Romans 9:32

9:32 Why not? Because they pursued ¹  it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. ²  They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³ 

Romans 11:6

11:6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Romans 11:35

11:35 Or who has first given to God, ⁴ 

that God ⁵  needs to repay him? ⁶ 

Matthew 20:1-16

Workers in the Vineyard

20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner ⁷  who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 20:2 And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, ⁸  he sent them into his vineyard. 20:3 When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, ⁹  he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. 20:4 He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ 20:5 So they went. When ¹⁰  he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, ¹¹  he did the same thing. 20:6 And about five o’clock that afternoon ¹²  he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ 20:7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’ 20:8 When ¹³  it was evening ¹⁴  the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give the pay ¹⁵  starting with the last hired until the first.’ 20:9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay. ¹⁶  20:10 And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. 20:11 When ¹⁷  they received it, they began to complain ¹⁸  against the landowner, 20:12 saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’ 20:13 And the landowner ¹⁹  replied to one of them, ²⁰  ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? ²¹  20:14 Take what is yours and go. I ²²  want to give to this last man ²³  the same as I gave to you. 20:15 Am I not ²⁴  permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ²⁵  20:16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

¹ tn Grk “Why? Because not by faith but as though by works.” The verb (“they pursued [it]”) is to be supplied from the preceding verse for the sake of English style; yet a certain literary power is seen in Paul’s laconic style.

² tc Most mss, especially the later ones (א² D Ψ 33 Ï sy), read νόμου (nomou, “of the law”) here, echoing Paul’s usage in Rom 3:20, 28 and elsewhere. The qualifying phrase is lacking in א* A B F G 6 629 630 1739 1881 pc lat co. The longer reading thus is weaker externally and internally, being motivated apparently by a need to clarify.

³ tn Grk “the stone of stumbling.”

⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ sn A quotation from Job 41:11.

⁷ sn The term landowner here refers to the owner and manager of a household.

⁸ tn Grk “agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day.”

⁹ tn Grk “about the third hour.”

¹⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹¹ tn Grk “he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour.”

¹² tn Grk “about the eleventh hour.”

¹³ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹⁴ sn That is, six o’clock in the evening, the hour to pay day laborers. See Lev 19:13b.

¹⁵ tc ‡ Most witnesses (including B D W Θ Ë^1,13 33^vid Ï latt sy) have αὐτοῖς (autois, “to them”) after ἀπόδος (apodos, “give the pay”), but this seems to be a motivated reading, clarifying the indirect object. The omission is supported by א C L Z 085 Or. Nevertheless, NA²⁷ includes the pronoun on the basis of the greater external attestation.

¹⁶ tn Grk “each received a denarius.” See the note on the phrase “standard wage” in v. 2.

¹⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹⁸ tn The imperfect verb ἐγόγγυζον (egonguzon) has been translated ingressively.

¹⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the landowner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁰ tn Grk “And answering, he said to one of them.” This construction is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified in the translation.

²¹ tn Grk “for a denarius a day.”

²² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

²³ tn Grk “this last one,” translated as “this last man” because field laborers in 1st century Palestine were men.

²⁴ tc ‡ Before οὐκ (ouk, “[am I] not”) a number of significant witnesses read ἤ (h, “or”; e.g., א C W 085 Ë^1,13 33 and most others). Although in later Greek the οι in σοι (oi in soi) – the last word of v. 14 – would have been pronounced like ἤ, since ἤ is lacking in early mss (B D; among later witnesses, note L Z Θ 700) and since mss were probably copied predominantly by sight rather than by sound, even into the later centuries, the omission of ἤ cannot be accounted for as easily. Thus the shorter reading is most likely original. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

²⁵ tn Grk “Is your eye evil because I am good?”