The Unjust Steward

QUESTION: How could the Lord, in Luke 16:8, commend the unjust steward who had perpetrated a series of frauds?

ANSWER: Note that the word lord does not begin with a capital, which always is the case when Jesus is spoken of. Note, that in the Revision it is "his lord." This makes it still more plain that it refers to the master of the steward, whose acuteness and forethought in feathering his own future nest, and not his rascally way of doing it, his master praised, probably with a laugh, exclaiming, "Isn't he a cute fellow?" Another explanation is that the steward had overcharged the tenants and pocketed the surplus; so that marking down of the debts of the tenants was really a righting of fraud against them. In this case the master was not the loser. In either case he was a bad man. But his cunning, not his rascality, is approved.

— Steele's Answers pp. 252, 253.

Making Friends by Mammon

QUESTION: What is meant by Luke 16:9, "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness"?

ANSWER: Read the Revision, "Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness," i. e., by the charitable use of money wisely bestowed upon those starving for material bread or for the bread of life, who, having gone to heaven before you, will be at the gate to welcome you to the eternal tabernacles.

— Steele's Answers p. 249.

Did the Cock Crow Twice or Three Times?

QUESTION: Harmonise Mark 14:72, "Before the cock crow twice," and Luke 22:61, "Before the cock crow thou wilt deny me thrice."

ANSWER: Dr. Robinson harmonises it thus: "The cock often crows irregularly about midnight, and again always and regularly about the third hour, which is named the cock-crowing. Mark speaks more definitely and Matthew more generally." There are other slight discrepancies relating to the persons who questioned Peter, for which I am thankful, since they prove that the two evangelists are independent witnesses and not drilled after the manner of perjury to utter exactly the same words. Of such testimonies judges and juries are justly suspicious. My theory of inspiration is that the Bible is the infallible directory to eternal life, and that such fly-specks as these minute differences do not in the least damage that directory. In this respect I do not believe, as Dr. Adam Clarke does not, in the absolute inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures, especially in respect to numbers.

— Steele's Answers pp. 243, 244.

How Many Days Was Jesus in the Tomb?

QUESTION: Matt. 17:1 says, "After six days." Luke 9:28 says "about an eight days later." Harmonize this discrepancy.

ANSWER: Luke, by using the word "about," intimates that he is not speaking accurately in counting the fractions of two days, the first and the eighth, while both Matthew and Mark count only the whole days between the two events making only six. The Jews generally counted the fractions  as  whole days, so that Jesus was three days in the tomb, though only one whole day.

— Steele's Answers pp. 237, 238.

Prophets Die in Jerusalem (Luke 13:33)

QUESTION: What did Christ mean when he said in Luke 13:33, "For it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem"?

ANSWER: This is a sort of ironical rebuke of Jerusalem for its stupendous wickedness, implying that neither Galilee, where he was, nor any other country outside of Jerusalem, was sufficiently criminal to kill a prophet of the Lord. Jerusalem alone was capable of so great iniquity.

— Steele's Answers p. 169.