What Does Matthew 20:10 Mean in the King James?
But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The workers receive what they were promised, yet another’s generosity makes their portion feel like a loss.
THE MEANING
You can receive what you expected and still feel shortchanged when someone else receives the same. The word translated “supposed” belongs to a Greek word family connected with custom and established practice: an expectation can feel like a rule before it is ever confirmed. Comparison turns another person’s portion into a measure of your own.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is: “If someone else receives generosity, I have been given less.”
THE ROOT
νομίζω
nomizō
GROWS FROM
νόμος
nomos
custom, law, or what is established by practice
“supposed” in this verse is nomizō. The workers’ “supposing” carries an echo of what seems customary or established: they expect that receiving more follows from being first. The same word family reaches from an assumed norm to νόμισμα, a coin or currency whose value is accepted in use; here, both expectation and payment are being measured by what people take to count.
ALSO GROWS
nomos: law, custom, established practice
νόμος
An expectation can take on the force of a rule even when no greater payment was promised.
nomisma: coin, currency accepted in use
νόμισμα
The word family links what people assume to be the norm with the accepted value of money.
THE PATTERN
When another person’s good fortune becomes the measure, generosity is felt as injury.
And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?THE THREAD
But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.“Supposing” here translates the same Greek verb, νομίζω (nomizō), as “supposed” in Matthew. In Luke, an assumption is treated as fact; in Matthew, an expectation of more feels settled before the payment arrives.
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