NT-GOSPEL.filter - rwp Livy:

rwp@2Corinthians:8:1 @{The grace} (\tn charin\). As manifested in the collection in the churches, poor as they were. The Romans had lacerated Macedonia (Livy, XLV. 30).

rwp@Matthew:18:28 @{A hundred pence} (\hekaton dnaria\). A denarius was worth about eight and a half pence. The hundred denarii here were equal to some "fifty shillings" (Bruce), "about 4 pounds" (McNeile), "twenty pounds" (Moffatt), "twenty dollars" (Goodspeed), "100 shillings" (Weymouth). These are various efforts to represent in modern language the small amount of this debt compared with the big one. {Took him by the throat} (\epnigen\). "Held him by the throat" (Allen). It is imperfect, probably inchoative, "began to choke or throttle him." The Roman law allowed this indignity. Vincent quotes Livy (iv. 53) who tells how the necks were twisted (_collum torsisset_) and how Cicero (_Pro Cluentio_, xxi.) says: "Lead him to the judgment seat with twisted neck (_collo obtorto_)." {What thou owest} (\ei ti opheileis\). Literally, "if thou owest anything," however little. He did not even know how much it was, only that he owed him something. "The 'if' is simply the expression of a pitiless logic" (Meyer).

rwp@Matthew:18:34 @{The tormentors} (\tois basanistais\). Not to prison simply, but to terrible punishment. The papyri give various instances of the verb \basaniz\, to torture, used of slaves and others. "Livy (ii. 23) pictures an old centurion complaining that he was taken by his creditor, not into servitude, but to a workhouse and torture, and showing his back scarred with fresh wounds" (Vincent). {Till he should pay all} (\hes [hou] apodi pan\). Just as in verse 30|, his very words. But this is not purgatorial, but punitive, for he could never pay back that vast debt.