The owner of the vineyard is shortened to “the owner” by Good News Translation, since this information is clearly implicit.

Steward (Good News Translation, Phillips, Barclay, New American Bible “foreman”) is used elsewhere in the New Testament only in Luke 8.3 and Galatians 4.2, where the meaning differs considerably. Here the person is someone whom the owner of the vineyard has appointed to be in charge of the workmen. It may be translated as “supervisor of the workers” or as “man in charge of the workers.”

Call the laborers and pay them their wages: according to Leviticus 19.13 and Deuteronomy 24.15, day laborers were to be paid each day before sunset for that day’s work, so the scene described is obviously very typical.

Beginning with the last, up to the first is somewhat expanded by Good News Translation for the sake of clarity: “starting with those who were hired last and ending with those who were hired first.” Although beginning with may have the meaning “including,” the interpretation of the text represented by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation is the meaning preferred by most other modern translations as well. This may need to be a separate sentence; for example, “First pay the people we hired last and then others, so the ones we hired first are the last ones you pay.”

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 .