CHAPTER XX. _The similitude of the householder hiring labourers into his_ _vineyard, to show that the Gentiles should be preferred to the_ _Jews, according to what was hinted at the close of the last_ _chapter_, 1-16. _On the way going up to Jerusalem he predicts his sufferings and_ _death_, 1... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:2. _A PENNY_] A Roman coin, as noted before, Matthew 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 labour at that time. See Tobit 5:14. In 1351 the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:3. _THE THIRD HOUR_] _Nine o'clock_ in the morning. _MARKET-PLACE_] Where labourers usually stood till they were hired. I have often seen labourers standing in the market places of large towns in these countries, waiting to be employed.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:5. _THE SIXTH HOUR_] _Twelve o'clock. Ninth hour - three_ _o'clock_ in the afternoon.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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 labour, closed at _six_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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 _labour_, and the _time_ ye spend in it; but this clause is wanting in some of the best MSS., versions,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:8. _WHEN THE EVEN WAS COME_] _Six o'clock_, the time they ceased from labour, 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 of... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:11. _THEY MURMURED_] The Jews made the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, a pretence why they should reject that Gospel; as they fondly imagined they were, and should be, the sole objects of the Divine approbation. How they murmured because the Gentiles were made partakers of... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:13. _FRIEND, I DO THEE NO WRONG_] The salvation of the Gentiles can in itself become no impediment to the Jews; there is the same Jesus both for the Jew and for the Greek. Eternal life is offered to _both_ through the blood of the cross; and there is room enough in heaven for _all_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:15. _IS IT NOT LAWFUL FOR ME_] As eternal life is the free gift of God, he has a right to give it in whatever _proportions_, at whatever _times_, and on whatever _conditions_ he pleases. _IS THINE EYE EVIL_] An evil eye among the Jews meant a _malicious, covetous_, or _envious_ per... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:16. _SO THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST, AND THE FIRST LAST_] The GENTILES, who have been long without the true God, shall now enjoy all the privileges of the new covenant; and the Jews, who have enjoyed these from the beginning, shall now be dispossessed of them; for, because they here rej... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:17. _AND JESUS GOING UP_] From Jericho to Jerusalem, Matthew 19:15, Matthew 19:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:18. _THE SON OF MAN SHALL BE BETRAYED_] Or, _will be_ _delivered up_. This is the third time that our Lord informed his disciples of his approaching sufferings and death. This was a subject of the utmost importance, and it was necessary they should be well prepared for such an awful... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:19. _DELIVER HIM TO THE GENTILES TO MOCK_] This was done by _Herod_ and his _Roman_ soldiers. See Luke 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 t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:20. _THE MOTHER OF ZEBEDEE'S CHILDREN_] This was _Salome_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:21. _GRANT THAT THESE MY TWO SONS_] James and John. See Mark 15:40. In the preceding chapter, Matthew 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,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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_ honours 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... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:23. _IS NOT MINE TO GIVE, BUT_ IT SHALL BE GIVEN TO THEM _FOR WHOM 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 Chr... [ Continue Reading ]
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.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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 endeavoured to express, as nearly as possible... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:26. _IT SHALL NOT BE SO AMONG YOU_] Every kind of lordship and spiritual domination over the Church of Christ, like that exercised by the Church of Rome, is destructive and anti-christian. _YOUR MINISTER_] Or, _deacon_, διακονος. I know no other word which could at once convey the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:28. _A RANSOM FOR MANY._] αυτρον 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 λυτρο... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:30. _TWO BLIND MEN_] Mark 10:46, and Luke 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 the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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... [ Continue Reading ]
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!" M... [ Continue Reading ]
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, an... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Matthew 20:34. _SO JESUS HAD COMPASSION_ ON THEM] επλαγχνιαθεις, _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 _gratitud... [ Continue Reading ]