Matthew 20:12-16

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 ¹  replied to one of them, ²  ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? ³  20:14 Take what is yours and go. I ⁴  want to give to this last man ⁵  the same as I gave to you. 20:15 Am I not ⁶  permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ⁷  20:16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

[20:13]  ¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the landowner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:13]  ² 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.

[20:13]  ³ tn Grk “for a denarius a day.”

[20:14]  ¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:14]  ² tn Grk “this last one,” translated as “this last man” because field laborers in 1st century Palestine were men.

[20:15]  ¹ 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.

[20:15]  ² tn Grk “Is your eye evil because I am good?”