complete verse (Matthew 20:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 20:10:

  • Uma: “It went on thus until the people who worked from early morning arrived. Those who worked from early morning said in their hearts: ‘Surely he will give us (incl.) [empathic] more, because we (incl.) worked all day long!’ But instead, it was still just also one silver coin that they received.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When the people went who had been fetched as the first, they thought-mistakenly that they would be given more. But they also were given the wage worth for a whole day.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when he came to pay those who were first, they expected that more would be paid to them than what was paid to those who came to work last. However, one piece of silver each also was what was paid to them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Therefore when the first-ones who worked came, they expected that their daily-wage would be more, but surprisingly one-denario -each just the same is what was given to them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore when those who had gone to work early were reached, they assumed their wage would be much more. But no. They were given the same which was the wage for a whole day’s work.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Then it came the turn for wages to be given to the workers who had worked all day long. They thought that they would be given much more in wages because they had worked all day. But when they were given their wages, just one money of a denario was given to them.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

The Late-Arriving Workers

Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:

From Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.

Translation commentary on Matthew 20:10

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Matthew 20:10



20:10a–c

So … But … : In 20:10, something unexpected happens. The first workers expected to receive more than the last workers, but they did not.

In some languages, it will be natural to indicate this unexpected event with a word or phrase at the beginning of 20:10. The Berean Standard Bible has done this with the conjunction So.

In other languages, it will be natural to indicate this unexpected event only at the beginning of 20:10c. For example:

aWhen the workers who were hired first came to get their pay, bthey thought they would be paid more than the others. cBut each one of them also received one coin. (New Century Version)

20:10a

the original workers came: In Greek, this clause is more literally “when the first ones came.” The word original is not in Greek.

This clause refers to the men who were the first ones to start working. They started early in the morning. They had worked for twelve hours at the agreed wage of one denarius.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

When the men who started to work first came
-or-
When the workers who were hired first came to get their pay (New Century Version)

20:10b

they assumed: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as assumed indicates that these men expected or assumed something. For example:

they expected (New International Version)
-or-
they thought (English Standard Version)

they would receive more: This phrase means that these men thought that they would receive more money than the last workers. It is true that at the beginning of the day, they had agreed to work for a denarius. But men who worked only part of a day got one denarius. So these men thought that it was only fair that they would receive more than one denarius.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

that they would receive more ⌊money⌋ ⌊than the other workers⌋
-or-
they would be given more than the others (Contemporary English Version)

20:10c

But: In 20:10c, something unexpected happens. The Berean Standard Bible introduces this unexpected event with the conjunction But.

Here is another way to introduce this unexpected event:

However

each of them also received a denarius: If possible, translate this whole clause so that it is a surprising result. For example:

even they received a denarius

-or-

they also received only one denarius

© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.