Matteo 20:25

25 Ma Gesù, chiamatili a sé, disse: Voi sapete che i principi delle nazioni le signoreggiano, e che i grandi usano potestà sopra di esse.

Matteo 20:25 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 20:25

But Jesus called them unto him
All his twelve disciples, perceiving that the same ambitious views prevailed in them all: to discourage which, and to prevent their quarrelling one with another, he called them to him, and made use of the following reasonings:

and said, ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion
over them,
and they that are great exercise authority upon them; appealing to them in a case that was well known by them, what the princes of the Gentiles did; or, as Mark expresses it, "they which are accounted", or "seem to rule over the Gentiles": who know not God, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who neither serve and obey him, or have any dependence on him, but assume a power of governing others, take upon them to rule the nations of the world, and are acknowledged as such by them: these claim a superiority over others, and exercise lordly power over them; and they that are their great ones, their lords, and nobles under them; these also assert a preeminence, and exercise authority on those that are below them; which they have received from those that are above them: this is the usual way and method of the governments of the kingdoms of this world: wherefore, for the apostles to affect and desire a superiority to each other, in the kingdom of Christ, was to imitate the Gentiles, and to act according to worldly forms of government; which is very unsuitable to the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, whose kingdom is spiritual, and not of this world.

Matteo 20:25 In-Context

23 Egli disse loro: Voi certo berrete il mio calice; ma quant’è al sedermi a destra o a sinistra non sta a me il darlo, ma è per quelli a cui è stato preparato dal Padre mio.

24 E i dieci, udito ciò, furono indignati contro i due fratelli.

25 Ma Gesù, chiamatili a sé, disse: Voi sapete che i principi delle nazioni le signoreggiano, e che i grandi usano potestà sopra di esse.

26 Ma non è così tra voi; anzi, chiunque vorrà esser grande fra voi, sarà vostro servitore;

27 e chiunque fra voi vorrà esser primo, sarà vostro servitore;