Herzog

Herzog brings up the fallacy of saintliness in the Parable of the Talents. He asks, if the man leaving for the journey is like God, then why does the third servant describe him as demanding and oppurtunistic? The thrid servant says that the master collects what he does not own. Herzog also uses the Lukan version of the parable to help out. The servants may not have been given the talents according to ability, but according to rank. After describing the hierarchy of the elite household, Herzog goes into the economic and social standing of the parable time period. He says that the owner went to attain client-kingship from the ruler. The man leaving on the journey went far away, giving the hint that is a journey of significance. Also, one talent is too much money to leave in the hands of untrustworthy people, so the master must have trusted all of his servants a lot. Obviously, he was not testing his servants. The servants all do stuff with their money. The first and second both double their amounts, while the third buries his in the ground. The servants must have done this to get in the master's good graces when he returned, because they were not allowed to keep any of it. They used it to exploit people to gain more wealth, as their master had done in the past. The first two servants were given bigger responsibilities upon the master's return. The third servant defies the master and tells him what he really thinks of him. He says that the master exploits others for his own gain. The servant's words were so true that he was humiliated in front of everybody, and his words had no effect. The master was quick to label him lazy and takes away his talent. This was the price that the servant paid for telling the truth.

The sociology in Bible times has been largely ignored because it poses a threat to religious integrity. People are also reluctant to point out flaws in the Bible as they do not want to lineate and point out the huge gap between the rich and the poor, causing structural divisions. Social classes exist when one group takes advantage of surplus labor from other groups. There exists two divisions: the exploiters and the exploitees. The vast majority of the people at Bible times were the exploitees, exploited by the powerful exploitive elite few. At Bible times, the idea of a good kingdom was one full of peace and production of revenue. People are reluctant to point out flaws in social classes because they are afraid of being made to feel guilty. When people misinterpret parables, they compare God to the wealthy exploiters.