For many readers this verse will prove an impossible construction because it asks a question which is never really answered. Good News Translation attempts to remove the difficulty by transforming the difficult rhetorical question into a question followed by its answer: “Who, then … servant? He is the one … at the proper time.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch accomplishes the same effect by altering the question form to an exhortation: “Then be like the faithful and wise servant to whom his master gave the responsibility of supervising the entire household and of giving each one of them his daily rations at the proper time.” Another good model is Barclay: “Suppose there is a dependable and sensible servant….”

For the first time in this Gospel, the adjective faithful is used; it will be used again in 25.21, 23. Various translations render it “obedient” or “dependable.”

Wise is previously used in 7.24 and 10.16; it will be used four more times in chapter 25 (verses 2, 4, 8, 9). This adjective is not found in either Mark or John, and it is used only twice by Luke (12.42; 16.8). Thus it must be considered a unique emphasis of Matthew’s Gospel. Common translations include “sensible” and “intelligent.”

To be set over means to be in charge of.

Household is used only here in the New Testament. In Greek papyri of that era it may mean either “household” or “family.” Luke uses another collective noun which means “servants” (12.42). One may translate “other servants in his household.”

Food translates a noun which literally means “nourishment”; see comment at 3.4. The word that is used in the Lukan parallel (12.42) appears only once in the New Testament; it literally means “allowance of grain” or “allowance of food.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .