Matthew 20:25

προσκαλεσάμενος : Jesus had to call them to Him, therefore they had had the decency not to quarrel in His presence. Magistro non praesente, Beng. κατακυριεύουσιν : in the Sept [113] used in the sense of rule, Genesis 1:28; Psalms 72:8; here the connection requires the idea of “lording it over,” the κατὰ having intensive force; so also in the ἅπ. λεγ. κατεξουσιάζουσιν, following = play the tyrant. τῶν ἐθνῶν : from these occasional references to the outside peoples we get Christ's idea of the Pagan world; they seek material good (Matthew 6:32), use repetition in prayer (Matthew 6:7), are subject to despotic rule. οἱ μεγάλοι, the grandees. αὐτῶν after the two verbs in both cases refers to the ἐθνῶν. Grotius takes the second as referring to the ἄρχοντες, and finds in the passage this sense: the rulers, monarchs, lord it over the people, and their grandees lord it over them, the rulers, in turn; a picture certainly often true to life. Perhaps the intention is to suggest that the rule of the magnates is more oppressive than that of their royal masters: they strain their authority. “Ipsis saepe dominis imperantiores,” Beng.

[113] Septuagint.