Book Gospel of Matthew Order in the Bible part 1 | Bible part New Testament Category Gospel | |
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Matthew 20 is the twentieth chapter in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament section of the Christian Bible. Jesus continues his final journey through Perea and Jericho, heading towards Jerusalem, which he enters in the following chapter.
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The New King James Version organises this chapter as follows:
Continuity with Matthew 19
The parable of the workers in the vineyard illustrates the aphorism in Matthew 19:30: Many who are first will be last, and the last first. Anglican theologian Charles Ellicott argues that "the division of the chapter is here singularly unfortunate, as separating the parable both from the events which gave occasion to it and from the teaching which it illustrates. It is not too much to say that we can scarcely understand it at all unless we connect it with the history of the young ruler who had great possessions, and the claims which the disciples had made for themselves when they contrasted their readiness with his reluctance".
The appointment of Jesus' twelve disciples to "sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" in "the regeneration" (Matthew 19:20-28) may also be contrasted with the request of the mother of Zebedee's children, possibly Salome, that the seats of Jesus' right and left in the kingdom of heaven to be allocated to James and John (Matthew 20:20-21).
Departure from Jericho
Matthew's narrative portrays the healing of two blind men taking place as Jesus, his disciples and a great multitude leave Jericho, although their passage back over the River Jordan and their arrival in Jericho are not described. The Ethiopic version, uniquely, reads here "as they went out from Jerusalem".