Bible / Matthew
Matthew 20
Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner revision (1749–1752), the traditional Catholic English Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate. If you read a modern Bible, this is the same Scripture in older English; some names are spelled differently (Cesarea for Caesarea, Apocalypse for Revelation). About this translation
1 The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. Fathers
2 And having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace idle.
4 And he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just.
5 And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner.
6 But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle?
7 They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go ye also into my vineyard.
8 And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first.
9 When therefore they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.
10 But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: And they also received every man a penny.
11 And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house,
12 Saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats.
13 But he answering said to one of them: friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny?
14 Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee.
15 Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thy eye evil, because I am good?
16 So shall the last be first and the first last. For many are called but few chosen. Fathers
17 And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart and said to them:
18 Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes: and they shall condemn him to death.
19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified: and the third day he shall rise again. CCC
20 Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him.
21 Who said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom.
22 And Jesus answering, said: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to him: We can.
23 He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right or left hand is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.
24 And the ten, hearing it, were moved with indignation against the two brethren.
25 But Jesus called them to him and said: You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and that they that are the greater, exercise power upon them.
26 It shall not be so among you: but whosoever is the greater among you, let him be your minister. CCC
27 And he that will be first among you shall be your servant.
28 Even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a redemption for many. CCC
29 And when they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him.
30 And behold two blind men sitting by the way side heard that Jesus passed by. And they cried out, saying: O Lord, thou son of David, have mercy on us. CCC
31 And the multitude rebuked them that they should hold their peace. But they cried out the more, saying: O Lord, thou son of David, have mercy on us.
32 And Jesus stood and called them and said: What will ye that I do to you?
33 They say to him: Lord, that our eyes be opened.
34 And Jesus having compassion on them, touched their eyes. And immediately they saw and followed him.
This chapter in the Catechism and the early Church
Where the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these verses (from its footnotes on vatican.va), and where the earliest Church Fathers quote them (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, public domain). Short quotes only; follow the links for the full text.
Read the Fathers
“Also by the parable of the workmen who were sent into the vineyard at different periods of the day, one and the same God is declared”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXXVI. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
Read the Fathers
“Let us beware lest we be found [fulfilling that saying], as it is written, "Many are called, but few are chosen.”
Quoted in The Letter of Barnabas, Unknown author (early 2nd century), Chapter IV. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
“The Lord says, "Behold, I will make the last like the first.”
Quoted in The Letter of Barnabas, Unknown author (early 2nd century), Chapter VI. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
“And if certain persons, because of the disobedient and ruined Israelites, do assert that the giver (doctor) of the law was limited in power, they will find in our dispensation, that "many are called, but few chosen;”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XV. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
Read the Catechism
- CCC 572 “The Church remains faithful to the interpretation of "all the Scriptures" that Jesus gave both before and after his Passover: "Was it…”
Read the Catechism
- CCC 2235 “Those who exercise authority should do so as a service. "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant." The exercise…”
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- CCC 440 “Jesus accepted Peter's profession of faith, which acknowledged him to be the Messiah, by announcing the imminent Passion of the Son of…”
- CCC 601 “The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a…”
- CCC 605 “At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not…”
- CCC 786 “Finally, the People of God shares in the royal office of Christ. He exercises his kingship by drawing all men to himself…”
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- CCC 439 “Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who shared their hope recognized in Jesus the fundamental attributes of the messianic "Son of David",…”
A modern English Catholic translation will be added once its publisher grants permission.