SEV Biblia, Chapter 20:28
como el Hijo del hombre no vino para ser servido, sino para servir, y para dar su vida en rescate por muchos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Matthew 20:28
Verse 28. A ransom for many.] autron anti pollwn, or a ransom instead of many,-one ransom, or atonement, instead of the many prescribed in the Jewish law. Mr. \Wakefield contends for the above translation, and with considerable show of reason and probability. The word lutron is used by the Septuagint for the Hebrew wydp , pidion, the ransom paid for a man's life: see Exod. xxi. 30; Num. iii. 49-51; and lutra is used Num. xxxv. 31, where a satisfaction (Hebrew rpk copher, an atonement) for the life of a murderer is refused. The original word is used by Lucian in exactly the same sense, who represents Ganymede promising to sacrifice a ram to Jupiter, lutron uper emou, as a ransom for himself, provided he would dismiss him.
The whole Gentile world, as well as the Jews, believed in vicarious sacrifices. Virgil, AEn. v. 85, has nearly the same words as those in the text. "UNUM PRO MULTIS dabitur CAPUT,"- One man must be given for many. Jesus Christ laid down his life as a ransom for the lives and souls of the children of men. In the Codex Bezae, and in most of the Itala, the Saxon, and one of the Syriac, Hilary, Leo Magnus, and Juvencus, the following remarkable addition is found; "But seek ye to increase from a little, and to be lessened from that which is great. Moreover, when ye enter into a house, and are invited to sup, do not recline in the most eminent places, lest a more honourable than thou come after, and he who invited thee to supper come up to thee and say, Get down yet lower; and thou be put to confusion. But if thou sit down in the lowest place, and one inferior to thee come after, he who invited thee to supper will say unto thee, Go and sit higher: now this will be advantageous to thee." This is the largest addition found in any of the MSS., and contains not less than sixty words In the original, and eighty-three in the Anglo- Saxon. It may be necessary to remark, that Mr. Marshall, in his edition of the Gothic and Saxon Gospels, does not insert these words in the text, but gives them, p. 496 of his observations. This addition is at least as ancient as the fourth century, for it is quoted by Hilary, who did not die till about A. D. 367.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 28. Even as the son of man , etc.] Meaning himself, the seed of the woman, the son of Abraham, and of David, according to the flesh; and whom he proposes as an example of humility, and as an argument to draw them off from their ambitious views of worldly grandeur, and from all thoughts of the Messiahs setting up a temporal kingdom; since he came not to be ministered unto by others; to be attended on in pomp and state, to have a numerous retinue about him, waiting upon him, and ministering to him; as is the case of the princes, and great men of the world; though he is Lord of all, and King of kings; but to minister ; in the form of a servant unto others, going about from place to place to do good, both to the bodies and souls of men: he came forth from his Father, down from heaven, into this world, by his assumption of human nature, to minister in the prophetic office, by preaching the Gospel, and working miracles, in confirmation of it; and in the priestly office, one branch of which is expressed in the next clause, and to give his life a ransom for many : what he came to give was his life, which was his own, and than which nothing is more dear and precious: besides, his life was an uncommon one, being not only so useful to men, and entirely free from sin in itself, but was the life of the man Jesus, who is in union with the Son of God: this he came to give, and did give into the hands of men, to the justice of God, and death itself; which giving, supposes it to be his own, and at his own disposal; was not forfeited by any act of his, nor was it forced from him, but freely laid down by him; and that as a ransom, or redemption price for his people, to deliver them from the evil of sin, the bondage of Satan, the curses of a righteous law, from eternal death, and future wrath, and, in short, from all their enemies: which ransom price was paid for them in their room and stead, by Christ, as their substitute; who put himself in their legal place, and laid himself under obligation to pay their debts, and clear their scores, and redeem them from all their iniquities, and the evil consequences of them: and this he did for many; for as many as were ordained to eternal life; for as many as the Father gave unto him; for many out of every kindred, tongue, and people, and nation; but not for every individual of human nature; for many are not all.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 20-28 - The sons of Zebedee abused what Christ said to comfort the disciples Some cannot have comforts but they turn them to a wrong purpose. Prid is a sin that most easily besets us; it is sinful ambition to outd others in pomp and grandeur. To put down the vanity and ambition of their request, Christ leads them to the thoughts of their sufferings It is a bitter cup that is to be drunk of; a cup of trembling, but no the cup of the wicked. It is but a cup, it is but a draught, bitte perhaps, but soon emptied; it is a cup in the hand of a Father, Jo 18:11. Baptism is an ordinance by which we are joined to the Lord i covenant and communion; and so is suffering for Christ, Eze 20:37; Is 48:10. Baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward an spiritual grace; and so is suffering for Christ, for unto us it is given, Php 1:29. But they knew not what Christ's cup was, nor what his baptism. Those are commonly most confident, who are least acquainte with the cross. Nothing makes more mischief among brethren, than desir of greatness. And we never find Christ's disciples quarrelling, but something of this was at the bottom of it. That man who labours mos diligently, and suffers most patiently, seeking to do good to his brethren, and to promote the salvation of souls, most resembles Christ and will be most honoured by him to all eternity. Our Lord speaks of his death in the terms applied to the sacrifices of old. It is sacrifice for the sins of men, and is that true and substantia sacrifice, which those of the law faintly and imperfectly represented It was a ransom for many, enough for all, working upon many; and, is for many, then the poor trembling soul may say, Why not for me?
Greek Textus Receptus
ωσπερ 5618 ADV ο 3588 T-NSM υιος 5207 N-NSM του 3588 T-GSM ανθρωπου 444 N-GSM ουκ 3756 PRT-N ηλθεν 2064 5627 V-2AAI-3S διακονηθηναι 1247 5683 V-APN αλλα 235 CONJ διακονησαι 1247 5658 V-AAN και 2532 CONJ δουναι 1325 5629 V-2AAN την 3588 T-ASF ψυχην 5590 N-ASF αυτου 846 P-GSM λυτρον 3083 N-ASN αντι 473 PREP πολλων 4183 A-GPM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
28. A ransom for many. Compare Sophocles, "Oed. Col.," 488."For one soul working in the strength of love Is mightier than ten thousand to atone."
Robertson's NT Word Studies
20:28 {A ransom for many} (lutron anti pollwn). 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 qen 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 anti. 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.
