The Revised Standard Version text continues with But, which Good News Translation has rendered as “Then.” Translators should use whatever fits naturally in the context. Some have had “But as that official was going out.”

Presumably the official went out from the king’s palace or house, and in some translations it will be necessary to indicate that.

Came upon is best taken to indicate a chance meeting.

A hundred denarii (a denarius was the daily wage paid a laborer) is transformed into contemporary U.S. currency by Good News Translation (“a few dollars”). When a comparison is made between the value of the talent and the denarius, one discovers that the debt which the first servant owed the king is 500,000 times more than the debt owed him by his fellow servant. New American Bible does an excellent job at contrasting the two debts without indicating any specific monetary unit: “who owed him a huge amount” (verse 24) and “who owed him a mere fraction of what he himself owed” (verse 28).

Before translating a hundred denarii, translators should read again what was said at verse 24 about money. Again, some translators will keep the biblical word and have “a small amount of money, one hundred denarii,” or simply do the same thing that Revised Standard Version has done and use a footnote. New American Bible, cited above, is an excellent model, and many translators have had “a small portion of the money he had owed the king” or “a hundred denarii, money that was almost nothing when compared to what the king had forgiven him.” Again, there are problems if translators try to use a local modern currency.

Seizing … by the throat translates two verbs in Greek (Good News Translation “grabbed … started choking”) which may be understood as depicting either a single action or two separate actions. An American Translation (“he caught him by the throat”) indicates a single action, as do Moffatt and Barclay. On the other hand, New English Bible suggests two actions in sequence: “and catching hold of him he gripped him by the throat”; similarly New Jerusalem Bible “he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him.” Since either interpretation is possible on the basis of the Greek text, it is advisable in translation to do whatever seems the most dramatic.

Pay what you owe will require an indirect object in some languages (Good News Translation “Pay back what you owe me”). One may also translate “Pay me the money that you owe me” or “… that you borrowed from me.”

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 .