‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, 1
who will prepare your way before you.’ 2
20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner 8 who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
1 tn Grk “before your face” (an idiom).
2 sn The quotation is primarily from Mal 3:1 with pronouns from Exod 23:20. Here is the forerunner who points the way to the arrival of God’s salvation. His job is to prepare and guide the people, as the cloud did for Israel in the desert.
3 tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to him.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant, but the syntax of this phrase has been modified for clarity.
4 tn The expression “flesh and blood” could refer to “any human being” (so TEV, NLT; cf. NIV “man”), but it could also refer to Peter himself (i.e., his own intuition; cf. CEV “You didn’t discover this on your own”). Because of the ambiguity of the referent, the phrase “flesh and blood” has been retained in the translation.
5 tn Grk “falling therefore the slave bowed down to the ground.” The redundancy of this expression signals the desperation of the slave in begging for mercy.
6 tc The majority of
7 tn Grk “him”; the referent (the first slave mentioned in v. 24) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 sn The term landowner here refers to the owner and manager of a household.
11 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
12 sn A talent was equal to 6000 denarii. See the note on this term in 18:24.
13 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.