| 5. Linguistic Exegesis The opening participle proskalesamenos {προσκαλεσάμενος | pros-ka-le-sá-me-nos} ‘having called to himself’ is an aorist circumstantial participle that provides prior background action to the imperfect main verb elegen {ἔλεγεν | é-le-gen} ‘he was saying’, producing a narrative sequence in which the steward first gathers the debtors, then addresses them sequentially. The distributive expression hena hekaston {ἕνα ἕκαστον | hén-a hé-ka-ston} ‘one each’ highlights the individual summons. The genitive chain ton chreopheileton tou kuriou heautou {τῶν χρεοφειλετῶν τοῦ κυρίου ἑαυτοῦ | tō̂n khre-o-phei-le-tō̂n toû ku-rí-ou he-au-toû} underscores that the debtors owe another master. The dative tō prōtō {τῷ πρώτῳ | tō̂ prṓ-tō} ‘to the first’ treats ‘first’ as a substantive marking the start of a series. In the direct question poson opheileis tō kuriōi mou {Πόσον ὀφείλεις τῷ κυρίῳ μου | Pó-son o-phei-leis tō̂ ku-rí-ōi mou}, the fronted “How much” places emphasis on the scale of the debt, with the dative specifying the creditor. The English translation preserves both the participial nuance and the interrogative focus. |