Exegesis:
kai eipen ho kurios ‘and the Lord said,’ cf. on 1.6.
tis ara estin… ‘well, who is….’ ara is used to enliven the question. The question is an indirect answer to Peter’s question in v. 41. It is meant as an injunction to follow the example of the steward and to identify oneself with him (cf. Grundmann).
ho pistos oikonomos ho phronimos lit. ‘the faithful manager, the wise (one),’ best rendered as ‘the faithful, wise steward.’ There is no reason to treat ho phronimos as emphatic.
pistos ‘faithful,’ ‘reliable,’ ‘dependable.’
oikonomos ‘steward,’ ‘manager,’ in private position.
phronimos (also 16.8) ‘wise,’ ‘sensible,’ ‘thoughtful,’ ‘prudent.’
hon katastēsei ho kurios epi tēs therapeias autou ‘whom the master will put in charge of his servants.’ For kathistēmi cf. on v. 14. The clause serves as a further identification of the oikonomos in that it refers to his responsibilities.
therapeia here synonymous with hoi therapontes ‘the servants’ (abstract for concrete).
tou didonai en kairō [to] sitometrion ‘to give the rations at the proper time,’ articular infinitive clause supplementing katastēsei.
sitometrion ‘measured allowance of food,’ ‘ration.’
Translation:
Where this construction, an interrogative sentence with embedded relative clause, is too heavy, it may be preferable to shift to the use of two sentences, e.g. ‘Who is the … steward? Who is the man whom his master will set over his household to give….’ Other adaptations that may be required are a shift from metaphor to simile, and/or from question to injunction, e.g. ‘be like a … steward, like a man whom his master will set (or, who will be set by his master) over…’; and/or, with a further shift from relative to resultative clause, ‘be like a steward who is so faithful and wise that his master will put him in charge of the household to give….’
Faithful may be rendered by, “trustworthy” (Translator’s New Testament), ‘to be trusted,’ ‘honest/straight’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), ‘unchangeable’ (Barrow Eskimo), ‘who fulfils’ (Highland Totonac). For ‘to trust’ cf. also on 11.22.
Steward, i.e. a slave who is a kind of agent, foreman or caretaker; hence, ‘overseer’ (Shona 1963), ‘watcher’ (one West Nyanja version), and cf. the renderings mentioned in 8.3, unless specific to princely households. Since the man’s task is described in the next clause a generic rendering, e.g. ‘servant’ (Tzeltal, Good News Translation), ‘man’ is also acceptable.
Set over, or, ‘put in charge over,’ ‘appoint to rule/manage.’
His household, or, ‘his servants/slaves’; or, to help the reader realize that the steward is himself part of the household, ‘the other servants/slaves.’ The possessive pronoun refers to the master.
Their portion of food, or, ‘their rightful share of food,’ ‘what they should be given to eat,’ ‘the (quantity of) food he (i.e. the master) has assigned to them.’
At the proper time, or, ‘at the appointed/right time,’ ‘at its-time’ (Batak Toba), ‘regularly.’ The Four Gospels – a New Translation combines this phrase with the preceding one in, “their daily rations”.
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.