NKJV: So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail [or “it fails”], they may receive you into an everlasting home.
Proposed solution: And the master approved of the house-manager of the unrighteousness, because he acted shrewdly, because the sons of this aeon are shrewder than the sons of light, in their own generation. And I say to you, “Make friends for yourselves from the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they should welcome you into the eternal dwellings!”?
Importance: The dominant translation tradition describes the Lord Jesus Christ as recommending that his disciples act like the house-manager who first squanders his master’s property, and then when caught, pulls other people into fraud, lying, and stealing.
For analysis, read on at A Guide to Misleading Bible Quotes
Totally agree with the contextual interprettion that Jesus used irony. He made an observation that we missed. So often when Christians are faced with difficulties we sometimes fail to take a rational decision which the unscrupulous servant did.
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