translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: MAT

label: NET study note

text: The term landowner here refers to the owner and manager of a household.


text: That is, six o’clock in the evening, the hour to pay day laborers. See Lev 19:13 b.


text: Crucifixion was the cruelest form of punishment practiced by the Romans. Roman citizens could not normally undergo it. It was reserved for the worst crimes, like treason and evasion of due process in a capital case. The Roman historian Cicero called it “a cruel and disgusting penalty” ( Against Verres 2.5.63-66 §§163-70); Josephus ( J. W. 7.6.4 [7.203]) called it the worst of deaths.


text: No more naïve words have ever been spoken as those found here coming from James and John, “ We are able .” They said it with such confidence and ease, yet they had little clue as to what they were affirming. In the next sentence Jesus confirms that they will indeed suffer for his name.


text: The Greek word for ransom ( λύτρον , lutron ) is found here and in Mark 10:45 and refers to the payment of a price in order to purchase the freedom of a slave. The idea of Jesus as the “ransom” is that he paid the price with his own life by standing in our place as a substitute, enduring the judgment that we deserved for sin.


text: Have mercy on us is a request for healing. It is not owed to the men. They simply ask for God’s kind grace.


text: There was a tradition in Judaism that the Son of David (Solomon) had great powers of healing (Josephus, Ant. 8.2.5 [8.42-49]).