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Mat 20:2. Συμφωνήσας, when he had agreed) He deals with the first labourers more by legal compact; with the latter, more by mere liberality, even in the hiring them, though He blames them for standing idle; see Mat 20:4; Mat 20:6-7. They make up for their previous idleness by their obedience, without stipulating for a fixed amount of wages. The day, divided into twelve hours, signifies not the whole duration of the world, nor that of the New Testament dispensation, which the life of a single labourer can never equal; neither, as it seems, does it represent the space of life given to each human being, in which one labours a longer and another a shorter time from his call to his death: although one who came before us might labour only one hour (i.e. the last), and another who comes after us may begin at the first; so that in this passage that saying should hold good, “In any hour is any hour;”[878]-But it represents the space of time from the first calling of the apostles to the ascension of Christ and the descent of the Paraclete. The denarius is that one amount of wages in the present and future life, equally offered to all, mentioned in ch. Mat 19:29; Mat 19:21; the difference of which, though corresponding with the difference of labours, is not only not apparent in this life, but frequently appears inverted: therefore the middle term, equality, is here assumed.[879] The evening is that time when each one is, or appears to be, much nearer the close than the commencement of his labours; and therefore, in the case of the disciples, the time then close at hand, immediately before the departure of our Lord. They cast their own evening and that of others into the same balance, who compare themselves with others. The labourers are all who are called, not only the apostles. The feeling of the discontented labourers concerning the whole day, resembles that of Peter, when he alluded, without sufficient discretion, to the difference between himself and that rich man. And every one is tempted by such a feeling towards those whom he most knows, and who are his equals. He who has a wider range of thought is liable to the same temptation with regard to those who are more remote.-μετὰ τῶν ἐργατῶν, with the labourers) The Householder makes an agreement with the labourers, and they (see Mat 20:13) with him. The one ensures the payment of the wages; the other shows what the labourer should be contented with.-ἐκ δηναρίου, for a denarius) This was a day’s wages, as it is commonly at present. The ἐκ (for) is not repeated in Mat 20:13.
[878] “Quâlibet horâ est quælibet hora.” In every hour whatever, there is the hour of some one or other [some hour or other, whatsoever that hour be]. Any hour of labour whatsoever is counted to the labourer as such, whensoever it be, whether at an earlier or later date. This seems to me Bengel’s meaning, though the words are rather ambiguous.-ED.
[879] Here again there is some obscurity. “Ideo medium, paritas. sumitur.” It seems to me to refer to His fixing on the denarius as a mean, merging the various diversities of reward answering to the diversities of labour, not now apparent, in the one common sum alike and equal to all.-ED.