Parable of the talents or minas

The Parable of the Talents (also the Parable of the Minas and the Parable of the Pounds), is one of the parables of Jesus, which appear in two of the canonical gospels of the New Testament; a thematically variant parable appears in the non-canonical Gospel of the Hebrews. Although the basic story in each of these parables is essentially the same, the differences between the parables that appear in the Gospel of Matthew 25:14-30 and in the Gospel of Luke 19:12-27 are sufficient to indicate that the parables are not derived from the same source. In Matthew, the opening words link the Parable of the Talents to the preceding Parable of the Ten Virgins, which refers to the Kingdom of Heaven.

In both Matthew and Luke, a master puts his servants in charge of his goods while he is away on a trip. Upon his return, the master assesses the stewardship of his servants. He evaluates them according to how faithful each was in making wise investments of his goods to obtain a profit. It is clear that the master sought some profit from the servants’ oversight. A gain indicated faithfulness on the part of the servants. The master rewards his servants according to how each has handled his stewardship. He judges two servants as having been “faithful” and gives them a positive reward. To the single unfaithful servant who “played it safe,” a negative compensation is given.

Parable of the Talents (novel)

Parable of the Talents is the second in a series of science fiction novels written by Octavia E. Butler and published in 1998.

Plot

Parable of the Talents (1998) (the sequel to Parable of the Sower) tells the story of how, as the U.S. continues to fall apart, the protagonist's community is attacked and taken over by a bloc of religious fanatics who inflict brutal atrocities. The novel is a harsh indictment of religious fundamentalism, and has been compared in that respect to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

Proposed third Parable novel

Butler had planned to write a third Parable novel, tentatively titled Parable of the Trickster, which would have focused on the community's struggle to survive on a new planet. She began this novel after finishing Parable of the Talents, and mentioned her work on it in a number of interviews, but at some point encountered a writer's block. She eventually shifted her creative attention, resulting in Fledgling, her final novel. The various false starts for the novel can now be found among Butler's papers at the Huntington Library, as described in an article at the Los Angeles Review of Books.

The Talents (play)

The Talents or Processus Talentorum, is a play from the Middle English recitals The Towneley Plays (ca. 1460).

This play contains an early example of macaronic English-Latin verse, spoken by the character Pontius Pilate:

References