Matthew 20:1–16
Fleeing love of glory, the Lord speaks as about another householder, though he himself is householder and distributor of the kingdom of the heavens. By “day” he means the whole age, in which at different times after Adam’s transgression he calls some righteous into God-reverent work, setting them a wage for the works.
Those about the first hour are those around Adam and Enoch; those about the third, around Noah and Shem and the righteous from them — for the time is second and the call second, when the ordinances also differ. The workers called about the sixth are those in Abraham’s times, when again came the legislation of circumcision; those of the eleventh, those at Christ’s presence, of whom alone it is said, “Why do you stand here idle all day?” (Matthew 20:1–16) — having no hope of the Lord, godless in the world, idle in every good work, like those standing in the marketplace handling nothing at all, but running through their life vainly and to no purpose. The Lord also exhorts them, saying, “Why do you stand idle?” They answer, “No one hired us” — for neither Moses nor any of the holy ones preached to the nations, but only to Israel. Still the Lord sends them too into the vineyard.
He <says> five calls happened, to show that in each time some succeeded and some missed — as the “five prudent virgins and the five foolish” (Matthew 25:1–13) show, being in the same times — and that some were found virtuous, while some despised the coming age through folly. At the end of life, which is evening (for the time from Christ’s advent until the consummation is the time after the eleventh hour, as John says, “It is the last hour”), the householder, he says, <commands> the wage to be given beginning from the last. The householder may be understood <as> the Father, using the Son as distributor not as a mere servant but as <co-worker>, because through him he administers and works whatever he wills.
He gives each a denarius — the Spirit’s grace, conforming the holy to God, engraving the heavenly characters in their souls, and leading them up into life and incorruption. In this the first seem to have toiled more than the last, having endured the devil’s burning longer while sin, corruption, and death were not yet abolished. If the matter is weighed by equality, something more seems owed to the former, because they lived while death and the devil ruled — that is the burden of the day and the heat, when not even the Spirit’s dew was present helping humans toward righteousness. But the last, having the Master’s generosity instead of toils, receive the wage first, since all after the advent, through baptism and union with the Spirit, have become “sharers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) and were named sons of God, while all before the advent were named born of women — though they too are to be called to this. For even if the prophets became partakers of the Spirit, it was not as the faithful: somehow the Holy Spirit becomes like leaven in the faithful’s souls and transforms the whole human into another state of life. That is why we become “sharers of the divine nature” and cry out boldly, “Abba, Father.” The more ancient did not obtain the same grace. So Paul says, “You did not receive a spirit of slavery again unto fear, but you received a spirit of adoption” (Romans 8:15) — meaning the ancients received a “spirit of slavery,” not having the dignity of adoption. Having received the intelligible denarius first, we are necessarily said to have been preferred above the others.
Greek
Φεύγων τὸ φιλόδοξον ὁ κύριος ὡς περὶ ἑτέρου λέγει οἰκοδεσπό του αὐτὸς ὢν οἰκοδεσπότης καὶ τῆς τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλείας διανομεύς. ἡμέραν δὲ λέγει τὸν πάντα αἰῶνα, καθ' ὃν ἐν διαφόροις καιροῖς μετὰ τὴν τοῦ Ἀδὰμ παράβασιν προσκαλεῖταί τινας δικαίους εἰς ἐργασίαν θεοσεβῆ μισθὸν αὐτοῖς ὁρίσας ἐπὶ τοῖς ἔργοις. εἰσὶν οὖν περὶ τὴν πρώ την ὥραν οἱ περὶ τὸν Ἀδὰμ καὶ τὸν Ἐνώχ, οἱ δὲ περὶ τὴν τρίτην οἱ περὶ Νῶε καὶ Σὴμ καὶ οἱ ἐξ αὐτῶν δίκαιοι· δεύτερος γὰρ ὁ καιρὸς καὶ ἡ κλῆσις δευτέρα, ὅτε καὶ διάφορα τὰ νόμιμα. οἱ δὲ περὶ τὴν ἕκτην κεκλημένοι ἐργάται οἱ κατὰ τοὺς Ἀβραάμ εἰσι χρόνους, ἐφ' οὗ πάλιν ἡ τῆς περιτομῆς νομοθεσία, οἱ ἑνδεκάτην οἱ κατὰ τὴν Χριστοῦ παρουσίαν, ἐφ' ὧν καὶ μόνων λέγεται τὸ τί ὧδε ποιεῖτε ὅλην τὴν ἡμέ ραν ἀργοί, ὅτι κυρίου ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες καὶ ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ καὶ ἀργοὶ ἐν παντὶ ἔργῳ ἀγαθῷ ἐοικότες τοῖς ἐν ἀγορᾷ ἑστῶσιν καὶ μηδὲν ὅλως ψηλαφῶσιν, ἀλλ' εἰκῆ καὶ μάτην τὸν ἑαυτῶν διατρέχοντες βίον. οὓς καὶ προτρέπεται ὁ κύριος λέγων· τί ἑστήκατε (οὕτως λέγων) ἀργοί; πρὸς ὃν ἀνταποκρίνονται λέγοντες· οὐδεὶς ἡμᾶς ἐμισθώ σατο· οὔτε γὰρ Μωυσῆς οὔτε τις τῶν ἁγίων ἐκήρυξε τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, ἀλλὰ μόνῳ τῷ Ἰσραήλ. ὅμως ὁ κύριος εἰσπέμπει καὶ αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα. πέντε δὲ κλήσεις <λέγει> γενέσθαι, ἵνα δείξῃ, ὅτι ἐν ἑκάστῳ καιρῷ ἦσαν εὐδοκιμοῦντες καὶ ἀστοχοῦντες ὡς αἱ "πέντε παρθένοι φρόνι μοι καὶ αἱ μωραὶ πέντε" δηλοῦσιν κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς οὖσαι 27 χρόνους, καὶ ὅτι τινὲς ἐνάρετοι ηὑρέθησαν, τινὲς δὲ κατεφρόνησαν διὰ μωρίαν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος. ἐπὶ τέλει δὲ τοῦ βίου, ὅ ἐστιν ἑσπέρα (ὁ γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς ἐπιδημίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ καιρὸς ἕως τῆς συντελείας ἐστὶν ὁ μετὰ τὴν ἑνδεκάτην ὥραν καθὼς ὁ Ἰωάννης φησίν· "ἐσχάτη ὥρα ἐστίν"), ἐν ᾗ ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης, φησίν, ἀπὸ τῶν τελευταίων <κελεύει> δοθῆναι τὸν μισθόν. οἰκοδεσπότης δὲ νοηθεί<η> ὁ πατὴρ χρώμενος τῷ υἱῷ διανομεῖ οὐχ ὡς ὑπουργῷ, ἀλλ' ὡς <συνεργῷ> ὅτι δι' αὐτοῦ διοικεῖ καὶ ἐνεργεῖ πᾶν, ὅ τι οὖν βούλεται. δίδωσιν δὲ πᾶσιν τὸ ἀνὰ δηνάριον, ὅ ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ πνεύματος χάρις συμμόρφους ἀποτελοῦσα τοὺς ἁγίους θεῷ καὶ τοὺς ἄνω χαρακτῆρας ἐν ταῖς ἐκείνων ψυχαῖς ἐγχαράττουσα καὶ εἰς ζωὴν ἀνά γουσα καὶ ἀφθαρσίαν. ἐν τούτοις δὲ οἱ πρῶτοι δοκοῦσιν πλεῖον τῶν ἐσχάτων κεκοπιακέναι ὡς τὴν τοῦ διαβόλου πύρωσιν ἐπὶ πλεῖον ὑπο στάντες οὔπω τῆς ἁμαρτίας κατηργημένης καὶ τῆς φθορᾶς καὶ τοῦ θα νάτου· τὸ πρᾶγμα γάρ, εἰ κατ' ἰσότητα ἐξετάζοιτο, πλεῖόν τι τοῖς προ τέροις ὀφειλόμενον ὑποβάλλει, ὅτι θανάτου καὶ διαβόλου κρατοῦντος ἐπολιτεύοντο· τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν τὸ βάρος τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ ὁ καύσων, ὅτε μηδὲ ἡ τοῦ πνεύματος δρόσος παρῆν ἐπικουροῦσα πρὸς δικαιοσύνην ἀνθρώποις. οἱ δὲ ἔσχατοι ἀντὶ κόπων τὴν τοῦ δεσπότου ἔχοντες φιλο τιμίαν πρῶτοι τὸν μισθὸν δέχονται, ἐπείπερ πάντες οἱ μετὰ τὴν ἐπι δημίαν διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος καὶ τῆς πρὸς τὸ πνεῦμα συναφείας "θείας" γεγόνασιν "κοινωνοὶ φύσεως" καὶ υἱοὶ θεοῦ ἐχρημάτισαν τῶν πρὸ τῆς ἐπιδημίας πάντων γεννητῶν γυναικῶν χρηματιζόντων, μελλόντων δὲ καὶ αὐτῶν πρὸς τοῦτο καλεῖσθαι· εἰ γὰρ καὶ γεγόνασι μέτοχοι πνεύματος οἱ προφῆται, ἀλλ' οὖν οὐχ ὡς οἱ πιστοί, τρόπον τινὰ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ταῖς τῶν πιστῶν ψυχαῖς ὡσανεὶ ζύμης γενομένου καὶ ὅλον τὸν ἄνθρω πον μετατιθέντος εἰς ἑτέραν βίου κατάστασιν. διὸ καὶ "θείας" γινόμεθα "κοινωνοὶ φύσεως" καὶ ἐκ παρρησίας βοῶμεν "ἀββᾶ ὁ πατήρ". οἱ δὲ ἀρχαιότεροι οὐ τῆς αὐτῆς ἔτυχον χάριτος. διὸ καὶ ὁ Παῦλός φησιν· "οὐ γὰρ ἐλάβετε πνεῦμα δουλείας πάλιν εἰς φόβον, ἀλλὰ ἐλάβετε πνεῦμα υἱοθεσίας" ὡς ὅτι οἱ ἀρχαῖοι "πνεῦμα δουλείας" ἐλάμβανον οὐκ ἔχοντες τὸ τῆς υἱοθεσίας ἀξίωμα. πρῶτοι οὖν λαβόντες τὸ νοητὸν δηνάριον ἀναγκαίως τῶν ἄλλων προτετιμῆσθαι λεγόμεθα.
About this text
Catena fragments on Matthew (CPG 5206). Contents follow Matthew chapter and verse. Edition fragment numbers stay in About this text and under each passage.
English follows the named copy-text (Aegean/khazarzar Migne PG 72 extract). Other prints were checked as noted; no silent merge of recensions.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 72 Commentarii in Matthaeum (Aegean Digital Patrologia / khazarzar) (Greek · CPG 5206 catena fragments (290 parsed heads))
- Checked print matia.gr mirror of same Aegean extract (Greek · Byte-identical PDF; integrity check only)
- Checked print Internet Archive PG 72 volume OCR (bim … 1859_72) (Greek (OCR damaged) · Locus confirmation only; not used as reading text)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.