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Matthew 20 · a question people ask

Who are the laborers hired at the different hours, and who is the master?

In the text

Jesus tells the parable as what "the Kingdom of Heaven is like" (20:1). Inside it, the master hires laborers "early in the morning" (20:1), "about the third hour" (20:3), "about the sixth and the ninth hour" (20:5) and "About the eleventh hour" (20:6); each is given a denarius (20:9-10); and he answers the complaint, "Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?" (20:15). The parable sits between "But many will be last who are first, and first who are last" (19:30) and "So the last will be first, and the first last" (20:16). Jesus doesn't say who the laborers are, what the hours stand for or who the master is, and Matthew doesn't explain the parable afterwards. Christians read it in more than one way; these notes don't choose, add nothing up, and make the parable a rule for no one's work or pay today.

The verses

“But many will be last who are first, and first who are last.”
Matthew 19:30 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Matthew 20

Matthew 20: The last will be first

The parable of the vineyard is held between two sayings, "many will be last who are first" (19:30) and "So the last will be first" (20:16), and inside it the pay goes out "beginning from the last to the first" (20:8). Seven of the ten times Matthew's Greek has the word for last are in these few verses.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions