What Does Matthew 20:13 Mean?
But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I am doing you no crookedness. Did you not come to one voice with me for a denarius?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?THE KEY
The worker’s claim rests on a word that means “two voices sounding together”: the agreed wage is already a shared utterance.
THE MEANING
The owner answers the worker as a companion and asks whether he has honored their agreed denarius. The promised amount stands as a concrete measure of the exchange, even as the story leaves room for generosity beyond it. The reader hears the complaint set beside what was actually agreed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Someone else receiving more does not, by itself, mean your agreed payment has been withheld or made unjust.
THE ROOT
συμφωνέω
symphōneō
GROWS FROM
φων
phon-
Voice, sound
“come to one voice” in this verse is symphōneō. The verb συμφωνέω (symphōneō, “agree”) joins σύν (syn, “together”) with the sound-root φων (phon-). The agreement is pictured as voices sounding together: the wage is a shared word between the owner and worker.
ALSO GROWS
phōnē: Voice, sound
φωνή
This branch makes the sound inside “agree” audible: the agreement has been spoken between them.
symphōnos: Harmonious, in accord
σύμφωνος
The same sound-root describes being in accord, illuminating the shared terms the owner points back to.
ἀδικέω
adikeō
GROWS FROM
δικ
dik-
Right, justice, what is due
“crookedness” in this verse is adikeō. The Greek verb ἀδικέω (adikeō, “do wrong”) belongs to the δικ (dik-) family of justice and right order. The owner frames the question as whether he has put the exchange out of alignment by withholding what was promised.
ALSO GROWS
adikia: Injustice, wrongdoing
ἀδικία
This branch names the disorder the owner denies: the agreed payment has not been withheld.
dikaios: Just, right
δίκαιος
This branch shows the family’s positive side: the question is whether the exchange remains aligned with what was agreed.
THE PATTERN
What is due by agreement and what is freely given are different measures.
You shall not press your neighbor, nor tear from him; the wage of the hired hand shall not lodge with you all night until the morning.The living soul of blessing is made fat, and the one who waters is himself watered.Now to the one who works, the wage is not counted as favor, but as what is owed.THE THREAD
Again, I say to you, that if two of you sound together on the earth concerning anything they ask for, it will come to be for them from my Father who is in the heavens.Both verses use συμφωνέω (symphōneō, “agree”), the verb built on the idea of voices sounding together. In this verse, that shared voice sets the wage; in Matthew 18, it joins two people in a request.
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