Matthew 20-22

Matthew 20

¹For the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a house, who went out early in the morning to get workers into his vine-garden.

²And when he had made an agreement with the workmen for a penny a day, he sent them into his vine-garden.

³And he went out about the third hour, and saw others in the market-place doing nothing;

⁴And he said to them, Go into the vine-garden with the others, and whatever is right I will give you. And they went to work.

⁵Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same.

⁶And about the eleventh hour he went out and saw others doing nothing; and he says to them, Why are you here all the day doing nothing?

⁷They say to him, Because no man has given us work. He says to them, Go in with the rest, into the vine-garden.

⁸And when evening came, the lord of the vine-garden said to his manager, Let the workers come, and give them their payment, from the last to the first.

⁹And when those men came who had gone to work at the eleventh hour, they were given every man a penny.

¹⁰Then those who came first had the idea that they would get more; and they, like the rest, were given a penny.

¹¹And when they got it, they made a protest against the master of the house,

¹²Saying, These last have done only one hour's work, and you have made them equal to us, who have undergone the hard work of the day and the burning heat.

¹³But he in answer said to one of them, Friend, I do you no wrong: did you not make an agreement with me for a penny?

¹⁴Take what is yours, and go away; it is my pleasure to give to this last, even as to you.

¹⁵Have I not the right to do as seems good to me in my house? or is your eye evil, because I am good?

¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first last.

¹⁷And when Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples on one side, and said to them,

¹⁸See, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be given into the hands of the chief priests and scribes; and they will give orders for him to be put to death,

¹⁹And will give him up to the Gentiles to be made sport of and to be whipped and to be put to death on the cross: and the third day he will come back again from the dead.

²⁰Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, giving him worship and making a request of him.

²¹And he said to her, What is your desire? She says to him, Let my two sons be seated, the one at your right hand, and the other at your left, in your kingdom.

²²But Jesus made answer and said, You have no idea what you are requesting. Are you able to take of the cup which I am about to take?

²³They say to him, We are able. He says to them, Truly, you will take of my cup: but to be seated at my right hand and at my left is not for me to give, but it is for those for whom my Father has made it ready.

²⁴And when it came to the ears of the ten, they were angry with the two brothers.

²⁵But Jesus said to them, You see that the rulers of the Gentiles are lords over them, and their great ones have authority over them.

²⁶Let it not be so among you: but if anyone has a desire to become great among you, let him be your servant;

²⁷And whoever has a desire to be first among you, let him take the lowest place:

²⁸Even as the Son of man did not come to have servants, but to be a servant, and to give his life for the salvation of men.

²⁹And when they were going out from Jericho, a great number went after him.

³⁰And two blind men seated by the wayside, when they had the news that Jesus was going by, gave a loud cry, saying, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us.

³¹And the people gave them orders to be quiet; but they went on crying even louder, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us.

³²And Jesus, stopping, sent for them, and said, What would you have me do to you?

³³They say to him, Lord, that our eyes may be open.

³⁴And Jesus, being moved with pity, put his fingers on their eyes: and straight away they were able to see, and went after him.

Matthew 21

¹And when they were near Jerusalem, and had come to Beth-phage, to the Mountain of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,

²Saying to them, Go into the little town in front of you, and straight away you will see an ass with a cord round her neck, and a young one with her; let them loose and come with them to me.

³And if anyone says anything to you, you will say, The Lord has need of them; and straight away he will send them.

⁴Now this took place so that these words of the prophet might come true,

⁵Say to the daughter of Zion, See, your King comes to you, gentle and seated on an ass, and on a young ass.

⁶And the disciples went and did as Jesus had given them orders,

⁷And got the ass and the young one, and put their clothing on them, and he took his seat on it.

⁸And all the people put their clothing down in the way; and others got branches from the trees, and put them down in the way.

⁹And those who went before him, and those who came after, gave loud cries, saying, Glory to the Son of David: A blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord: Glory in the highest.

¹⁰And when he came into Jerusalem, all the town was moved, saying, Who is this?

¹¹And the people said, This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.

¹²And Jesus went into the Temple and sent out all who were trading there, overturning the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those trading in doves.

¹³And he said to them, It is in the Writings, My house is to be named a house of prayer, but you are making it a hole of thieves.

¹⁴And the blind and the broken in body came to him in the Temple, and he made them well.

¹⁵But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the works of power which he did, and the children crying out in the Temple, Glory to the son of David, they were angry and said to him,

¹⁶Have you any idea what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes: have you not seen in the Writings, From the lips of children and babies at the breast you have made your praise complete?

¹⁷And he went away from them, and went out of the town to Bethany, and was there for the night.

¹⁸Now in the morning when he was coming back to the town, he had a desire for food.

¹⁹And seeing a fig-tree by the wayside, he came to it, and saw nothing on it but leaves only; and he said to it, Let there be no fruit from you from this time forward for ever. And straight away the fig-tree became dry and dead.

²⁰And when the disciples saw it they were surprised, saying, How did the fig-tree become dry in so short a time?

²¹And Jesus in answer said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith, without doubting, not only may you do what has been done to the fig-tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and put into the sea, it will be done.

²²And all things, whatever you make request for in prayer, having faith, you will get.

²³And when he had come into the Temple, the chief priests and those in authority over the people came to him while he was teaching, and said, By what authority do you do these things? and who gave you this authority?

²⁴And Jesus said to them in answer, I will put one question to you, and if you give me the answer, I will say by what authority I do these things.

²⁵The baptism of John, where did it come from? from heaven or from men? And they were reasoning among themselves, saying, If we say, From heaven; he will say to us, Why then did you not have faith in him?

²⁶But if we say, From men; we are in fear of the people, because all take John to be a prophet.

²⁷And they made answer and said, We have no idea. Then he said to them, And I will not say to you by what authority I do these things.

²⁸But how does it seem to you? A man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go and do work today in the vine-garden.

²⁹And he said in answer, I will not: but later, changing his decision, he went.

³⁰And he came to the second and said the same. And he made answer and said, I go, sir: and went not.

³¹Which of the two did his father's pleasure? They say, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, that tax-farmers and loose women are going into the kingdom of God before you.

³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you had no faith in him, but the tax-farmers and the loose women had faith in him: and you, when you saw it, did not even have regret for your sins, so as to have faith in him.

³³Give ear to another story. A master of a house made a vine garden, and put a wall round it, and made a place for crushing out the wine, and made a tower, and let it out to field-workers, and went into another country.

³⁴And when the time for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the workmen, to get the fruit.

³⁵And the workmen made an attack on his servants, giving blows to one, putting another to death, and stoning another.

³⁶Again, he sent other servants more in number than the first: and they did the same to them.

³⁷But after that he sent his son to them, saying, They will have respect for my son.

³⁸But when the workmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is he who will one day be the owner of the property; come, let us put him to death and take his heritage.

³⁹And they took him and, driving him out of the vine-garden, put him to death.

⁴⁰When, then, the lord of the vine-garden comes, what will he do to those workmen?

⁴¹They say to him, He will put those cruel men to a cruel death, and will let out the vine-garden to other workmen, who will give him the fruit when it is ready.

⁴²Jesus says to them, Did you never see in the Writings, The stone which the builders put on one side, the same has been made the chief stone of the building: this was the Lord's doing, and it is a wonder in our eyes?

⁴³For this reason I say to you, The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation producing the fruits of it.

⁴⁴Any man falling on this stone will be broken, but he on whom it comes down will be crushed to dust.

⁴⁵And when his stories came to the ears of the chief priests and the Pharisees, they saw that he was talking of them.

⁴⁶And though they had a desire to take him, they were in fear of the people, because in their eyes he was a prophet.

Matthew 22

¹And Jesus, talking to them again in stories, said:

²The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king, who made a feast when his son was married,

³And sent out his servants to get in the guests to the feast: and they would not come.

⁴Again he sent out other servants, with orders to say to the guests, See, I have made ready my feast: my oxen and my fat beasts have been put to death, and all things are ready: come to the feast.

⁵But they gave no attention, and went about their business, one to his farm, another to his trade:

⁶And the rest put violent hands on his servants, and did evil to them, and put them to death.

⁷But the king was angry; and he sent his armies, and those who had put his servants to death he gave to destruction, burning down their town with fire.

⁸Then he said to his servants, The feast is ready but the guests were not good enough.

⁹Go then to the cross-roads, and get all those whom you see to come to the bride-feast.

¹⁰And those servants went out into the streets, and got together all those whom they came across, bad and good: and the feast was full of guests.

¹¹But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who had not on a guest's robe;

¹²And he says to him, Friend, how came you in here not having a guest's robe? And he had nothing to say.

¹³Then the king said to the servants, Put cords round his hands and feet and put him out into the dark; there will be weeping and cries of sorrow.

¹⁴For out of all to whom the good news has come, only a small number will get salvation.

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and had a meeting to see how they might make use of his words to take him.

¹⁶And they sent to him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we see that you are true, and that you are teaching the true way of God, and have no fear of anyone, because you have no respect for a man's position.

¹⁷Give us, then, your opinion of this: Is it right to give tax to Caesar, or not?

¹⁸But Jesus saw their trick and said, Oh false ones, why are you attempting to put me in the wrong?

¹⁹Let me see the tax money. And they gave him a penny.

²⁰And he said to them, Whose is this image and name on it?

²¹They say to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's.

²²And hearing it, they were full of wonder, and went away from him.

²³On the same day there came to him the Sadducees, who say that there is no coming back from the dead: and they put a question to him, saying,

²⁴Master, Moses said, If a man, at the time of his death, has no children, let his brother take his wife, and get a family for his brother;

²⁵Now there were among us seven brothers; and the first was married and at his death, having no seed, gave his wife to his brother;

²⁶In the same way the second and the third, up to the seventh.

²⁷And last of all the woman came to her end.

²⁸When they come back from the dead, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? because they all had her.

²⁹But Jesus said to them in answer, You are in error, not having knowledge of the Writings, or of the power of God.

³⁰For when they come back from the dead there are no husbands and wives, but they are as the angels in heaven.

³¹But about the dead coming back to life, have you no knowledge of what was said to you by God in the Writings:

³²I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead but of the living.

³³And the people hearing it were surprised at his teaching.

³⁴But the Pharisees, hearing how the mouths of the Sadducees had been stopped, came together;

³⁵And one of them, a teacher of the law, put a question to him, testing him, and saying,

³⁶Master, which is the chief rule in the law?

³⁷And he said to him, Have love for the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

³⁸This is the first and greatest rule.

³⁹And a second like it is this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself.

⁴⁰On these two rules all the law and the prophets are based.

⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were together, Jesus put a question to them, saying,

⁴²What is your opinion of the Christ? whose son is he? They say to him, The Son of David.

⁴³He says to them, How then does David in the Spirit give him the name of Lord, saying,

⁴⁴The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand, till I put under your feet all those who are against you?

⁴⁵If David then gives him the name of Lord, how is he his son?

⁴⁶And no one was able to give him an answer, and so great was their fear of him, that from that day no one put any more questions to him.