complete verse (Matthew 22:8)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 22:8:

  • Uma: “‘After that, he also called his servants, he said to them: ‘The wedding feast is ready, but the people whom I called are not fit to attend.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “After that, the sultan said to his servants, ‘The food is ready but the ones who had been invited are not worthy to come.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the king gathered his servants, and he said, ‘The food is on the table, but those I asked to come, they are not worthy of this my gathering.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Then the king said to others of his slaves, ‘Everything is made-ready for the wedding, but the people I invited, they are not worthy to come.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And he said next to others of his slaves, ‘This feast really is ready now, however as for those who were invited, they aren’t fit to join in. They are no longer acceptable.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Again he spoke to his servants: ‘I have already prepared for the wedding, but the people I have called to it do not deserve to come to it.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Matthew 22:8

This verse narrates another invitation sent out to invite guests to the wedding feast, but the guests who are now invited are not the ones who received the original invitation. Of the original guests the king says those invited were not worthy (see 10.10, 11, 13, 37, 38 for worthy in the sense used here). In the Lukan form of this parable, the servant goes out twice to invite new guests; he first is sent to the “streets and alleys of the town,” and since there is still room in the house, he is sent afterwards to the “country roads and lanes” (14.21-23). Although some scholars propose that verse 8 originally followed verse 5, this is not the form of the parable which Matthew transmits, and translation must reflect accurately the text as it exists.

The text has his servants, but for some readers that poses a problem, since in verse 6 the servants he sent out were killed. Therefore “his other servants” is sometimes necessary.

As in Good News Translation, The wedding may more naturally be translated as “The wedding feast,” using the same expression as in Matthew 22.2.

Those invited may have to be expressed as “those people I invited.”

Most translators will express were not worthy in a way similar to Good News Translation, possibly “did not deserve the invitations” or “did not deserve to be invited.”

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 22:8



Paragraph 22:8–10

22:8a

Then: This Greek conjunction introduces the next event in a series of events.

Here are some other ways to translate this conjunction:

After that (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Next

he said to his servants: The Greek phrase that the English Standard Version translates as his servants is the same phrase as in 22:3a. Since some of the king’s servants were killed in 22:6b, it may be necessary to indicate that these servants are other servants. For example:

he said to his other servants

The wedding feast is ready: The Greek word that the English Standard Version translates as wedding feast is also in 22:2b. As mentioned there, this word is more literally “wedding.” For example:

The wedding is ready (God’s Word)

See the Note at 22:2b for more information on translating this word.

22:8b

but those invited: The Greek phrase that the English Standard Version translates as those invited is the same as at 22:3b. Translate it the same way here. For example:

the invited guests (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
the people I invited (Good News Translation)

were not worthy: The Greek word that the English Standard Version translates as worthy in this context refers to deserving some good thing. When people refused the king’s invitation, it showed that they did not deserve the honor that the king extended to them.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

were not worthy to come (New Century Version)
-or-
don’t deserve the honor (God’s Word)
-or-
are not fit to come

-or-

do not merit the invitation

© 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.