The function of verses 24-25 is to indicate that the followers of Jesus need not expect to be treated better than Jesus himself was treated.

Disciple (Good News Translation “pupil”): see comments on 5.1.

Above (Good News Translation “greater than”) may be expressed in a number of ways: “better than” (An American Translation), “superior to” (Phillips, New Jerusalem Bible), and “rank above” (New English Bible; New American Bible “outranks”). Barclay renders so as to make explicit the persecution setting: “A scholar cannot hope to escape what his teacher has to suffer….”

It may be necessary to reverse the order, as in “A teacher is always superior to his students.” Note that, as the examples show, above means “more important than.”

Servant (so also New English Bible) may also mean “slave” (so most translations), as the RSV footnote indicates. Master, on the other hand, probably should carry the meaning “owner” (Barclay).

The second part of the verse should be treated more or less as the first part; for example, “and no slave is more important than his owner” or “and a slave owner is always more important than his slave.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .