Matthew 20:12

Mat 20:12. Οὗτοι, κ.τ.λ., these, etc.) Envy is frequently more anxious to take from another than to obtain for itself. They envy, not those of the ninth, sixth, and third, but only those of the eleventh hour.—οἱ ἔσχατοι, the last) The labourers use this expression from envy.—ἐποίησαν, have spent) See Act 15:33.[880]—ἡμῖν, to us) They speak also for those who had come at the intermediate hours, and who, though they had borne a less burthen than that of the whole day, had yet endured the midday heat.—βάρος, burthen) internally, of labour.—τῆς ἡμέρας, of the day) sc. the whole.—καὑσωνα, heat) externally, of the sun.

[880] Ποιήσαντες—χρόνον, Having tarried a space: as ποιέω is here taken by Beng. and the margin of our Engl. Bible of continuance of time, “These last have continued one hour only.”—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_20:12. Ὅτι] recitativc, not because (γογγύζομεν, ὅτι), inasmuch as the words λέγοντες· ὅτι κ.τ.λ. express the contents of the γογγύζειν.

οὗτοι] spoken disdainfully.

ἐποίησαν] they have spent one hour (Act_15:33; Act_18:23; 2Co_11:25; Ecc_6:12; Wetstein on this passage; Schaeffer, ad Bos. p. 313; Jacobs, in Anthol. IX. p. 449, X. p. 44). The ordinary interpretation: they have wrought, laboured, one hour, is in opposition to the terms of the passage (as little is it to be confirmed by an appeal to Rth_2:19, where ποῦ ἐποίησας means: where hast thou been occupying thyself?); there would have been more reason to interpret thus: they have been doing it (that is, the work) for one hour, if the specifying of the time in connection with ἐποίησαν had not suggested our explanation as the most obvious and most natural.

τ. καύσωνα] Those others had not entered till the evening.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 20:12 . heir grievous complaint. οὗτοι , these , with a workman’s contempt for a sham-worker. ἐποίησαν . Some (Wetstein, Meyer, Goebel, etc.) render, spent = they put in their one hour: without doing any work to speak of. The verb is used in this sense ( e.g. , Act 15:33 ), and one is strongly tempted to adopt this rendering as true to the contemptuous feeling of the twelve-hour men for the one-hour men. Kypke remarks against it that if ἐποίησαν had been meant in this sense = “commorati sunt,” the word ὧδε = ἐν τῷ ἀμπελῶνι would have been added. Perhaps the strongest reason against it is that the one-hour men had worked with such good will (that goes without saying) that even prejudiced fellow-workers could not ignore the fact. So we must take ἐποίησαν = worked. τὸ βάρος , τὸν καύσωνα : these the points of their case: not that they had worked hard while the others had not, but that they had borne the burden of a whole day’s work, and worked through the heat of the day, and now came to be paid, weary and sweat-stained. (Some take καύσωνα as referring to the sirocco or south-east wind; hot, dry and dust-laden. On the winds of Palestine, vide Benzinger, Heb. Arch. , p. 30.) What was one hour in the late afternoon, however hard the last comers worked, to that! And yet they are made equal ( ἴσους )! Surely good ground for complaint!

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat--the burning heat.

of the day--who have wrought not only longer but during a more trying period of the day.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(12) But one hour.—Literally, in what was probably the technical language of labourers, made but one hour:

The burden and heat of the day.—The word rendered “heat” is elsewhere used—as in Jas_1:11, and the LXX. of Jon_4:8—for the “burning wind” that often follows on the sunrise, and makes the labour of the first half of the day harder than that of the latter.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. which have borne the burden and heat of the day] This may be regarded as man’s estimate of his own merits, which is not the divine estimate. The words echo the tone of “what shall we have?” ch. Mat_19:27.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But he answered one of them,.... Who was the forwardest and loudest in his complaints, and represented the rest;

and said, friend, I do thee no wrong; by giving all alike, the same privileges and blessings to the last, as to the first, since nothing was withheld from him. And indeed the Lord does no wrong to any, by the distinction which he makes among his creatures: he is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works: he does no injury to the evil angels, by choosing the good angels, and confirming them in the estate in which they were created; when the others are reserved in chains of darkness, to the judgment of the great day; or by choosing fallen men, in Christ, and making provisions of grace for them, and not devils: and so there is no unrighteousness in him, nor does he do any wrong to any, when, like the potter, out of the same clay, he makes one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour; any more than when, in a providential way, he gives riches and wealth to some, and withholds them from others; or sends his Gospel, the means of grace to one, and not to another: and still less can he be thought to do wrong to the sons of men, by giving to them alike the same grace and privileges here, and the same happiness and glory hereafter; since neither have any right to what they have, or shall enjoy, and no one has the less for what is given to the other.

Didst thou not agree with me for a penny? That is, to labour in the vineyard all the day for a penny; yea, this agreement was made personally with him, not with a servant, or messenger of his; though if it had, it ought, according to the Jewish canons, to have been abode by, which run thus (b):

"A man says to his messenger, or servant, go and hire workmen for me for three pence; he goes and hires them for four pence: if the messenger says to them, your wages be upon me, he gives them four pence, and takes three pence of the master of the house; he looses one out of his own purse: if he says to them, your hire be upon the master of the house, the master of the house gives them according to the custom of the province: if there are one in the province that hired for three pence, and others that are hired for four pence, he gives them but three pence, "and the murmuring" is against the messenger; in what things? When the work is not known, but when the work is known, and it is worth four pence, the master of the house gives them four pence; but if his messenger does not say to them four pence, they do not labour and do what deserves four pence. The householder says to him, hire me for four pence, and the messenger goes and hires for three pence, though the work deserves four pence, they have but three pence; because that , "they took it upon themselves", (i.e. they agreed for so much,) and their murmuring is against the messenger.''

Thus the argument in the parable proceeds upon the agreement, which ought to be abode by.

(b) Maimon. Hilch, Shecirut, c. 9. sect. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.

Ver. 12. Thou hast made them equal] Lo, this is the guise of graceless hypocrites, to be quarrelling and contending with God and man, as unworthily dealt withal. Thus those Jewish justiciaries, Isa 58:3, hit God in the teeth with their good services and small thanks. So the proud Pharisee sets forth, not his wants, but his worth. Contrariwise, Jacob cries out in a low language, Domine, non sum dignus, Gen 30:10. So doth Paul, 1Co 15:9; the centurion, Mat 8:6; the Baptist, Mat 3:11. St Augustine, Non sum dignus, quem tu diligas, Domine, Lord, I am not worthy of thy love.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The burden and heat of the day - The burden means the heavy labor, the severe toil. We have continued at that toil in the heat of the day. The others had worked only a little while, and that in the cool of the evening, and when it was fax more pleasant and much less fatiguing.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Borne the burden — The weight of the whole day’s labour instead of a single hour. Heat — In the original, the καυσων or scorcher; which was the burning east wind coming at midday from the Arabian desert. They had toiled through this hot blast, while the others had laboured only in the one cool hour.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

These last have wrought but one hour; mian wran epsihsan : una hora fecerunt (Vulgate); have spent but one hour (Revised Version). The verb poiein is used with nouns of time in the sense of "spend," "pass," as in Rth_2:19 (Septuagint); Act_15:33, etc. They speak of the late workers contemptuously (outoi oi escatoi), "these fellows who are last." They do not allow that they laboured they "made" one hour nominally. Equal unto us. Bengel notes, "Envy does not demand more for itself, but wishes that others should have less." Their complaint is that others who have worked less are not docked of their wages in due proportion. Burden and heat of the day; to barov thv hmerav kai toswna : the burden of the day and the scorching heat (Revised Version). The latter word is used for the hot dry wind which, blowing from the east, was fatal to vegetation and prejudicial to human comfort, if not to life. The remonstrance of these men may be compared with that of the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son. (Luk_15:29, Luk_15:30) They how somewhat of the spirit of the apostles when they asked, "What shall we have therefore?". (Mat_19:27)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou hast made them equal to us - So St. Peter expressly, Acts xv, 9. God-hath put no difference between us (Jews) and them, (Gentiles, ) purifying their hearts by faith. And those who were equally holy here, whenever they were called, will be equally happy hereafter.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

12. The omission of ὅτι after λέγοντες is on the best evidence (אBC2DI versions and fathers).

12. μίαν ὥραν ἐποίησαν. Cp. Act 15:33, ποιήσαντες δὲ χρόνον ἀπελύθησαν. So facere in Latin, ‘quamvis autem paucissimos una fecerimus dies tamen multi nobis sermones fuerunt.’ Seneca, Epist. 67.

ὥραν. ‘During the residence in Babylon the Hebrews adopted the division of the day into twelve hours whose duration varied with the length of the day.’ Edersheim, Temple, &c., in the Time of our Lord, p. 174).

τοῖς βαστάσασι τὸ βάρος τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τὸν καύσωνα. This may be regarded as man’s estimate of his own merits, which is not the divine estimate. The words echo the tone of ‘what shall we have?’ ch. Mat 19:27. Man does not here acquiesce in the Judge’s decision, as in the parable of the debtors, ch. 18. What is just does not at first seem just, but, as in science many things that seemed untrue are proved to be true, what seems unjust will be proved just when we know all. Further, time is not the only element in service. An act of swift intelligence or of bravery wrought in the space of a single minute has saved an army or a people, and merited higher reward than a lifetime of ordinary service; a Romaic proverb says: τὰ φέρνει ἡ ὥρα ὁ χρόνος δὲν τὰ φέρνει, ‘what an hour brings, a year brings not.’

βαστάσασι. Geldart, Mod. Greek Lang. pp. 191, 192, notices the frequent occurrence of βαστάζειν in N.T. as a modernism. No word has a longer literary history, it occurs in almost every Greek writer, from Homer to the N.T.

τὸ βάρος τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τὸν καύσωνα. ‘The burden of the day and the hot morning wind.’ καύσωνα, emphatic by its position at the end of the sentence, heightens the effect of the picture, and gives reality to it. The labourers hired in the cool evening hours would escape the long toil, and what is more the scorching sirocco which blows from the desert at sunrise. Cp. ἀνέτειλεν γὰρ ὁ ἥλιος σὺν τῷ καύσωνι, Jas 1:11. It was from the combined influence of sun and sirocco that Jonah ‘fainted and wished himself to die:’ καὶ ἐγένετο ἅμα τῷ ἀνατεῖλαι τὸν ἥλιον καὶ προσέταξεν ὁ θεὸς πνεύματι καύσωνι συγκαίοντι. Jon 4:8. See also Psa 103:16 and Isa 40:6, and read Dr Thomson’s account of the two kinds of sirocco (Land and Book, pp. 536, 537). Describing the effect of the sultry sirocco he says: ‘The birds hide in thickest shades; the fowls pant under the walls with open mouth and drooping wings; the flocks and herds take shelter in caves and under great rocks; the labourers retire from the fields, and close the windows and doors of their houses.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12.] Some take ἐποίησαν, as in Act 15:33, to mean “have tarried,”—but the sense in the former reff. seems the best.

13,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heat [καυσωνα] . Rev., the scorching heat. The word is from kaiw, to burn. It refers to the dry, scorching heat born by the east wind. Compare Job 27:21; Hos 13:15. The wind blows from the Arabian desert, parching, dry, exciting the blood, and causing restlessness and sleeplessness. It seldom brings storms, but when it does, they are doubly destructive. During harvest the corn cannot be winnowed if the east wind blows, for it would carry away both chaff and corn. In Pharaoh 's dream (Gen 41:6) the ears are blasted by it : Jonah's gourd is withered by it (Jon 4:8), and the vine in Ezekiel's parable of the Babylonian captivity is blighted by it (Eze 17:10).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.