Mat 20:20-28 | RWP | e4.org | Then ( τοτε ). Surely an inopportune time for such a request just after the pointed prediction of Christ's crucifixion. Perhaps their minds had been preoccupied with the words of Jesus ( ) about their sitting on twelve thrones taking them in a literal sense. The mother of James and John, probably Salome, possibly a sister of the Master's mother ( ), apparently prompted her two sons because of the family relationship and now speaks for them. Asking a certain thing ( αιτουσα τ ). "Asking something," "plotting perhaps when their Master was predicting" (Bruce). The "something" put forward as a small matter was simply the choice of the two chief thrones promised by Jesus ( ).

‏ Matthew 20:20-28

Then ( τοτε ). Surely an inopportune time for such a request just after the pointed prediction of Christ's crucifixion. Perhaps their minds had been preoccupied with the words of Jesus (19:28) about their sitting on twelve thrones taking them in a literal sense. The mother of James and John, probably Salome, possibly a sister of the Master's mother (Joh 19:25), apparently prompted her two sons because of the family relationship and now speaks for them.

Asking a certain thing ( αιτουσα τ ). "Asking something," "plotting perhaps when their Master was predicting" (Bruce). The "something" put forward as a small matter was simply the choice of the two chief thrones promised by Jesus (19:28).

Ye know not what ye ask ( ουκ οιδατε τ αιτεισθε ). How often that is true. Αιτεισθε is indirect middle voice, "ask for yourselves," "a selfish request."

We are able ( δυναμεθα ). Amazing proof of their ignorance and self-confidence. Ambition had blinded their eyes. They had not caught the martyr spirit.

Ye shall drink ( πιεσθε ). Future middle from πινω. Christ's cup was martyrdom. James was the first of the Twelve to meet the martyr's death (Ac 12:2) and John the last if reports are true about him. How little they knew what they were saying.

Moved with indignation ( ηγανακτησαν ). A strong word for angry resentment. In the papyri. The ten felt that James and John had taken advantage of their relation to Jesus.

Called them unto him ( προσκαλεσαμενος αυτους ). Indirect middle again, calling to him.

Would become great ( ος αν θελη μεγας γενεσθα ). Jesus does not condemn the desire to become great. It is a laudable ambition. There are "great ones" ( μεγαλο ) among Christians as among pagans, but they do not "lord it over" one another ( κατακυριευουσιν ), a LXX word and very expressive, or "play the tyrant" ( κατεξουσιαζουσιν ), another suggestive word.

Your minister ( υμων διακονος ). This word may come from δια and κονις (dust), to raise a dust by one's hurry, and so to minister. It is a general word for servant and is used in a variety of ways including the technical sense of our "deacon" in Php. 1:1. But it more frequently is applied to ministers of the Gospel (1Co 3:5). The way to be "first" ( πρωτος ), says Jesus, is to be your "servant" ( δουλος ), "bond-servant" (verse 27). This is a complete reversal of popular opinion then and now.

A ransom for many ( λυτρον αντ πολλων ). The Son of man is the outstanding illustration of this principle of self-abnegation in direct contrast to the self-seeking of James and John. The word translated "ransom" is the one commonly employed in the papyri as the price paid for a slave who is then set free by the one who bought him, the purchase money for manumitting slaves. See examples in Moulton and Milligan's Vocabulary and Deissmann's Light from the Ancient East, pp. 328f. There is the notion of exchange also in the use of αντ. Jesus gave his own life as the price of freedom for the slaves of sin. There are those who refuse to admit that Jesus held this notion of a substitutionary death because the word in the N.T. occurs only here and the corresponding passage in Mr 10:45. But that is an easy way to get rid of passages that contradict one's theological opinions. Jesus here rises to the full consciousness of the significance of his death for men.