Verse Lens · Context pointer
Matthew 20:8 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 8. 8So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
Orders the steward to pay workers from last to first at evening.
Read It With
- Matthew 20:1–20:16
Matthew 20:8 orders the steward to pay workers from last to first at evening; within Matthew 20:1–20:16, it contributes to this controlling movement: A landowner hires workers throughout the day, pays each a denarius beginning with the last, answers first-hired grumbling from agreed generosity, and closes with reversal.
Why It Needs Context
Orders the steward to pay workers from last to first at evening. Its responsible force depends on Matthew 20:1–20:16; it supplies genealogy, sequence, quotation, dialogue, image, response, or transition rather than a complete standalone teaching.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Matthew 20:1–20:16 — A landowner's equal payment unsettles merit comparisonSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Matthew 20:1–20:16, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control without treating one edition as a complete apparatus.
Exact location: SBLGNT official text file data/sblgnt/text/Matt.txt, Matthew 20:1–20:16
Open the Matthew Greek text file ↗