Matthew 20
Those hired late in the vineyard receive the same wage. He speaks a third time of his death, the mother of two sons makes her request, and at Jericho two blind men follow.
Workers (ἐργάται, ergatai) are hired labourers — this edition keeps them apart from the servant and slave words. This parable stands only in this book.
A denarius a day — the coin is kept as sound, and it was a day's wage.
Why this rendering
Matt.20.2 Observation
Syntactic observation
This verse looks back at one of our own earlier analyses. On the ten thousand talents against a hundred denarii of 18:24 we wrote that the text does not compute the ratio and that it comes from the lexica, filing the day's wage under a BDAG entry. But here at 20:2 the text says it itself — ἐκ δηναρίου τὴν ἡμέραν, at a denarius a day. At v.8 that denarius is called μισθός, the wage; at vv.9-10 the man who worked one hour and the man who worked all day each receive ἀνὰ δηνάριον. So there is a place inside Matthew where the denarius is priced, and the hundred denarii of 18:28 can be read against that scale. This is a place where widening the four Gospels gave a text-internal ground to something we had deferred to a lexicon — the prior-work entry at 18:24 stands, but this observation is set beside it. ἐργάτης occurs six times in Matthew (9:37, 38, 10:10, 20:1, 2, 8) and four in Luke, and not at all in Mark or John. συμφωνέω, to agree on a price, stands at vv.2 and 13, is the word of 18:19 where two agree, and stands once more at Luke 5:36, where a patch does not match — four places in the four Gospels.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Keeps the transliteration of coins and says of the value only what the text says; the text supplies the scale, so the translation need add nothing.
Basis The reader grasps the amount at once.
Rejected It collides with μισθός, wage, at v.8, fusing two words into one, and cuts the thread running to the hundred denarii of 18:28.
The third hour is about nine in the morning; the hours are counted from sunrise.
Whatever is right — no wage is named for these.
The sixth and the ninth hour — noon and mid-afternoon.
The eleventh is an hour before sunset.
Because no one hired us — the reason given is not idleness.
Beginning from the last — the order of payment is what makes the parable.
A denarius each — the wage promised to the first is given to the last.
They thought they would receive more — the expectation is recorded, not the promise.
Grumbled (γογγύζω, gongyzō) is a word made from the sound of muttering.
Scorching heat renders καύσων (kausōn) — the burning wind or the day's heat.
Friend renders ἑταῖρος (hetairos), a companion — this book uses the word three times, and never warmly.
Take what is yours and go — the wage is not reduced; the complaint is about the others.
Is your eye evil is a Semitic turn for envy or grudging, kept word for word.
The last will be first — the saying of 19:30, put back in the reverse order to close the parable.
On the road — this book puts the third telling of the death on the way up.
We are going up — the plural includes the disciples in the going.
Crucified — only this book names the manner in the third telling; Mark 10:34 stops at killing.
The mother of the sons of Zebedee — this book puts the request in the mother's mouth; Mark 10:35 has the two ask for themselves.
Why this rendering
Matt.20.20 Observation
Syntactic observation
The same request is made by different mouths in the two books. At Mark 10:35 James and John come themselves, address him as διδάσκαλε, teacher, and say we want you to do for us whatever we ask. At Matthew 20:20 their mother comes, with no address, and asks προσκυνοῦσα, doing obeisance. The content diverges too — Mark ἐν τῇ δόξῃ σου, in your glory; Matthew ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ σου, in your kingdom. The word for the left is one Mark changes within a single exchange — ἀριστερῶν at 10:37, εὐωνύμων at 10:40 — while Matthew has εὐωνύμων at both vv.21 and 23. (ἀριστερός stands three times in the four Gospels — Matt 6:3, Mark 10:37, Luke 23:33.) Luke does not have this request at all — Luke 22:24-27 keeps a dispute about who is greatest, but with no request, no mother, no cup and no right and left. Yet at v.22 the answer in Matthew turns to a plural you and goes to the sons (δύνασθε, are you able), and at v.24 the other ten are indignant about the two brothers — the mother asks, but answer and anger go to the sons. προσκυνέω occurs thirteen times in Matthew against two in Mark, and this place belongs to that line.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Renders the change of subject as the base text has it, and keeps the shift to plural at v.22; the seam that looks awkward is the datum visible when the books are set side by side.
Basis The subject is the mother, so the dialogue is evened out.
Rejected The Greek is plural (δύνασθε, αἰτεῖσθε); smoothing it to singular invents a coherence the text lacks and contradicts the two brothers of v.24.
In your kingdom — Mark 10:37 says “in your glory”.
The cup — Mark 10:38 sets a baptism beside it; this book has no baptism here, and Luke moves it to 12:50.
Why this rendering
Matt.20.22 Observation
Syntactic observation
Mark 10:38-39 sets cup and baptism side by side — can you drink the cup I drink, and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with — and repeats both at v.39. Matthew 20:22-23 has the cup only; no baptism. Read as a local omission this misses something. In Matthew βαπτίζω occurs seven times: six in ch. 3 (John the Baptist) and one at 28:19 (make disciples, baptizing them). The noun βάπτισμα stands at 3:7 and 21:25, both of John's baptism. So Matthew never uses the word in the middle of Jesus' ministry — only at the beginning and the end. Mark is otherwise: John in ch. 1, the washings of 7:4, four times at 10:38-39, and on to 16:16, thirteen in all. Luke takes a third path — the request of James and John is not here at all, and the baptism saying stands alone at 12:50: βάπτισμα δὲ ἔχω βαπτισθῆναι, I have a baptism to be baptized with. Mark keeps it here, Matthew does not keep it at all, and Luke moves it elsewhere. The absent baptism of Matthew 20:22 sits inside that distribution. The cup differs slightly too — Mark has ὃ ἐγὼ πίνω, which I drink, present; Matthew ὃ ἐγὼ μέλλω πίνειν, which I am about to drink.
Rendering options · 2
Basis It is not in the base text, and the absence fits Matthew's distribution of the word; supplying it breaks that.
Basis The Textus Receptus prints the baptism here.
Rejected By our base-text decision we follow SBLGNT; and the direction runs one way — the shorter being filled out to match a parallel is common, a double becoming single is not.
By my Father — only this book adds these words at the end.
Indignant (ἀγανακτέω, aganakteō) — the word used of Jesus at Mark 10:14.
Lord it over them and press them down keeps two Greek compounds built with a preposition meaning “down”, and spells the force out.
Servant renders διάκονος (diakonos), one who waits at table.
Slave (δοῦλος, doulos) is stronger than the servant of verse 26, and this edition keeps them apart.
Ransom (λύτρον, lytron) is a price paid to free someone. In the place of renders ἀντί (anti), in exchange for.
Why this rendering
Matt.20.28 Observation
Syntactic observation
This sentence matches Mark 10:45 word for word. λύτρον, ransom, occurs at these two places only in the four Gospels, and only here is it paired with ἀντί. What differs is the connective — Mark has καὶ γάρ, for indeed, making what precedes rest on it; Matthew has ὥσπερ, just as, making a comparison with the command before. So in Matthew the servant and the slave of vv.26-27 stand beside the figure of the Son of Man; in Mark they stand on it. Verse 25 diverges too: Mark 10:42 has οἱ δοκοῦντες ἄρχειν τῶν ἐθνῶν, those reputed to rule the nations, where Matthew 20:25 has οἱ ἄρχοντες τῶν ἐθνῶν, the rulers of the nations — Mark's reputed is absent from Matthew. κατακυριεύω and κατεξουσιάζω occur at two places each in the four Gospels, both in this passage. Luke 22:25 says the same thing without the prefixes — κυριεύουσιν, they lord it, and ἐξουσιάζοντες, those wielding authority, with no κατα-. κυριεύω occurs once in all four Gospels. And Luke has no λύτρον sentence at all — 22:27 ends with I am among you as the one who serves. The ransom saying belongs to Matthew and Mark alone. διακονέω stands twice in this verse, passive and active.
Rendering options · 2
Basis The Greek is identical, so the rendering must be, or the two places cannot be counted. ἀντί is not ὑπέρ, hence in the place of; and no rendering that states the conclusion in advance (fixed at Mark 10:45).
Basis Uses the settled rendering.
Rejected For renders ὑπέρ, and what stands here is ἀντί; and a word like atonement-price lets the translation state a conclusion about the term before the reader reaches one.
From Jericho — this book has the healing as they leave, as Mark 10:46 does; Luke 18:35 has it as they come near.
Two blind men — this book has two, as it had two demon-possessed men at 8:28; Mark 10:46 names one, Bartimaeus.
Why this rendering
Matt.20.30 Observation
Syntactic observation
At Mark 10:46 the blind man is one and has a name — Βαρτιμαῖος ὁ υἱὸς Τιμαίου, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, which Mark then translates. At Matthew 20:30 there are two and no name. But Matthew has another place with two blind men — 9:27-31, again two, again unnamed, crying have mercy on us, Son of David. The wording is not quite identical: 9:27 has ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς, υἱὲ Δαυίδ with a vocative, while 20:30 prefixes κύριε and has υἱὸς Δαυίδ in the nominative. Luke 18:35 is different again — τυφλός τις, a certain blind man, one and unnamed, and the cry at 18:38 is singular too (ἐλέησόν με). Three forms, then: in Mark a named single, in Matthew an unnamed pair (and twice over), in Luke an unnamed single. τυφλός occurs seventeen times in Matthew, sixteen in John, eight in Luke and five in Mark. And between two verses the word for eye changes — v.33 has οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἡμῶν, our eyes, and v.34 τῶν ὀμμάτων αὐτῶν, their eyes, with ὄμμα. ὄμμα stands twice in the four Gospels — Matthew 20:34, where the eyes are touched (ἥψατο), and Mark 8:23, where they are spat upon (πτύσας εἰς τὰ ὄμματα). At both, something reaches the eyes. Neither English nor Korean has two words to divide them.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Renders the base text; and blind man, not any pejorative, per the decision fixed at John 9.
Basis Treats it as one event and harmonizes the books.
Rejected The text says two and gives no name; harmonizing also erases that the pair stands twice in Matthew (9:27, 20:30).
Lost in translation
The word for eye changes between vv.33 and 34, and English has no second word to keep them apart; both become eyes, and Matthew's change of word disappears from the translation.
They cried out the more — the rebuke makes the crying louder.
What do you want me to do for you — the same question as at verse 21, now put to beggars.
That our eyes may be opened — they ask for sight, not for mercy only.
Moved with compassion is built on the word for the inward parts. Saw again (ἀναβλέπω, anablepō) says they had seen once.