The first are further identified by Good News Translation as “the men who were the first to be hired.” In other languages an adequate translation of the first may be quite different. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “the men who had begun work the earliest,” and New English Bible has “the men who had come first.”

They thought they would receive more may be translated as direct discourse: “they thought, ‘He will pay us more money.’ ”

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 .