Matthew 20:9 — ExegesisTAB

The verse opens with the coordinating conjunction kai {καί | kaí} ‘and’, linking this action to the preceding wage payments in the parable. The aorist participle elthontes {ἐλθόντες | elthóntes} ‘having come’ functions adverbially, introducing a temporal clause rendered “when they had come.” The article hoi {οἱ | hoi} ‘the’ specifies the group. The phrase peri ten hendekaten horan {περὶ τὴν ἑνδεκάτην ὥραν | perí tḗn hendekátēn hōran} ‘about the eleventh hour’ combines peri with the accusative to indicate approximation and an ordinal adjective to pinpoint a late afternoon time. The aorist indicative elabon {ἔλαβον | élabon} ‘they received’ presents the payment event as a completed action. The preposition ana {ἀνά | aná} ‘each’ with denarion {δηνάριον | dēnárion} ‘denarius’ forms a distributive expression, signifying that every worker received the same unit of pay. In English, the participial clause becomes a temporal clause, and the distributive force is conveyed by “each” or “each one.”