Matthew 20:10 — ExegesisTAB

The verse opens with the participial clause elthontes hoi protoi {ἐλθόντες οἱ πρῶτοι | elthóntes hoi prô-toi} ‘when the first came’, where the aorist participle elthontes functions temporally, indicating prior action to the main verb. The article–adjective combination hoi protoi marks a defined group, those who were first hired earlier in the narrative. The main finite verb enomisan {ἐνόμισαν | enómi-san} ‘they supposed’ governs a content clause introduced by hoti {ὅτι | hóti}, forming hoti pleion lempsontai {ὅτι πλεῖον λήμψονται | hóti pleî-on lḗm-pson-tai} ‘that they would receive more’, which expresses their expectation in contrast to what actually happens. The repeated kai {καί | kaí} creates a simple narrative chain rather than asyndeton, linking the expectation clause to the outcome clause. The second finite verb elabon {ἔλαβον | é-la-bon} introduces the realized action, with the object phrase to ana denarion {τὸ ἀνὰ δηνάριον | tò aná dē-ná-ri-on}, an idiomatic combination of article, preposition ana with accusative, and noun, meaning ‘a denarius each’. The concluding kai autoi {καὶ αὐτοί | kaí autoí} ‘and they themselves’ underscores that this same standard payment applied even to those who came first, reinforcing the theme of equal treatment. In translation, the temporal participle is rendered as a finite clause (“when the first came / when those who were hired first arrived”), and the idiom to ana denarion is expressed as “the denarius each” or “a denarius each” to communicate the distributive sense. The coordinating kai linking expectation and result is rendered as “and” in formal and “yet” in dynamic to convey the implied contrast without overcomplicating the sentence.