Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] The Capitalist Parables of Jesus Written by Bart Ehrman Read by Ken Teutsch Capitalist Parables of Jesus There is a lot of truth in Albert Schweitzer's observation in his book the Quest of the Historical Jesus German original 1906 that scholars of every generation since the Enlightenment have portrayed Jesus as in their own image.
[00:00:27] Thus, Enlightenment era rationalists who realized we do not need supernatural interventions to explain what happens in our world, from lightning strikes and earthquakes to the healing of physical ailments or mental illnesses, explained the amazing records of Jesus miracles as misunderstood natural events and hopeful positive Progressive liberals who thought Jesus, like modern folk, just wanted all of us to get along, emphasized that Jesus was mainly interested in the brotherhood of man as they said it back then, and the fatherhood of God.
[00:01:05] Moreover, is it an accident the apocalyptic understanding of Jesus expecting the imminent end of the world became increasingly popular during the 20th century World wars and then the Cold War when we people of my generation were all being taught to hide under our desks as soon as the nuclear bombs started to fall.
[00:01:27] It is very hard indeed for someone to value, appreciate and talk about Jesus without assuming that he held the same views, perspectives and values they have. Hey, we're good people who understand the world. Jesus was a good person who understood the world. He must have been and thought like us.
[00:01:47] It's interesting to see how the can't see Jesus except through our own lenses gets manifest by those interested in politics and economics, especially the issue I'm thinking about these economic systems. Jesus was a socialist. Jesus was a Marxist. Jesus was a capitalist in our world. Well, my world. That capitalist thing is especially interesting as a way to interpret Jesus parables. Here I'll give you two premier examples.
[00:02:20] 1. The Parable of the Sower Mark 4:1:9 this one may seem a bit of a stretch at first.
[00:02:28] Summary of the parable A farmer is sowing seed by hand. Some of it falls on the path where there isn't any soil and the birds come and eat it. Some falls on rocky ground that has just a thin layer of soil. It grows quickly, but since it doesn't have decent roots, it withers when the sun beats down on it.
[00:02:48] Some falls among a bunch of thorns and gets choked out and bears no fruit. But some falls on good soil, takes root, grows and produces plants that themselves multiply the supply of seeds. Thirty, sixty or a hundredfold Capitalist Interpretation A capitalist understanding could go a number of ways with this parable. You could say, for example, that Jesus is suggesting that wise investors carefully consider the markets before deciding where to put their funds.
[00:03:20] Some investments simply have no market. Do you want to put all your money into a company producing a newly invented gizmo that not only no one needs, but also no one will probably want? You're just throwing away your money.
[00:03:33] The seed falls on the path instead of soil.
[00:03:36] Other investments are risky because they may seem like a sure thing, but they instead are going into a fad, a current hot item that has no staying power.
[00:03:46] The company starts strong but has no secure basis and so withers and dies and your money with it. The seed on rocky ground with only a thin layer of soil.
[00:03:56] Other investments go into an overcrowded market and end up being completely throttled by the competition. You thought that startup electric car company was going to make it big, but it just couldn't break in among the deeply rooted and powerful established firms. It tries to but just can't make it and goes bust. The seed among the thorns.
[00:04:17] But some investments nail it. Big market, desirable product, not much competition, enormous potential for growth.
[00:04:25] Good soil.
[00:04:27] Another capitalist approach would be to think the parable was less about individual investments than the entire enterprise. In support of venture capitalism, scatter the capital in a range of possible ventures, knowing most of them are not going to work out for one reason or another, but in full confidence that a few of them will, with the fantastic gains of the few more than making up for the many losses in either case or both. Here we have investment advice on the granular or grand level from the Son of God himself.
[00:05:03] The Parable of the Talents.
[00:05:08] Summary of Parable A man is going on a long trip and gives his property over to three of his slaves to deal with while he's away, giving five talents to one, two to another, and one to the third.
[00:05:22] Important to note, talent here is a unit of money. A talent was a monetary unit based on the weight of silver in Jesus time, worth 6,000 denarii. A denarius was approximately the wage for one day's work by a manual laborer. In modern terms, if a laborer earns $7.25 an hour, the minimum wage here in North Carolina, in 2025, it would add up to $58 a day. If that's the equivalent of a denarius, then one talent 6000 denarii would be $348,000.
[00:06:01] So he's giving these slaves significant funds to take care of.
[00:06:06] The slave given five talents, some $1.74 million, invests it and earns an additional five.
[00:06:14] The one with two makes an additional two, but the one given a single talent sticks it in a mattress for safekeeping, literally digs a hole in the ground and hides it there.
[00:06:24] When the man returns, he praises the first two slaves for making smart use of his money, but he curses the third for not doing something with it in his absence and kicks him out of the household, literally casts him into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and gives the talent he had hidden away to the first slave as a reward for knowing how to deal with what he had been given Capitalist Interpretation the capitalist reading of this parable is fairly straightforward and seems pretty obvious. You should take the money you have and have been given and invest it with an eye to growth that does not involve hiding it in the mattress or checking account, or even in a higher yield money market account or cd. The praised slaves figured out how to double, not slightly increase, their funds.
[00:07:15] So Jesus's investment advice Figure out the market, be bold, and double your investment.
[00:07:22] So here we have two capitalist parables.
[00:07:26] Or do we?
[00:07:27] Is either interpretation what Jesus had in mind or what the Gospel writers did?
[00:07:33] I'll deal with that in the next post.
