MAT 20:26 Parallel Verse View

Note: This view shows ‘verses’ which are not natural language units and hence sometimes only part of a sentence will be visible—click on any Bible version abbreviation down the left-hand side to see the verse in more of its context. Normally the OET discourages the reading of individual ‘verses’, but this view is only designed as a tool for doing comparisons of different translations—the older translations are further down the page (so you can read up from the bottom to trace the English translation history). The OET segments on this page are still very early looks into the unfinished texts of the Open English Translation of the Bible—please double-check these texts in advance before using in public.

Text critical issues=small word differences Clarity of original=clear Importance to us=normal (All still tentative.)

Key: khaki:verbs, light-green:nominative/subject, pink:genitive/possessor, cyan:dative/indirect object, red:negative.
Note: Automatic aligning of the OET-RV to the LV is done by some temporary software, hence the RV alignments are incomplete (and may occasionally be wrong).

ULT It is not this way among you. Instead, whoever desires to become great among you will be your servant,

UST You must not behave like that. Rather, when one of you wants to be important, that person must serve the others.

BSB It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,

BLB Thus will it not be among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you, he will be your servant;

AICNT It will not be so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you will be your servant,

OEB Among you it is not so.

WEBBE It shall not be so amongst you; but whoever desires to become great amongst you shall be[fn] your servant.

20:26 TR reads “let him be” instead of “shall be”

WMBB (Same as above including footnotes)

NET It must not be this way among you! Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant,

LSV but not so will it be among you, but whoever may will among you to become great, let him be your servant;

FBV It shall not be like that for you. Whoever among you wants to be the most important will be your servant.

TCNT But it [fn]shall not be so among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant,

20:26 shall not be ¦ is not WH

T4T You should not be like them. On the contrary, everyone among you who wants God to consider him great must become like a servant for the rest of you.

LEB It will not be like this among you! But whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,

BBE Let it not be so among you: but if anyone has a desire to become great among you, let him be your servant;

Moff not so with you.
⇔ Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant,

Wymth Not so shall it be among you; but whoever desires to be great among you shall be your servant,

ASV Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister;

DRA It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister:

YLT but not so shall it be among you, but whoever may will among you to become great, let him be your ministrant;

Drby It shall not be thus amongst you, but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your servant;

RV Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister;

SLT But it shall not be so among you; but whoever should wish to be great among you, let him be your attendant;

Wbstr But it shall not be so among you: but whoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;

KJB-1769 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;

KJB-1611 But it shall not be so among you: But whosoeuer will bee great among you, let him be your minister.
(Modernised spelling is same as from KJB-1769 above, apart from capitalisation and punctuation)

Bshps It shall not be so among you: But whosoeuer wyll be great among you, let hym be your minister:
(It shall not be so among you: But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister:)

Gnva But it shall not be so among you: but whosoeuer will be great among you, let him be your seruant.
(But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your servant. )

Cvdl It shal not be so amonge you. But whoso euer wyl be greate amonge you, let him be youre mynister:
(It shall not be so among you. But whoso/whoever ever will be great among you, let him be your(pl) minister:)

TNT It shall not be so amonge you. But whosoever wyll be greate amonge you let him be youre minister:
(It shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you let him be your(pl) minister: )

Wycl It schal not be so among you; but who euer wole be maad gretter among you, be he youre mynystre; and who euer among you wole be the firste, he schal be youre seruaunt.
(It shall not be so among you; but who ever will be made greater among you, be he your(pl) minister; and who ever among you will be the first, he shall be your(pl) servant.)

Luth So soll es nicht sein unter euch, sondern so jemand will unter euch gewaltig sein, der sei euer Diener;
(So should it not be under you, rather so someone will under you tremendous be, the/of_the be your(pl) servant;)

ClVg Non ita erit inter vos: sed quicumque voluerit inter vos major fieri, sit vester minister:
(Not/No so/thus will_be between you(pl): but whoever wanted between you(pl) major/greater to_be_done, be your minister: )

UGNT οὐχ οὕτως ἔστιν ἐν ὑμῖν; ἀλλ’ ὃς ἐὰν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν μέγας γενέσθαι, ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος;
(ouⱪ houtōs estin en humin; all’ hos ean thelaʸ en humin megas genesthai, estai humōn diakonos;)

SBL-GNT οὐχ οὕτως ⸀ἔσται ἐν ὑμῖν· ἀλλʼ ὃς ⸀ἂν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν μέγας γενέσθαι ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος,
(ouⱪ houtōs ⸀estai en humin; allʼ hos ⸀an thelaʸ en humin megas genesthai estai humōn diakonos,)

RP-GNT Οὐχ οὕτως δὲ ἔσται ἐν ὑμῖν· ἀλλ' ὃς ἐὰν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν μέγας γενέσθαι ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος·
(Ouⱪ houtōs de estai en humin; all' hos ean thelaʸ en humin megas genesthai estai humōn diakonos;)

TC-GNT Οὐχ οὕτω [fn]δὲ [fn]ἔσται [fn]ἐν ὑμῖν· ἀλλ᾽ ὃς [fn]ἐὰν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν μέγας γενέσθαι [fn]ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος·
(Ouⱪ houtō de estai en humin; all hos ean thelaʸ en humin megas genesthai estai humōn diakonos; )

20:26 δε ¦ — ANT CT

20:26 εσται ¦ εστιν WH

20:26 εν ¦ — PCK

20:26 εαν ¦ αν SBL TH WH

20:26 εσται ¦ εστω TR

Key for above GNTs: red:words differ (from our SR-GNT base).

SOTN SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 20:20–28: The mother of James and John asked Jesus for something

In this section, Jesus again dealt with the issue of who is important. In 18:1–4, the disciples had asked Jesus “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus had answered them there. Here, the mother of James and John asked Jesus to give her two sons the most important positions in his kingdom. Jesus again responded to the disciples’ concern to become important people.

Jesus said that the most important person in his kingdom is the person who behaves like a servant rather than like someone in charge. He finished by saying that he himself came to help other people rather than to ask other to help him. He showed that the values in his kingdom are different than the values here on earth.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

The Request of the Mother of James and John (NRSV)

The mother of James and John asks Jesus to make her sons the most people in his kingdom

Jesus Teaches about Serving Others (NLT)

There is a parallel passage for this section in Mark 10:35–45.

20:26a

It shall not be this way among you.

But that is not the way it should be among you^(plur).
But you^(plur) must not be/act like that.

There is a contrast here. The contrast is between how the kings of the earth act (20:25b–c) and how the followers of Christ should act (20:26b–27). Some English versions indicate this contrast with the conjunction “But.” For example:

But it should not be that way among you. (NCV)

It shall not be this way among you: The pronoun It refers to the way leaders use their power and authority. The Greek word that the BSB translates this way means “like that.”

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

Do not behave/act like that

You must not do/be like that

You must act differently

shall not be this way: The tense of the Greek verb that the BSB translates as shall not be is future. In this context, the future tense has the force of a command.

Here are some other ways to translate this verb:

must not be (NET)

should not be (NCV)

do not (CEV)

among you: The pronoun you refers to the disciples. Jesus spoke with the disciples as people who would become leaders of the church.

20:26b–27

As in 20:25b–c, verses 20:26b–c and 20:27 are a parallelism. This means that they are two ways of saying the same thing. (However, the statement in 20:27 is more intense.) Notice the parallel parts in these two statements:

^26b whoever wants to be great among you ^26cmust be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.

Jesus repeated this idea in order to emphasize it. You should show this emphasis in a way that is natural in your language. Some languages can repeat the idea. In other languages, it may be more natural to combine the two parts and translate them together. For example:

The person among you who wants to be an important person or the most important person, he must become like a slave and serve everyone.

Notice that this idea contrasts with the one in 20:25b–c.

20:26b

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you
Rather, if any of you^(plur) wants to become an important/big person in God’s kingdom,

Instead: There is a contrast here. The contrast is between a negative clause (in 20:26a) and a positive clause here in 20:26b. The negative clause is “It shall not be this way among you.” The positive clause is “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” Languages have different ways to indicate this negative-positive type of contrast. Here are some of the ways:

With the conjunction Instead, as in the BSB.
With a conjunction other than Instead. This is a common way in English to show this type of contrast. For example:
Rather
on the contrary
But (ESV)
With no conjunction. For example:
it should not be that way among you. Whoever wants to become great among you must serve the rest of you like a servant. (NCV)

You should do what is natural in your language.

whoever wants to become great: The Greek verb phrase that the BSB translates as wants to become is more literally “might want to become.” The word great refers to having high status/rank in God’s kingdom.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

whoever would be great (ESV)

Whoever wants to be a leader (NLT)

If you desire/wish to be a big/important person in God’s kingdom

among you: The pronoun you refers primarily to the twelve disciples Jesus addressed. But it also applies to the whole community of believers.

20:26c

must be your servant,

must become the servant of the rest of you.
he must serve the rest/others of you.

must be your servant: In Greek, the tense of must be is future. But it functions as a command. Here the command is a bit unusual in that it is a third person command.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

he must become the servant of the rest of you

it is necessary that he become your servant

your servant: The Greek word that the BSB translates as servant refers to someone who was responsible for household duties. It was a very low-status role. It is a different Greek word than the normal word for servant/slave (in 20:27).

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

servant of all the others (CEV)

servant of his companions

serve the rest/others of you

UTN uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / declarative

οὐχ οὕτως ἔστιν

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Οὐχ οὕτως ἔσται ἐν ὑμῖν ἀλλʼ ὅς ἐάν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν μέγας γενέσθαι ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος)

Jesus could be using the present tense here to: (1) give a command or instruction. Alternate translation: [It should not be this way] or [Let it not be this way] (2) state how things work differently among his disciples. Alternate translation: [That is not how it is]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / parallelism

ὃς ἐὰν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν μέγας γενέσθαι, ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος & καὶ ὃς ἂν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν εἶναι πρῶτος, ἔσται ὑμῶν δοῦλος

These two sentences mean basically the same thing. The second emphasizes the meaning of the first by repeating the same idea with different words. If it would be helpful to your readers, you could connect the sentences with a word other than and in order to show that the second sentence is repeating the first one, not saying something additional. Alternatively, you could combine the two sentences. Alternate translation: [whoever desires to become great among you will be your servant; indeed, whoever desires to be first among you will be your slave] or [whoever desires to become first or great among will you be your servant or slave]

Parallel MAT 20:26

Section 20:20–28: The mother of James and John asked Jesus for something

20:26a

20:26b–27

20:26b

20:26c