Matthewchapter 20
34 verses · Matthew, by tradition · AD 50 to 65 · The Gospels
Key verse
And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
It stands in Laborers Hired at the Eleventh Hour, verses 1 to 16.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Laborers in the vineyard. All receive a penny; the last first. Third passion prediction. Request of the mother of James and John, and the 'not so among you' teaching: 'the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.' Two blind men at Jericho healed.
Context
Gospel · Matthew · Matthew overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- Jewish readers who had watched day labourers wait for work
- Where
- A village marketplace at dawn, the road down to Jericho, and the pilgrim crowd
- When
- The journey south toward Jerusalem. c. AD 30
Historical context
The hiring square was a real institution. Men without land gathered in the marketplace before sunrise, and landowners came and picked crews for the day. Those still standing at five in the afternoon were the ones nobody had wanted, and a man who went home unhired had nothing to feed his household with that night.
The denarius was the standard day's wage for such work, and the Law required that a hired man be paid before sundown, because he lived on it. The urgency in the parable is the grape harvest, which has to come in fast before the rains, so an owner really would keep going back for more hands.
The mother's request for the two best seats assumes a royal court, where the places at a king's right and left were the two great offices of state. Jesus answers with a cup, a common Old Testament image for a portion assigned by God, often a portion of suffering.
The contrast he draws was visible everywhere. Rulers in the Greek and Roman world took titles like benefactor while taxing the people who honoured them, and client kings advertised their generosity on their coins. Jesus says his court runs the other way: whoever wants to be first must be a slave.
Jericho, where the chapter ends, was a wealthy town, Herod had a winter palace there, and the surrounding groves produced the costly balsam trade. It also sat on the main pilgrim road to Jerusalem, which is why beggars worked its roadside during festival season.
Significance
The vineyard parable was aimed at exactly the resentment Matthew's mixed communities felt: latecomers receiving the same as those who had borne the day's heat. The owner has broken no contract. He has simply been generous, and generosity offends the man keeping score.
And the chapter states the purpose of the whole journey in one sentence: the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many. To readers arguing about how a Messiah could be executed, that line said the cross was not the accident. It was the errand.
Where the chapter sits
Matthew 20 falls in Community in the Kingdom (chapters 18). Discourse 4: greatness, forgiveness.
Before it: Parables of the Kingdom, chapters 13. After it: Olivet Discourse, chapters 24–25.
The whole shape of Matthew→The structure of this chapter
People1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Laborers Hired at the Eleventh Hour
early in the morning to hire labourers: For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder opens the parable directly on 19:30's saying, the last shall be first, and the first last, which 20:16 will repeat almost word for word as its own conclusion. A penny, the Roman denarius, was the standard day's wage for a laborer across the empire, and the bench notes the householder agrees this sum plainly with the earliest hired, a contract both parties accept without complaint before the day begins. Early in the morning marks the first hour, roughly six o'clock, setting the parable's clock running for the contrasts that follow.
Matthew 20:1
“For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man,.... That is, the Gospel dispensation, or times of the Messiah, may fitly be represented by a man that is an householder, or master of a family, as Christ is; See Gill on Mat 10:25 He is master of the whole family of God, in heaven, and in earth, of all the children of God, and household of faith; his house they are, he is Father and master, son and firstborn, priest and prophet there.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Matthew 20:1
“There are undeniable difficulties in the parable contained in these verses. The key to the right explanation of them must be sought in the passage which concludes the last chapter. There we find the apostle Peter asking our Lord a remarkable question: “We have forsaken all and followed thee! What shall we have therefore?” There we find Jesus giving a remarkable answer. He makes a special promise to Peter and his fellow disciples: they should one day sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
J.C. Ryle· Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew (1856)Reformed Evangelical
Matthew 20:1
“The kingdom of heaven is like - That is, the manner of God's proceeding in his kingdom resembles that of a householder. In the morning - At six, called by the Roman and Jews, the first hour.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Matthew 20:2
“A penny - A Roman coin, as noted before, Mat 18:28, worth about seven-pence halfpenny or seven-pence three farthings of our money, and equal to the Greek drachma. This appears to have been the ordinary price of a day’s labor at that time. See Tobit 5:14. In 1351 the price of labor was regulated in this country by parliament; and it is remarkable that “corn-weeders and hay-makers, without meat, drink, or other courtesy demanded,” were to have one penny per day!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:2
“He gives to all "their single denarius," which is the grace of the Spirit, perfecting the saints in conformity with God and impressing the heavenly stamp on their souls and leading them to life and immortality.”
Cyril of Alexandria· written before 444· FRAGMENT 226patristic
standing idle in the marketplace: at the third, sixth, ninth and eleventh hours describes real day-laboring practice, men without their own land or trade gathering each morning hoping to be hired, and the bench reads their idleness as involuntary, no man hath hired us, rather than laziness. To these later groups the householder gives no fixed sum, only whatsoever is right I will give you, a promise resting entirely on his own fairness rather than a negotiated wage. The bench notes the parable is already dividing its hearers by how much they trust the householder's word without a contract to secure it.
Matthew 20:3
“And he went out about the third hour,.... About nine o'clock in the morning, and saw others standing idle in the market place: the place where labourers used to be hired: and may design the world, because a place full of people, and of great wickedness, for the whole world lies in it; a place of trade and traffic in worldly things, and likewise of worldly and carnal pleasure, and also of idleness.”
3 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:3
“About the third hour - The Jews divided their days into twelve equal parts, or hours, beginning at sunrise and ending at sunset. This was, therefore about nine o’clock in the morning. Standing idle in the market-place - A place where provisions are sold in towns. Of course, many resort to such places, and it would be the readiest place to meet persons and find employers. They were not, therefore, disposed to be idle, but were waiting in the proper place to find employers.”
Matthew 20:3
“Or, He did not call upon the labourers of the third hour for a complete task, but left to their own choice, how much they should work. For they might perform in the vineyard work equal to that of those who had wrought since the morning, if they chose to put forth upon their task an operative energy, such as had not yet been exerted.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 20:3
“No parable teaches all sides of the Truth of God. It is wrong to attempt to make a parable run on all fours—it is intended to convey some one lesson—and if it teaches that, we must not attempt to draw everything else out of it. This parable sets forth the great God as a householder going forth to find men to work for Him, but let no man imagine that God needs any of us! He was perfect—perfectly happy and perfectly glorious—long before wings of angels moved in space, or before space and time even existed!”
Charles Spurgeon· written before 1892· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2517: “From Twenty-five to Thirty-five” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Matthew 20:4
“And said unto them, go ye also into the vineyard,.... Expressive of a call of divine grace out of the world, into the church; and which arises from mere grace, and good will, without any merit in, or motive from man, as the case here shows: for the householder went out to these men, not they to him; he puts the question to them, and calls them, and bids them go into his vineyard; they do not ask him to hire them, nor desire to be in his service.”
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:4
“Whatsoever is right - Whatsoever it shall appear you can earn. The contract with the first was definite; with this one it depended on the judgment of the employer.”
Matthew 20:4
“There is hope for old sinners; for if, in sincerity, they turn to God, they shall doubtless be accepted; true repentance is never too late. There is hope of old sinners, that they may be brought to true repentance; nothing is too hard for Almighty grace to do, it can change the Ethiopian's skin, and the leopard's spots; can set those to work, who have contracted a habit of idleness.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 20:5
“Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour,.... About twelve o'clock, or at noon, and three o'clock in the afternoon. These three last mentioned seasons of the day, were the hours of prayer; see Act 2:15 and did likewise: seeing others in the same place, and posture, he called them, and sent them into his vineyard, to labour there, giving them the same promise he did to others.”
eleventh hour: The eleventh hour, roughly five in the afternoon with only one hour of daylight labor remaining, brings the last and latest group into the vineyard, and their answer, because no man hath hired us, again names their standing idle as want of opportunity rather than choice. The bench reads this group as the parable's sharpest test case for what follows, since no one, least of all the laborers themselves, could expect a full day's pay for one hour's work. Go ye also into the vineyard is the same call given at every hour, and the parable's whole weight will rest on what the householder does at day's end rather than on anything the laborers earned by their timing.
Matthew 20:6
“And about the eleventh hour he went out,.... About five o'clock in the afternoon. The Persic version reads it, "the twelfth hour", which was six o'clock in the afternoon, the last hour of the day. The Jews divided their day into twelve hours, Joh 11:9 and these twelve hours into four parts; Neh 9:3 each part containing three hours, to which division there is a manifest respect in this parable.”
4 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:6
“But this, Why stand ye here all the day idle? is not said to such as having begun in the spirit (Gal. 3:3) have been made perfect by the flesh, as inviting them to return again, and to live in the Spirit. This we speak not to dissuade prodigal sons, who have consumed their substance of evangelic doctrine in riotous living, from returning to their father's house; but because they are not like those who sinned in their youth, before they had learnt the things of the faith.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 20:6
“Eleventh - Five o’clock in the evening, when there was only one hour before the end of the Jewish day, which, in matters of labor, closed at six.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 20:6
“Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Secondly, Till we are hired into the service of God, we are standing all the day idle; a sinful state, though a state of drudgery to Satan, may really be called a state of idleness; sinners are doing nothing, nothing to the purpose, nothing of the great work they were sent into the world about, nothing that will pass well in the account.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 20:6
“WE have come to the end of another year. Better is the end of a year than the beginning thereof. A year is begun with fear and trembling—it closes with joy and thankfulness. In the beginning of the year, we are like the sailor when he leaves port, hoists his sails and goes out on the broad sea toward a distant country. At the end of the year, we are sometimes like that mariner when he casts his anchor overboard and lies still in the haven.”
Charles Spurgeon· written before 1892· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2602: “Good News for the Aged” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Matthew 20:7
“No man hath hired us - This was the reason why they were all the day idle. And whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive - Ye may expect payment in proportion to your labor, and the time ye spend in it; but this clause is wanting in some of the best MSS., versions, and fathers.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:7
“The last ones, receiving the generosity of the Master instead of troubles, are first to receive their reward, since all those after the Lord's coming have become—through baptism and the union with the Spirit—"sharers in God's nature" and are called sons of God.… For the prophets too have become sharers in the Spirit, but not in the same way as the faithful, since the Holy Spirit is in some way like a leaven for the souls of the faithful and changes the entire man to another condition of life.”
Cyril of Alexandria· written before 444· FRAGMENT 226patristic
beginning from the last: unto the first is a deliberate ordering the householder commands his steward to follow, and the bench notes this reversal of the natural order is what makes the parable's point visible at all, since the first-hired see exactly what the last-hired receive before their own wages are counted out. They likewise received every man a penny gives the eleventh-hour laborers the full day's wage agreed with the first, and the ones who bore the burden and heat of the day naturally supposed they should have received more, an assumption the parable is built to overturn.
Matthew 20:8
“Or; The Lord said to his steward, that is, to one of the Angels who was set over the payment of the labourers; or to one of those many guardians, according to what is written, that The heir as long as he is a child is under tutors and governors. (Gal. 4:2.)”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:8
“When the even was come - Six o’clock, the time they ceased from labor, and the workmen came to receive their wages. Steward - Επιτρωπος. A manager of the household concerns under the master. The rabbinical writers use the very same word, in Hebrew letters, for the same office, אפיטרופוס epitropos. See Kypke.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 20:9
“And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour,.... Who were the last that were hired; and signify either such, as are called in their last days, in old age; or Gentile sinners; or the last of God's elect, that will be called by grace, in the end of the world: they received every man a penny: the same they first agreed for, that were hired early into the vineyard; and all, and every man alike, not one more and another less.”
4 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:9
“They received every man a penny - There was no agreement how much they should receive, but merely that justice should be done, Mat 20:4-5, Mat 20:7. The householder supposed they had earned it, or chose to make a present to them to compensate for the loss of the first part of the day, when they were willing to work, but could not find employment.”
Matthew 20:9
“How many fathers were there before the law, how many under the law, and yet those who were called at the Lord's coming arrived at the kingdom of heaven without any delay. Therefore those who labored until the eleventh hour receive the same denarius that those who labored from the first hour awaited with all their desire, because those who came to the Lord at the end of the world obtained an equal reward of eternal life with those who had been called from the beginning of the world.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 19patristic
Matthew 20:9
“Who were hired about the eleventh hour - Either the Gentiles, who were called long after the Jews into the vineyard of the Church of Christ; or those in every age who did not hear, or at least understand the Gospel call, till their day of life was drawing to a period.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Matthew 20:9
“Those whom Christ fed miraculously, though of different sizes, men, women, and children, did all eat, and were filled. The giving of a whole day's wages to those that had not done the tenth part of a day's work, is designed to show that God distributes his rewards by grace and sovereignty, and not of debt.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 20:10
“But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more--This is that calculating, mercenary spirit which had peeped out--though perhaps very slightly--in Peter's question (Mt 19:27), and which this parable was designed once for all to put down among the servants of Christ.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:10
“Among these [workers] the first seem to have toiled more than the last as having been subject longer to the devil's fanaticism—sin and death and corruption not yet being overpowered. If examined on an equal basis, the matter supposes that more is owed to the earlier workers, because they lived their life when death and the devil ruled; for this is "the burden of the day and the scorching heat," when not even the dew of the Spirit was present to help men to righteousness.”
Cyril of Alexandria· written before 444· FRAGMENT 226patristic
Matthew 20:10
“They supposed that they should have received more - They had worked longer - they had been in the heat; they supposed that it was his intention to pay them, not according to contract, but according to the time of the labor.”
murmured against the goodman: They murmured against the goodman of the house, complaining these last have wrought but one hour and thou hast made them equal unto us, states the grievance plainly, a complaint of fairness measured strictly by hours logged rather than by the wage actually promised them. The burden and heat of the day names a real hardship, the Judean sun making midday field labor genuinely severe, and the bench does not dismiss the complaint as baseless in itself but reads it as misdirected, since the murmurers received precisely what they had agreed to at the day's start.
Matthew 20:11
“Murmured - Complained; found fault with. The goodman of the house - The original here is the same word which in Mat 20:1 is translated householder, and should have been so translated here. It is the old English way of denoting the father of a family. It expresses no moral quality.”
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:11
“Hence those who had preceded in labor also say, murmuring: These last worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the heat? For those have borne the burden of the day and the heat whom it befell from the beginning of the world, because they happened to live here for a long time, to endure also longer temptations of the flesh.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 19patristic
Matthew 20:11
“The Gentiles, who are newly called in, have as much of the privileges of the kingdom of the Messiah as the Jews have, who have so long been labouring in the vineyard of the Old-Testament church, under the yoke of the ceremonial law, in expectation of that kingdom.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 20:12
“Thou hast made them equal to us - So St. Peter expressly, Acts xv, 9. God-hath put no difference between us (Jews) and them, (Gentiles, ) purifying their hearts by faith.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Friend, I do thee no wrong: is the householder's answer to one representative laborer, and the bench reads friend here as the address used elsewhere in Matthew for a person about to be corrected rather than a term of easy affection, appearing again at 22:12 and 26:50. Didst not thou agree with me for a penny settles the legal question outright, no promise was broken, and I will give unto this last, even as unto thee, states the householder's freedom to be generous beyond the contract without thereby being unjust within it.
Matthew 20:13
“Friend, I do thee no wrong - I have fully complied with the contract. We had an agreement: I have paid all that I promised. If I choose to give a penny to another man if he labors little or not at all if I should choose to give all my property away to others, it would not affect this contract with you: it is fully met; and with my own with that on which you have no further claim I may do as I please.”
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:13
“Because it is free grace, that is given to those that have it, boasting is for ever excluded; and because it is free grace, that is withheld from those that have it not, murmuring is for ever excluded.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 20:14
“Take that thine is,.... By agreement, and go thy way; out of my sight, give me no more trouble on this head; which looks like a dismissal from his service, and after privileges; and was true of many among the Jews, who were only nominal professors, and from whom the Gospel and ordinances of it were taken: I will give unto this last man that was called, and sent into the vineyard, even as unto thee; the same outward privileges, besides special grace, and eternal glory, which it looks as if the other had not.”
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:14
“It is my will to give to this last called among the heathens even as to the first called among the Jews: yea, and to the late converted publicans and sinners, even as to those who, were called long before.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Is thine eye evil: Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own asserts the householder's right to give generously from what belongs to him, and is thine eye evil, because I am good uses the Hebrew idiom for envy, an evil eye, naming the murmurers' real complaint as grudging another's good fortune rather than any injury to themselves. So the last shall be first, and the first last closes the parable exactly where 19:30 opened the thought, and but many be called, few chosen adds a further word the bench connects to the wedding parable of chapter 22, the call going out to all while the response and its reward rest on grace rather than merit or seniority of service.
Matthew 20:15
“But can it be inferred from hence, that it is lawful, or possible, for the merciful Father of spirits to "Consign an unborn soul to hell? Or damn him from his mother's womb?" Is thine eye evil because I am good - Art thou envious, because I am gracious? Here is an evident reference to that malignant aspect, which is generally the attendant of a selfish and envious temper.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:15
Is thine we evil because I am good? - The Hebrews used the word evil, when applied to the eye, to denote one envious and malicious, Deu 15:9; Pro 23:6. The eye is called evil in such cases, because envy and malice show themselves directly in the eye. No passions are so fully expressed by the eye as these. “Does envy show itself in the eye? is thine eye so soon turned to express envy and malice because I have chosen to do good?”
Matthew 20:15
“Abstulit, sed et dedit--He hath taken away; but he originally gave. It is not for such depending creatures as we are to quarrel with our Sovereign. Secondly, In all the dispensations of his grace, God gives or withholds the means of grace, and the Spirit of grace, as he pleases.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 20:16
“So the last shall be first, and the first last - Not only with regard to the Jews and Gentiles, but in a thousand other instances. For many are called - All who hear the Gospel; but few chosen - Only those who obey it.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:16
“But that cannot be the meaning of it here; the "called" being emphatically distinguished from the "chosen." It can only mean here the "invited." And so the sense is, Many receive the invitations of the Gospel whom God has never "chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2Th 2:13).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Going Up to Jerusalem to Dievv. 17-19
took the twelve disciples apart: Jesus took the twelve disciples apart in the way to speak privately what the crowds could not yet bear, and this third passion prediction is the most detailed of the three, naming the chief priests and scribes who will condemn him, the Gentiles who will mock, scourge and crucify him, and the third day he shall rise again. The bench notes the specific mention of crucifixion, a Roman penalty the Jewish authorities alone could not carry out, correctly anticipating the very handover to Pilate that follows within days. The prediction's precision, delivered well before the events, stands against any reading of the passion as unplanned or forced upon Jesus rather than walked into deliberately.
Matthew 20:17
“See also Mar 10:32-34; Luk 18:31-34. And Jesus, going up to Jerusalem - That is, doubtless, to the Passover. This journey was from the east side of Jordan. See the notes at Mat 19:1. At this time he was on this journey to Jerusalem, probably not far from Jericho. This was his last journey to Jerusalem. He was going up to die for the sins of the world. Took the twelve disciples apart - All the males of the Jews were required to be at this feast, Exo 23:17. The roads, therefore, on such occasions, would probably be thronged.”
4 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:17
“And Jesus going up to Jerusalem,.... Which was situated (f) in the highest part of the land of Israel: the land of Israel, is said to be higher than any other land whatever; and the temple at Jerusalem, higher than any part of the land of Israel; wherefore Christ's going to Jerusalem, is expressed by going up to it.”
Matthew 20:17
“He had often told His disciples of His passion, but because it might have slipped out of their recollection by reason of the many things they had heard in the mean while, now when He is going to Jerusalem, and going to take His disciples with Him, He fortifies them against the trial, that they should not be scandalized when the persecution and shame of the Cross should come.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 20:17
“The first thing that we should notice in these verses is the clear announcement which the Lord Jesus Christ makes of his own approaching death. For the third time we find him telling his disciples the astounding truth that he, their wonder-working Master, must soon suffer and die. The Lord Jesus knew from the beginning all that was before him.”
J.C. Ryle· Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew (1856)Reformed Evangelical
Matthew 20:17
“You have this same story in Matthew, Mark and Luke, a little differently told, as would naturally be the case when the information came from three different observers. It will be to our edification to put the three accounts together, so as to get a complete view of the incident, for each Evangelist mentions something omitted by the others. Our Lord firmly resolved to go to Jerusalem about a fortnight before the Passover, with the view of becoming, Himself, the Lamb of God's Passover.”
Matthew 20:18
“There is no mention that the disciples either said or did any thing upon hearing of these sufferings that should thus come upon Christ; remembering what the Lord had said to Peter, they were afraid they should have had the like or worse addressed to themselves.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 20:19
“For Judas delivered the Lord to the Jews, and they delivered Him to the Gentiles, that is to Pilate, and the Roman power. To this end the Lord refused to be prosperous in this world, but rather chose to suffer affliction, that He might show us, who have yielded to delights, through how great bitterness we must needs return; whence it follows, To mock, and to scourge, and to crucify.”
Rabanus Maurus· written before 856· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:19
“Deliver him to the Gentiles to mock - This was done by Herod and his Roman soldiers. See Luk 23:11. To scourge, and to crucify - This was done by Pilate, the Roman governor. The punishment of the cross was Roman not Jewish; but the chief priests condemned him to it, and the Romans executed the sentence. How little did they know that they were, by this process, jointly offering up that sacrifice which was to make an atonement for the Gentiles and for the Jews; an atonement for the sin of the whole world?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A Mother's Request; Greatness Is Service
mother of Zebedee’s children: The mother of Zebedee's children, identified by comparison with Mark 15:40 and 16:1 as Salome, brings her sons James and John to ask that they sit on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom, the two positions of highest honor beside a ruler. The bench notes the timing is jarring, this request coming immediately after Jesus has just told them plainly he is going to Jerusalem to die, showing how little the passion prediction had yet registered against their expectation of an imminent earthly throne. Mark's parallel has the sons themselves asking directly, and the bench reads Matthew's inclusion of the mother as likely reflecting her role in bringing the request forward rather than any attempt to shift blame from James and John, since Jesus answers them, not her, in the verses that follow.
Matthew 20:20
“See also Mar 10:35-45. Mat 20:20 Then came to him give mother of Zebedee’s children ... - This was probably Salome, Mar 15:40; Mar 16:1. With her sons - The names of these sons were James and John, Mar 10:35 Mark says they came and made the request. That is, they made it, as appears from Matthew, through the medium of their mother; they requested her to ask it for them. It is not improbable that she was an ambitious woman, and was desirous to see her sons honored. Worshipping him - Showing him respect; respectfully saluting him.”
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:20
“The Lord having concluded by saying, And shall rise again the third day; the woman thought that after His resurrection He should forthwith reign, and with womanish eagerness grasps at what is present, forgetful of the future. And no wonder, if she is convicted of inexperience, seeing it is said of Peter, Not knowing what he said. (Luke 9:33.)”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 20:21
“Grant that these my two sons - James and John. See Mar 15:40. In the preceding chapter, Mat 19:28, our Lord had promised his disciples, that they should sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes. Salome, probably hearing of this, and understanding it literally, came to request the chief dignities in this new government for her sons; and it appears it was at their instigation that she made this request, for Mark, Mar 10:35, informs us that these brethren themselves made the request, i.e. they made it through the medium of their mother.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:21
“For if in an earthly kingdom they are thought to be in honour who sit with the king, no wonder if a woman with womanish simplicity or want of experience conceived that she might ask such things, and that the brethren themselves being not perfect, and having no more lofty thoughts concerning Christ's kingdom, conceived such things concerning those who shall sit with Jesus.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
drink of the cup: Ye know not what ye ask exposes the request's ignorance before answering it, and are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of reaches back to the Old Testament's own image of the cup of suffering, as in Psalm 75:8 and Isaiah 51:17, the very figure Jesus will use again in Gethsemane at 26:39. We are able answers with more confidence than knowledge, and Jesus grants that they will indeed share his cup, James becoming the first apostle martyred in Acts 12:2 and John enduring exile and persecution, yet to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father draws the line the bench reads carefully, the Son submitting the honor of that seat to the Father's own appointment rather than his own disposal, a statement about the ordered relations within the Godhead rather than any lack of the Son's own authority.
Matthew 20:22
“Ye know not what ye ask - How strange is the infatuation, in some parents, which leads them to desire worldly or ecclesiastical honors for their children! He must be much in love with the cross who wishes to have his child a minister of the Gospel; for, if he be such as God approves of in the work, his life will be a life of toil and suffering; he will be obliged to sip, at least, if not to drink largely, of the cup of Christ.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:22
“Ye know not what is implied in being advanced in my kingdom, and necessarily prerequired thereto. All who share in my kingdom must first share in my sufferings. Are you able and willing to do this?”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Matthew 20:22
“It is but a baptism; if dipped, that is the worst of it, not drowned; perplexed, but not in despair. Baptism is an ordinance by which we join ourselves to the Lord in covenant and communion; and so is suffering for Christ, Ezek. xx. Baptism is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace;" and so is suffering for Christ, for unto us it is given, Phil. i.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 20:23
“Is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for wham it is prepared of my Father - The common translation, in which the words, it shall be given to them; are interpolated by our translators, utterly changes and destroys the meaning of the passage. It represents Christ (in opposition to the whole Scriptures) as having nothing to do in the dispensing of rewards and punishments; whereas, our Lord only intimates that, however partial he may be to these two brethren, yet seats in glory can only be given to those who are fitted for them.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:23
“And he saith unto them, ye shall drink indeed of my cup,.... Not of the selfsame, but of what was like unto it; meaning, that they should endure much persecution for his name's sake, as all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must expect in one shape or another.”
Matthew 20:23
“But he does not deny that this is his to give. It is his to give in the strictest propriety, both as God, and as the Son of man. He only asserts, that he gives it to none but those for whom it is originally prepared; namely, those who endure to the end in the faith that worketh by love.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Matthew 20:23
“He took the cup, offered himself to the baptism, and it was accepted. (2.) He leaves them in the dark about the degrees of their glory. To carry them cheerfully through their sufferings, it was enough to be assured that they should have a place in his kingdom.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
moved with indignation: The ten heard it, and were moved with indignation against the two brethren, and the bench reads their anger as no purer than James and John's own ambition, envy at being nearly outmaneuvered rather than a righteous objection to the request itself. Jesus calls all twelve together and names the pattern they are unconsciously copying, the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them, describing the ordinary shape of worldly power as domination secured and displayed.
Matthew 20:24
“These verses are few in number, but they contain lessons of great importance to all professing Christians. Let us see what they are. In the first place we learn that there may be pride, jealousy and love of preeminence even among true disciples of Christ. What sayeth the Scripture? When the ten heard what James and John had asked, “they were moved with indignation against the two brothren.” Pride is one of the oldest and most mischievous of sins: by it the angels fell, for they “kept not their first estate.” ( Jude 6 ).”
J.C. Ryle· Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew (1856)Reformed Evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:24
“When the ten heard it, they were moved - The ambition which leads to spiritual lordship is one great cause of murmurings and animosities in religious societies, and has proved the ruin of the most flourishing Churches in the universe.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 20:25
“Exercise dominion - and - exercise authority upon them - They tyrannized and exercised arbitrary power over the people. This was certainly true of the governments in our Lord’s time, both in the east and in the west. I have endeavored to express, as nearly as possible, the meaning of the two Greek verbs, κατακυριευουσιν, and κατεξουσιαζουσιν; and those who understand the genius of the language will perceive that I have not exhausted their sense, however some may think that no emphasis was intended, and that these compound verbs are used for the simple κυριευειν, and εξουσιαζειν.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:25
“Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles Lord it over them - And hence you imagine, the chief in my kingdom will do as they: but it will be quite otherwise.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
let him be your minister: But it shall not be so among you inverts the pattern just named, and whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister uses diakonos, the word for a table servant, while whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant intensifies it further with doulos, a slave. The bench reads the two Greek terms as a deliberate escalation, greatness measured by service and chiefship measured by the lowest servitude the culture knew, an ordering exactly opposite to the Gentile rulers just described.
Matthew 20:27
“And whosoever will be chief among you,.... Or first, or have the pre-eminence, the first place in the kingdom of the Messiah, let him be your servant; or, as in Mark, shall be servant of all: not only a minister, but a servant; not a servant of some only, but of all.”
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:27
“Whoever would be first among you shall be your servant: but to make oneself a servant of others is to abase oneself with the greatest abasement: therefore self-emptying and self-abasement belong to evangelical perfection.”
Bonaventure· written before 1257· Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 1patristic
Matthew 20:27
“Your servant - Δουλος the lowest secular office, as deacon was the lowest ecclesiastical office: δουλος is often put for slave. From these directions of our Lord, we may easily discern what sort of a spirit his ministers should be of. 1. A minister of Christ is not to consider himself a lord over Christ’s flock. 2. He is not to conduct the concerns of the Church with an imperious spirit. 3. He is to reform the weak, after Christ’s example, more by loving instruction than by reproof or censure.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a ransom for many: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister grounds the whole teaching in Jesus' own example rather than mere instruction, and to give his life a ransom for many is among the clearest statements in the Gospels of the purpose of the cross, lutron in the Greek naming the price paid to secure a captive's release. The bench reads for many, anti pollon, as inclusive of a great multitude rather than a limiting number, echoing Isaiah 53:11 and 12's servant who bore the sin of many, and the ransom language raises the question the church has long debated, to whom the ransom is paid, a question the text itself does not settle and the exposition leaves open rather than adjudicated.
Matthew 20:28
“A ransom for many - Λυτρον αντι πολλων, or a ransom instead of many, - one ransom, or atonement, instead of the many prescribed in the Jewish law. Mr. Wakefield contends for the above translation, and with considerable show of reason and probability. The word λυτρον is used by the Septuagint for the Hebrew פדיו, pidion, the ransom paid for a man’s life: see Exo 21:30; Num 3:49-51; and λυτρα is used Num 35:31, where a satisfaction (Hebrew כפר copher, an atonement) for the life of a murderer is refused.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Two Blind Men Cry Out at Jericho
departed from Jericho: As they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him sets the scene for the last healing before Jerusalem, and the bench notes an apparent tension with Luke 18:35, which places the healing as Jesus draws near to Jericho rather than departing from it, most naturally resolved by the presence of both an old Jericho and a new Herodian Jericho nearby, so that leaving one city meant approaching the other. Two blind men, one named by Mark as Bartimaeus, cry Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David, using the messianic title the crowd itself does not yet grant him, and the multitude's rebuke only makes them cry the more, their persistence outlasting the crowd's attempt to silence them.
Matthew 20:29
“There were many robbers in Jericho who used to attack and harm those who were coming in and going out of Jerusalem; therefore the Lord came to Jericho with his disciples, to heal the wounded and to bring a large crowd with him. Finally, after they want to leave from Jericho, a large crowd followed him. If he had stayed in Jerusalem and never descended to the lowly things, the crowd would still be sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death until today.”
Jerome· written before 420· Commentary on Matthewpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:29
“And as they departed from Jericho,.... Which, was distant about ten parsas, or miles, from Jerusalem (i), through which Christ just passed, and had met with Zacchaeus, and called him, and delivered the parable concerning a nobleman's going into a far country.”
Matthew 20:29
“In these verses we have a touching picture of an event in our Lord’s history. He heals two blind men sitting by the wayside, near Jericho. The circumstances of the event contain several deeply interesting lessons, which all professing Christians would do well to remember. For one thing, let us mark what strong faith may sometimes be found where it might least have been expected. Blind as these two men were, they believed that Jesus was able to help them. They never saw any of our Lord’s miracles; they knew him only by hearsay, and not face to face.”
J.C. Ryle· Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew (1856)Reformed Evangelical
Matthew 20:30
“And behold, two blind men,.... Mark and Luke make mention but of one; which is no contradiction to Matthew; for they neither of them say that there was but one.”
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:30
“But there were also two blind men by the road. He calls blind those who could not yet speak: In your light we will see light (Ps. XXXV (Psalm 36 in this reader's Bible), 10). Along the road, because they seemed to have knowledge of the Law: but they were ignorant of the way, which is Christ: whom most understand as the Pharisees and Sadducees, and others as both the people, the old Testament and the New: because one, following the written Law, was blind without Christ.”
Jerome· written before 420· Commentary on Matthewpatristic
Matthew 20:30
“Two blind men - Mar 10:46, and Luk 18:35, mention only one blind man, Bartimeus. Probably he was mentioned by the other evangelists, as being a person well known before and after his cure. Blindness of heart is a disorder of which, men seldom complain, or from which they desire to be delivered; and it is one property of this blindness, to keep the person from perceiving it, and to persuade him that his sight is good.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 20:31
“The multitude rebuked them - Whenever a soul begins to cry after Jesus for light and salvation, the world and the devil join together to drown its cries, or force it to be silent. But let all such remember, Jesus is now passing by; that their souls must perish everlastingly, if not saved by him, and they may never have so good an opportunity again. While there is a broken and a contrite heart, let it sigh its complaints to God, till he hear and answer.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
What will ye that I shall do: unto you asks a question whose answer seems obvious for two blind beggars, yet Jesus lets them state it themselves, Lord, that our eyes may be opened, honoring their own voiced request rather than acting on assumption alone. Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes received sight closes both the healing narrative and the whole section that began at 19:1, the two men following him at once into the events of chapter 21, a fitting close to a stretch of teaching on the kingdom's true values, ending not with the powerful seated on thrones but with the blind given sight and the servant becoming great.
Matthew 20:32
“Jesus stood still, because they being blind could not see their way. About Jericho were many pits, crags, and abrupt precipices; there fore the Lord stands still, that they might come to Him. He commands that they be called to Him that the multitude may not withhold them; and He asks them what they would, that by their answer, their necessity may be made apparent, and His power be shown in their healing.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:32
“Jesus stood - “The cry of a believing penitent,” says one, “is sufficient to stop the most merciful Jesus, were he going to make a new heaven and a new earth; for what is all the irrational part of God’s creation in worth, when compared with the value of one immortal soul!” See on Mar 10:50 (note). What will ye that I shall do - Christ is at all times infinitely willing to save sinners: when the desire of the heart is turned towards him, there can be little delay in the salvation. What is thy wish?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 20:33
“They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. That is, that their sight might be restored to them; for being deprived of that, it was all one as if their eyes were so closed, that they could not open them; and so the recovery of it is expressed by an opening of them.”
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 20:33
“That our eyes may be opened - He who feels his own sore, and the plague of his heart, has no great need of a prompter in prayer. A hungry man can easily ask bread; he has no need to go to a book to get expressions to state his wants in; his hunger tells him he wants food, and he tells this to the person from whom he expects relief.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 20:33
And it should be noted what He says to the blind man as he approaches: "What do you want Me to do for you?" Did He who was able to restore light not know what the blind man wanted? But He wishes to be asked for that which He foreknows both that we will ask and that He will grant. For He urges us persistently to prayer, and yet says: "For your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask Him."
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 2patristic
Matthew 20:34
“So Jesus had compassion on them - Σπλαγχνιαθεις, He was moved with tender pity. The tender pity of Christ met the earnest cry of the blind men, and their immediate cure was the result. They followed him - As a proof of the miracle that was wrought, and of the gratitude which they felt to their benefactor. For other particulars of this miraculous cure, see the notes on Mar 10:46, etc. Reader, whosoever thou art, act in behalf of thy soul as these blind men did in behalf of their sight, and thy salvation is sure.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 20:34
“The Creator bestows what nature had not given; or at least mercy accords what weakness had withheld. They then who had sat shut up in Jericho, and knew only to cry with their voice, afterwards follow Jesus, not so much with their feet as in their virtues.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists; John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.