Jewish teachers used to say that anyone who immediately buries money entrusted to him is no longer liable, because he has taken the safest course possible in protecting the money. On the other hand, if a man wraps the money in a cloth and it is lost, then he is responsible to replace the money (compare Luke 19.20).

But contrasts the action of the third servant with that of the first (“went at once and traded”) and the second (“So also”).

Dug in the ground is usually rendered “dug a hole in the ground.”

The text states explicitly that this was his master’s money, but this does not mean that the money of the other servants was not also their master’s. Translators often have “the money his master had given him to take care of.”

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 .