Matthew 20:21

εἰπὲ ἵνα : vide on Matthew 4:3. καθίσωσιν, etc. = let them have the first places in the kingdom, sitting on Thy right and left hand respectively. After ἐκ δεξιῶν, ἐξ εὐωνύμων, μερῶν is understood = on the right and left parts. Vide Bos, Ellipses Graecae, p. 184, who cites an instance of the latter phrase from Diod. Sic. So this was all that came out of the discourse on child-likeness! (Matthew 18:3 ff.). But Jesus had also spoken of thrones in the new Genesis, and that seems to have fired their imagination and stimulated their ambition. And “the gentle and humble” John was in this plot! Conventional ideas of apostolic character need revision.