sums of money.

Revelation 16:21: In this verse many translations render the literal phrase “about a talent” as “about 40 kilograms” (FRCL) or “about a hundred pounds” (NIV). In languages that have a limited group of numbers it will be better to begin this verse with “Huge hailstones of tremendous weight [or, weighing as much as an adult person].” In fact, it will be quite adequate to follow the model of Phps “Great hailstones like heavy weights” or GW “Large, heavy hailstones.”