The Unforgiving Servant

Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:

From Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.

complete verse (Matthew 18:30)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 18:30:

  • Uma: “But he did not believe / pay-attention-to his request. He put him in prison until all his debt was paid.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But that servant did not want to. He ordered him to be put in prison as long as he had not paid all his debt.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But that person didn’t like that, and he had him put in jail for as long as he could not pay.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But he refused and had-him -jailed until he would pay his debt.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But his fellow servant who was causing him to pay wouldn’t accept that. He had him imprisoned until he could pay.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “But the man to whom he owed a little bit of money didn’t want to wait. Rather he grabbed him and took him to jail until he would pay the money he owed.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Matthew 18:21-35)

Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Matthew 18:21-35:

“Forgiveness times seven is surely enough
       to offer anyone who offends me,” said Peter.

“Try seven times that amount!” answered Jesus,
“and listen to this story about the Ultimate Kingdom.”

       The CEO of a big corporation called in his employees
              to account for their use of the company funds.
       One of them came up fifty million dollars short,
              and he was broke.

       “His wife and children are just as guilty,” said the CEO.
       “Lock all of them up and throw away the key,
               until he pays back every cent he owes.”

       But the man begged for mercy
       and swore he’d repay every cent.
              So the soft-hearted CEO forgave his debt.

       On the way out of the office, the man happened to meet
              an office boy who owed him a measly fifty bucks.
       With his hands around the throat of he boy, he shouted,
              “Pay me every cent you owe!”

       The boy begged for mercy and swore to repay every cent.
       But there was no mercy, and the boy was thrown into jail
              until he could repay the full amount.

       Some other employees found out what had happened,
       and they reported the matter to the CEO,
              who called the man in and said, “You’re evil!
       When you begged for mercy, I forgave every penny.
              Isn’t that what you should have done for this boy?
       I’ll have your hide for this!
       You, your wife, and your family of four
              will perish impoverished in prison.”

“Listen up!” exclaimed Jesus.
“If you don’t forgive others with all your heart,
       my Father above will treat you like this.”

Translation commentary on Matthew 18:30

In the translation of this verse, care should be taken that there is no confusion in the use of the pronouns He (in its two occurrences) and him.

He refused may be better as direct discourse: “He said, ‘I will not’ ” or “… ‘I refuse to do that.’ ”

And went and put him in prison is more literally “but going away he threw him into jail.” The verb “threw” is definitely causative and is so rendered by many translations as “had him jailed” (New English Bible). But the function of the participle “going away” is questionable. Some translations represent it as a separate action from that of having the man jailed (Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Moffatt). Others translate it with the force of an auxiliary to the main verb; see, for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“so he immediately had him put in jail”) and New American Bible (“Instead, he had him put in jail”). Still others have said “he ordered the authorities to put the man in jail until he paid the debt in full.”

Debt translates a different noun from that used in verse 27, though the reference is clearly the same. Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition renders the last clause “until he should pay everything.” One may need to be even more specific: “until the man should pay him everything that he owed him.”

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 .