Exegesis:
duo chreopheiletai ēsan daneistē tini lit. ‘two debtors (there) were to a certain money-lender,’ hence “two men were in debt to a money-lender” (New English Bible). duo chreopheiletai is emphatic by position.
chreopheiletēs (also 16.5) ‘debtor.’
daneistēs ‘money-lender.’
dēnaria pentakosia … pentēkonta ‘five hundred denarii … fifty.’ dēnarion is estimated as equivalent to 18 cents of a dollar (cf. IDB I, 824). The important thing is the fact that the one debtor owes ten times the amount of the other.
Translation:
The transition to the short parable is abrupt. Some translators, therefore, add an introductory phrase such as, ‘(then) Jesus said’ (as e.g. in Javanese, Toraja-Sa’dan).
The wording of the sentence is redundant in that the terms “creditor”, “debtor”, “owed” refer to different participants in and aspects of the same process, especially so in languages which for two or more of these concepts use terms built on the same base, as e.g. in Tboli and Cuyono, which use three derivations of the word ‘debt’; hence such lexical simplifications as, ‘There was a rich man; two people had borrowed from him. One had to pay 500 …’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘There were two men who borrowed from one. Well, one of them borrowed 500 …’ (Trukese), ‘A certain man lent money to two persons. To one of them (he lent) 500….’
A certain here indicates a reference to something specific but unspecified, which is a new item in the discourse. The corresponding Greek word (tis) is often used at the beginning of a parable (see 10.30; 12.16; 14.16; 16.1, 19; 18.2; 19.12), helping to mark the introduction of a story, and/or its imaginary character. In other languages one may have to do so by other means, cf. on 8.4.
Creditor, i.e. one to whom a debt is owed, or, one who has lent (something); or, as preferred in Exegesis, ‘money-lender,’ i.e. one who professionally lends money on interest. Tae’ 1933 tried to describe this by ‘a money trader,’ but the revision uses a modern borrowing, lit. meaning, ‘one who manipulates money.’ For ‘to lend’ cf. on 6.34.
Debtor, or, ‘one who is in debt, or, has borrowed.’ For ‘to borrow’ similar distinctions may exist as for ‘to lend.’
Owed, or, ‘had to pay’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘had-as-debt’; in Marathi the rendering lit. means ‘had a giving,’ in Zarma, ‘had it (i.e. the debt) on him’ (as though carrying a burden).
Five hundred denarii, … fifty. For ‘denarius’ see on 10.35. It is neither the exact value of the coin nor the precise number that is important here but the proportion between the two sums; hence such shifts as in “a hundred dollars … ten” (An American Translation, similarly Toraja-Sa’dan), “fifty pounds … five” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation) are legitimate. Sometimes it is possible to omit the reference to a coin, ‘one owed 500, the other 50,’ leaving it to the reader to supply the unit of currency, which will be the basic one used in his culture. Five hundred may have to be expressed approximately and analytically, e.g. ‘eight times sixty,’ the closest natural equivalent in Ekari.
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.