Pound (Mina)

A pound (the Greek mina) was a sizable sum of money, worth about a hundred denarii — roughly three months’ wages. It is the unit at the centre of Jesus’ parable of the pounds, told as he neared Jerusalem to correct the expectation that the kingdom would appear at once.

A nobleman, leaving to receive a kingdom, gave ten servants one pound each and said, “Occupy till I come.” Here, unlike the parable of the talents, each servant receives the same amount — the test is what each does with an identical trust during the master’s absence.

On his return the faithful are rewarded out of all proportion: the servant whose pound gained ten is set “over ten cities.” The one who hid his pound in a napkin, fearing his master, loses even what he had. The pound teaches that small, faithful stewardship in the waiting time is rewarded with vast responsibility — and that fearful inaction is itself a failure of trust.