Matthew 20:1-16
20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
20:2 After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.
20:3 When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace;
20:4 and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.
20:5 When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same.
20:6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’
20:7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’
20:8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’
20:9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.
20:10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.
20:11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner,
20:12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
20:13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
20:14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.
20:15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
20:16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
1 Ὁμοία γάρ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀνθρώπῳ οἰκοδεσπότῃ, ὅστις ἐξῆλθεν ἅμα πρωΐ μισθώσασθαι ἐργάτας εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα αὐτοῦ.
2 καὶ συμφωνήσας μετὰ τῶν ἐργατῶν ἐκ δηναρίου τὴν ἡμέραν ἀπέστειλεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα αὐτοῦ.
3 καὶ ἐξελθὼν περὶ τρίτην ὥραν εἶδεν ἄλλους ἑστῶτας ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ ἀργούς,
4 καὶ ἐκείνοις εἶπεν· ὑπάγετε καὶ ὑμεῖς εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα, καὶ ὃ ἐὰν ᾖ δίκαιον δώσω ὑμῖν. οἱ δὲ ἀπῆλθον.
5 Πάλιν ἐξελθὼν περὶ ἕκτην καὶ ἐνάτην ὥραν ἐποίησεν ὡσαύτως.
6 Περὶ δὲ τὴν ἑνδεκάτην ὥραν ἐξελθὼν εὗρεν ἄλλους ἑστῶτας ἀργούς, καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· τί ὧδε ἑστήκατε ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν ἀργοί;
7 Λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· ὅτι οὐδεὶς ἡμᾶς ἐμισθώσατο. λέγει αὐτοῖς· ὑπάγετε καὶ ὑμεῖς εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα, καὶ ὃ ἐὰν ᾖ δίκαιον λήψεσθε.
8 Ὀψίας δὲ γενομένης λέγει ὁ κύριος τοῦ ἀμπελῶνος τῷ ἐπιτρόπῳ αὐτοῦ· κάλεσον τοὺς ἐργάτας καὶ ἀπόδος αὐτοῖς τὸν μισθόν, ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῶν ἐσχάτων ἕως τῶν πρώτων.
9 Καὶ ἐλθόντες οἱ περὶ τὴν ἑνδεκάτην ὥραν ἔλαβον ἀνὰ δηνάριον.
10 Ἐλθόντες δὲ οἱ πρῶτοι ἐνόμισαν ὅτι πλείονα λήψονται, καὶ ἔλαβον καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀνὰ δηνάριον.
11 Λαβόντες δὲ ἐγόγγυζον κατὰ τοῦ οἰκοδεσπότου
12 λέγοντες ὅτι οὗτοι οἱ ἔσχατοι μίαν ὥραν ἐποίησαν, καὶ ἴσους ἡμῖν αὐτοὺς ἐποίησας τοῖς βαστάσασι τὸ βάρος τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τὸν καύσωνα.
13 Ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν ἑνὶ αὐτῶν· ἑταῖρε, οὐκ ἀδικῶ σε· οὐχὶ δηναρίου συνεφώνησάς μοι;
14 Ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε· θέλω δὲ τούτῳ τῷ ἐσχάτῳ δοῦναι ὡς καὶ σοί·
15 ἢ οὐκ ἔξεστί μοι ποιῆσαι ὃ θέλω ἐν τοῖς ἐμοῖς, εἰ ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου πονηρός ἐστιν ὅτι ἐγὼ ἀγαθός εἰμι;
16 Οὕτως ἔσονται οἱ ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι καὶ οἱ πρῶτοι ἔσχατοι· πολλοὶ γάρ εἰσι κλητοί, ὀλίγοι δὲ ἐκλεκτοί.
Comments
The main action of the parable is built around the time markers (the hours). The action culminates in the evening when the employer summons his hired hands to pay them. In this progression the parable recalls the staggered structure of many oral types including jokes.
[1] ἀνθρώπῳ οἰκοδεσπότῃ: οἰκοδεσπότης, ου, ὁ , ‘landowner’ (<δεσπότης/ master + oἶκος/ house, household); the substantive here is an adj. Not attested in LXX, it is apparently the koine equivalent of the cl. Gk periphrasis οἰκίας δεσπότης. See on v. 8, κύριος.
ἅμα πρωΐ: ἅμα, here a prep., ‘together with’ (hence it governs a dat.). πρωΐ is an adv. in cl. Gk (‘early’, in the morning’, LSJ); in LXX, as here, it is an indecl. noun (Muraoka). Thus ἅμα πρωΐ = ‘together with, at the same time as morning’, i.e. in the early morning. Cf. ἅμ’ ἕῳ (Thuc. 1.48, etc.). According to the 8th c. BC poet Hesiod, Works & Days 608-11, the vintage occurs in mid-September with the rising of Arcturus.
τὸν ἀμπελῶνα: ἀμπελών, ῶνος, ὁ, ‘vineyard’ (cl. Gk). Cf. ἄμπελος, ἡ, ‘vine’.
[2] ἐκ δηναρίου τὴν ἡμέραν: δηνάριον, τὸ, a denarius (or denary); LSJ and others note that it was the equivalent of a drachma; an average day’s wage for a seasonal worker (e.g., Harrington, i. 283);[1] also fair pay for a Roman soldier early in the 1st century (France, p. 749n17, citing Tacitus).[2] The prep. ἐκ (c. gen.) is used in LXX to mean ‘by paying as price’ (Muraoka, s.v. ἐκ). τὴν ἡμέραν, acc. of time, ‘per day’.
[3] περὶ τρίτην ὥραν: about 9 a.m. Thus begins the staggering of hours, around which the main narrative is built. The progression of time is stated in vv. 5,6, and 8.
ἀργούς: ἀργός (related to ἒργον, ‘work’) = ‘inactive, idle’. In cl. Gk , as in English, the adj. can be have a neutral sense (‘not working the ground’, Herodotus 5.6) or a pejorative one (‘lazy’). Here the adj. means ‘without work’.
[4] ὑπάγετε: 2nd pers. pl., pres. imperative of ὑπάγω, intr., which in cl. Gr. means ‘I go away’, but only becomes standard in the sense ‘I go’ in Hellenistic Greek. From Hellenistic ὑπάγω, attested in our pericope, is derived the modern Greek πηγαίνω, πάω, ‘I go’.
[8] Ὀψίας δὲ γενομένης: ὀψία, ἡ, ‘evening’, freq. joined with δείλη (‘afternoon’) in cl. Gk (LSJ). The part. phrase here is a genitive of time. The end of the day, which began quite early (v.1, ἅμα πρωΐ), and the dénouement of the plotlet.
ὁ κύριος τοῦ ἀμπελῶνος: ‘the lord/ owner of the vineyard’. As Albright & Mann, p. 237 also note, ‘The Greek word here [κύριος] is the one frequently used for God in the NT.’[3]
[11] ἐγόγγυζον: γογγύζω, ‘mutter, grumble’ (LSJ), post-cl. Greek, e.g. LXX. The gutturals in the vb make it sound onomatopoeic.
[12] τοῖς βαστάσασι τὸ βάρος τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τὸν καύσωνα: βαστάσασι , dat. pl., aor. part., βαστάζω, ‘Ι carry’ (cl. Gk, poetic); ‘the burden of the day’ is a striking expression. Καύσων, ωνος, ὁ, ‘burning heat’ (LSJ; cf. καίω, ‘I burn, scorch’).
[13] ἑταῖρε: expressive vocative of ἑταῖρος, ‘comrade, companion’; Socrates in Plato and Xenophon uses this address in an ironic vein, as an ‘exaggerated politeness’ which in other classical authors could indicate ‘intellectual superiority.’[4] R. T. France notes that this is an idiom peculiar to Matthew: ‘…there is an element of reproach and of distance…’[5] St Matthew, then, is complying with classical usage.
[15] ἢ οὐκ ἔξεστί μοι ποιῆσαι ὃ θέλω ἐν τοῖς ἐμοῖς, εἰ ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου πονηρός ἐστιν ὅτι ἐγὼ ἀγαθός εἰμι;: εἰ (for ἢ) must be a scribal error caused by confusing the ee sound represented by several vowels and diphthongs such as η and ει (itacism). The Latin Vulgate (Douay-Rheims, 2013) prints ‘An oculus tuus nequam est quia ego bonus sum?’, which accords with the Engl. tr. Thus the verse consists of a pair of strongly disjunctive questions: as a rule, ἢ – ἢ introduces an emphatic disjunction, ‘a OR b’.
ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου πονηρός: The dissatisfied worker presumably looks at the other worker with envy: envy and social antagonism in general activate the evil eye, on which see J. C. B. Petropoulos, Greek magic, ancient, medieval, modern, London & NY, 2008, passim.
[16] ἔσονται οἱ ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι καὶ οἱ πρῶτοι ἔσχατοι: this chiaston (AB ~ BA) expresses a well- known religious paradox. πολλοὶ γάρ εἰσι κλητοί, ὀλίγοι δὲ ἐκλεκτοί: this antithetical statement (‘Many indeed are called but few are chosen’) is also preserved in the Latin Vulgate but omitted in the Engl. tr. Albright & Mann op. cit., 237 note ad loc. that these words are misplaced here but better suit Mt 20:14.
[1] D. J. Harrington, S. J., The Gospel of Matthew, vol. I, Collegeville, Minn., 1991.
[2] R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, Grand Rapids, MI & Cambridge, UK, 2007.
[3] W. F. Albright and C.S. Mann, The Anchor Yale Bible, Matthew, Introduction, translation, and commentary, New Haven & London, 1971, rp., 2011.
[4] E. Dickey, ‘Forms of address and markers of status’, in E. J. Bakker (ed.), A companion to the ancient Greek language, Malden, MA, Oxford, & West Sussex, 2013, p. 330.
[5] France op. cit., 1009-10n4.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 