Matthew 20:27

Authorized King James Version (1611)

‹And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:›

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Καὶ ὃς ἐὰν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν εἶναι πρῶτος, ἔστω ὑμῶν δοῦλος:

Transliteration

And whoever ean thelē among you to einai prōtos, let him be estō of you doulos:

Grammar Details

• *hos ean*: relative + conditional - whoever
• *thelē*: present subjunctive, 3rd singular - may wish/want
• *einai*: present infinitive - to be
• *prōtos*: nominative, masculine, singular - first
• *estō*: present imperative, 3rd singular - let him be
• *doulos*: nominative, masculine, singular - slave/bondservant

Word Meanings

• *prōtos*: first/foremost/chief
• *doulos*: slave/bondservant (stronger term than diakonos)

Referenced Verses

• Mark 9:33-35 : 33 And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, ‹What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?› 34 But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who [should be] the greatest. 35 And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, ‹If any man desire to be first,› [the same] ‹shall be last of all, and servant of all.›
• Luke 22:26 : 26 ‹But ye› [shall] ‹not› [be] ‹so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.›
• Acts 20:34-35 : 34 Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. 35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‹It is more blessed to give than to receive.›
• Rom 1:14 : 14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.
• 1 Cor 9:19-23 : 19 ¶ For though I be free from all [men], yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. 20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; 21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. 22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all [men], that I might by all means save some. 23 And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with [you].
• 2 Cor 4:5 : 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
• 2 Cor 11:5 : 5 ¶ For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
• 2 Cor 11:23-27 : 23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I [am] more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty [stripes] save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 [In] journeyings often, [in] perils of waters, [in] perils of robbers, [in] perils by [mine own] countrymen, [in] perils by the heathen, [in] perils in the city, [in] perils in the wilderness, [in] perils in the sea, [in] perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
• Matt 18:4 : 4 ‹Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.›
• 2 Cor 12:15 : 15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.