complete verse (Matthew 20:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 20:3:

  • Uma: “At nine o’clock he also/again went hunting for other people, he saw several people sitting-around on the edge of the main-street.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Between noon and morning he went to the market and he saw there men standing there who didn’t have anything to do.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when the sun had climbed up halfway in the sky in the morning, he returned to look for people. And there in the market, he saw there some people whom nobody had caused to work.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘When it was mid-morning, the land-owner went-out again and he saw some (people) loafing in the marketplace.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Just when the sun was halfway up, that owner again went out. He found some people standing-around in the market.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “When it was nine o’clock again the field-owner went to the market. He found some more people who weren’t working.” (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 20:3

About the third hour (Good News Translation “at nine o’clock”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “about nine o’clock”): although the Jewish day began at sunset, the hours of the day are calculated from sunrise, so that “the third hour” would be between eight and nine o’clock in the morning. New English Bible translates “three hours later,” and New American Bible “about midmorning.”

Others can either be “other men” or “other workers.”

Standing (so most translations) may mean no more than “present,” implying that the men were sitting around in the marketplace passing their time away with idle gossip.

Idle (so also New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible) is rendered “doing nothing” by Good News Translation, Moffatt, and New International Version (“with nothing to do” by An American Translation). New American Bible has “without work,” and “unemployed” is the choice of Barclay.

Good News Translation has taken the phrase in the market place and made it specifically the place the man went to (“went out again to the marketplace”). Whether to say the man went to the marketplace or that the men were already there (Revised Standard Version) should depend on the receptor language.

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 20:3



20:3a

About the third hour: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the third hour refers to the third hour after sunrise. That generally indicates 9 o’clock in the morning. The word About means that this is an approximate time.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

about 9 o’clock (New Century Version)
-or-
About 9 a.m. (God’s Word)
-or-
at mid-morning

he went out: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as went out indicates that the master of the house went outside his house. He left his house and went back to the marketplace.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

the man went to the marketplace (New Century Version)
-or-
he returned to the market

20:3b

saw others: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as others refers to other men. They were men like the ones whom the master of the house first met.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

the man saw some other people (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
he found some more men

standing: The word standing means that the men were present in the marketplace. Some were possibly sitting or squatting as they waited for work. It does not necessarily mean that all the men were actually standing on their feet.

Here is another way to translate this word:

waiting around

in the marketplace: The marketplace was an open space in the middle of the village. It was used for a market. It was also a place where children played and where people gathered for any purpose at all.

Here are some other ways to translate this word:

market (Good News Translation)
-or-
public square

doing nothing: In this context, doing nothing means that these men were not working. They were waiting to be hired. Your translation should not imply that they were lazy or did not want to work.

Here are some other ways to translate this word:

idle (English Standard Version)

-or-

waiting for a job

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