Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
His lord commended (ephnesen o kuriov). The steward's lord praised him though he himself had been wronged again (see verse Luke 16:1 "wasting his goods").
The unrighteous steward (ton oikonomon thv adikiav). Literally, the steward of unrighteousness. The genitive is the case of genus, species, the steward distinguished by unrighteousness as his characteristic. See "the mammon of unrighteousness" in verse Luke 16:9. See "the forgetful hearer" in James 1:25. It is a vernacular idiom common to Hebrew, Aramaic, and the Koin‚.
Wisely (fronimwv). An old adverb, though here alone in the N.T. But the adjective fronimov from which it comes occurs a dozen times as in Matthew 10:16. It is from fronew and that from frhn, the mind (I Corinthians 14:20), the discerning intellect. Perhaps "shrewdly" or "discreetly" is better here than "wisely." The lord does not absolve the steward from guilt and he was apparently dismissed from his service. His shrewdness consisted in finding a place to go by his shrewdness. He remained the steward of unrighteousness even though his shrewdness was commended.
For (oti). Probably by this second oti Jesus means to say that he cites this example of shrewdness because it illustrates the point. "This is the moral of the whole parable. Men of the world in their dealings with men like themselves are more prudent than the children of light in their intercourse with one another" (Plummer). We all know how stupid Christians can be in their co-operative work in the kingdom of God, to go no further.
Wiser than (fronimwteroi uper). Shrewder beyond, a common Greek idiom.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Luke 16:8:
Matthew 8:12
Luke 16:1
Luke 16:14
Luke 18:6
John 12:36
1 Thessalonians 5:5
Hebrews 4:12
2 Peter 2:1
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