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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 20:2 - 20:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2. ἐκ δηναρίου. ‘On the terms of a denarius,’ ἐκ indicates the point from which the bargaining proceeds, the starting point and so the basis of the compact. It is not = δηναρίου, Mat 20:13, genitive of price or rate of pay. A denarius was the ordinary day’s wage of a labourer, that of a common soldier was less, as we learn from Tac., Annal. I. 17: nec aliud levamentum quam si certis sub legibus militia iniretur, ut singulos denarios mererent.’ A ‘florin’ or a ‘half-crown’ would represent the meaning to English readers far more accurately than the ‘penny’ of the A.V. which gives a wholly wrong impression. See ch. Mat 18:28.
μετὰ τῶν ἐργατῶν. Later use of μετά. The classical construction is συμφωνεῖν τινί, or πρός τινα.