Luke 16:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I am resolved— Anciently, stewards, besides taking care of their master's domestic affairs, gave leases of their lands, and settled the rent which each tenant was to pay; which is not an unusual mode in these days. Accordingly, the steward in the parable made use of this branch of his power to purchase the good-will of his lord's tenants. Having racked their rents in the leases which he had lately given, he now determined that they should have their possessions on the same terms as formerly. This interpretation of the parable may be gathered, not only from the nature of the thing, but from the proper sense of the words χρεωφειλετης and γραμμα, the one signifying any kind of debtor, and among the rest a tenant; and the other, any kind of obligatory writing, and among the rest a lease: besides, in this light, the favour which was done to the tenants was substantial, and laid them under lasting obligations: whereas, according to the common interpretation, the steward could not propose to reap so much benefit from any requital which the debtors would make to him for the sums forgiven them, as these sums were worth to himself; and therefore he might rather have exacted them, and put them in his own pocket.