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MATTHEW 20:13 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 20:12Matt 20:14
“But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?”
But he replied to one of them: friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? The landowner's response: you received what we agreed to. The friend address — not a close friend but a formal address — communicates the landowner's courtesy in the face of the complaint. The did you not agree is the reminder: the contract was honored. The complaint is not about justice (you received what was agreed) but about grace to others.

Church Fathers on Matthew 20:13

To establish the truth of this saying, 'There are many first that shall be last, and last first,' the Lord subjoins a similitude.

Remigius · 9th century

The Master of the household is Christ, whose house are the heavens and the earth; and the creatures of the heavens, and the earth, and beneath the earth, His family. His vineyard is righteousness, in which are set divers sorts of righteousness as vines, as meekness, chastity, patience, and the other virtues; all of which are called by one common name righteousness.

Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century

Or; The Master of the household, that is, our Maker, has a vineyard, that is, the Church universal, which has borne so many stocks, as many saints as it has put forth from righteous Abel to the very last saint who shall be born in the end of the world. To instruct this His people as for the dressing of a vineyard, the Lord has never ceased to send out His labourers; first by the Patriarchs, next by the teachers of the Law, then by the Prophets, and at the last by the…

Gregory the Great · 6th century · Hom. in Ev., xix, 1
Read all 47 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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Matthew 20:13 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy