August 19th, 2023

The season of Pentecost continues, and we are currently at what is often called the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel Reading for this Sunday skips ahead to what is usually called the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew [15:21-28], and the following week it will even jump to the sixteenth chapter. At this pace those readings will catch up quickly to where we are on this website. We are usually covering a chapter a week, but that will change soon enough since the chapter lengths become much longer near the end of the work.

What follows is a somewhat-literal translation of the twentieth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. As in the previous chapters, the words in bold print are the historical presents. To the trained ear, when spoken, they would stand out with some emphasis. A past tense verb is expected, but the verb is in the present.

As in previous chapters, we see other people than Jesus saying these words that come into the present. That is not unlike the pastor saying ‘I forgive you all your sins…’ on Sunday morning. (Hopefully he is not doing that in a way that focuses on himself.) You may wish to look at other translations and a study bible to look at this chapter in more detail.

“For like is the kingdom of the heavens to a man, a house-despot, who went out early morning to hire workers into the vineyard of him. Now having been symphonic with the workers out of a denarius, the day, he sent out them into the vineyard of him. And having gone out about third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace, idle. And to those he said, ‘Go out also, you, into the vineyard, and whatever is righteous, I will give to you.’ Now they went out, again.

Now, having gone out about sixth and ninth hour, he did likewise. Now about the eleventh, having gone out, he found others, standing, and he says to them, ‘Why here, you stand, all the day, idle?” They say to him, ‘Because no one, us, hired.’ He says to them, ‘Go out also, you, into the vineyard.’

Now evening, having happened, he says, the lord of the vineyard, to the manager of him, ‘Call the workers and pay the wage, having begun from the last until the first.’ And having come, the ones about the eleventh hour, they received each a denarius. And having come, the first, they supposed that more they will receive. And they received, the each, a denarius, also, they. Now having received, they were grumbling against the house-despot, saying, ‘These, the last, one hour they did, and equal to us, them, you made, the ones having borne the burden of the day and the heat.’

Now the one, having answered one of them, he said: Comrade, not I am treating unrighteously you; of a denarius you did symphonize with me, did you not? Take the thing of you and go; now I want to this, the last man, to give, as also to you; or it is lawful to me, what I want to do in the things of mine, is it not? Or the eye of you, evil it is, because I am myself good? Thus they will be, the last one, first, and the first, last.

And going up, the Jesus, into Jerusalem, he took along the twelve disciples, according to their own, and in the way he said to them, “Behold, we are going up into Jerusalem, and the Son of the Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and they will deliver him over to the nations, into to mock and to scourge and to crucify, and in the third day, he will be raised.”

Then she approached him, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, with the sons of her, worshipping and asking something from him. Now he said to her, “What do you want?”
She says to him, “Say that they may sit, these, the two sons of me, one of right of you, and one of left of you, in the kingdom of you.”

Now, having answered, the Jesus said, “Not you know what you ask. Can you, to drink, the cup which I myself am about to drink?”

They say to him, “We can.”

He says to them, “On the one hand, the cup of me you will drink, on the other hand, to sit of right of me and of left, not is mine, this, to give, but on the contrary, for whom it has been prepared by the Father of me.” And having heard, the ten were incensed about the two brothers. Now the Jesus, having called forward them, he said, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and the great ones exercise authority over them. Not thus it will be with you; but on the contrary, whoever wants with you, great, to become, he will be your servant, and whoever wants with you to be first, he will be your slave. As the Son of the Man, not, he came to be served, but on the contrary, to serve and to give the life of him a ransom instead of many.”

And going out, they, from Jericho, it followed him, a crowd, great. And behold, two blind men, sitting by the road, having heard that Jesus is passing by, they cried out, saying, “Pity us, Lord, Son of David.” Now the crowd rebuked them that they should be silent; now the more they cried out, saying, “Pity us, Lord, Son of David.”
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And standing, the Jesus called them, and he said, “What you want I should do for you?”
They say to him, “Lord, that they may be opened, the eyes of us.” Now having been inwardly moved, the Jesus touched the eyes of them, and immediately they saw again, and they followed him.