landowner

The Greek that is translated as “landowner” or similar in English is translated in Low German idiomatically as Mann, de harr Hus un Hoff or “man who owns a house and a farm” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006).

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.

complete verse (Matthew 20:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 20:11:

  • Uma: “‘When they saw their wages, they grumbled about the owner of the field, they said:” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When they received their wages they grumbled against the owner of the land,” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when they were receiving it, they were disgruntled, and they said to the man who had caused them to work.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Therefore they grumbled to the one-who-had-them -work, saying,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Having received it, it wasn’t acceptable to them. They said to that owner,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “They took their wages and were angry toward the field-owner.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Matthew 20:11

And on receiving is more naturally “When they received” or “When the owner gave them.” In Greek receiving has no expressed object, but most English translations supply it (so New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible); Good News Translation has “took their money.”

Grumbled may legitimately be translated “started grumbling” (Good News Translation) or “began to grumble” (Barclay). “Complained” or “criticized” are other words for grumbled.

Householder refers to the owner of the vineyard who has hired the men to work for him (see Matthew 20.1); Good News Translation, New English Bible, and An American Translation have “employer,” New American Bible prefers “owner,” and in New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version “landowner” is used.

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 20:11



20:11

On receiving their pay: The words their pay refer to the single coin that the workers received as their wages.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

When they received their pay (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
When they got their coin (New Century Version)

they began to grumble against: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as grumble means talked quietly and expressed unhappiness about something. In Greek, the form of this verb indicates that this grumbling started and was continuing.

The word translated as against also means “at.”

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

they began complaining to (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
they started criticizing

the landowner: This phrase translates the same Greek word as in 20:1a. You should translate it here as you did there.

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