The Parable of the Dishonest Manager

16 Now he said to the disciples, “There was a rich^(A) man who received an accusation that his manager^(B) was squandering^(C) his possessions. ² So he called the manager in and asked, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management,^(D) because you can no longer be my manager.’

³ “Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do since my master is taking the management away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig; I’m ashamed to beg. ⁴ I know what I’ll do so that when I’m removed from management, people will welcome me into their homes.’

⁵ “So he summoned each one of his master’s debtors. ‘How much do you owe my master?’ he asked the first one.

⁶ “‘A hundred measures of olive oil,’ he said.

“‘Take your invoice,’ he told him, ‘sit down quickly, and write fifty.’

⁷ “Next he asked another, ‘How much do you owe?’

“‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he said.

“‘Take your invoice,’ he told him, ‘and write eighty.’

⁸ “The master praised the unrighteous manager^(E) because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this age^(F) are more shrewd than the children of light^(G) in dealing with their own people.^{[a] 9} And I tell you, make friends^(H) for yourselves by means of worldly wealth^[b](I) so that when it fails, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings. ¹⁰ Whoever is faithful^(J) in very little^(K) is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much. ¹¹ So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with what is genuine? ¹² And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own? ¹³ No^(L) servant can serve two masters, since either he will hate^(M) one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

The Temptation and the Fall

3 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” ^(A)

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. ³ But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”^(B)

⁴ “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman.^{(C) 5} “In fact, God knows that when^[a] you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.^{(D) 7} Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.