Matthew 21:33-45 |
Mark 12:1-12 |
Luke 20:9-19 |
33) "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND
IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. |
1) And He began to speak to them in parables: "A man PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT, AND
DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. |
9) And He began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to
vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. |
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Observations:
Matthew records the landowner as 1) planting a vineyard, 2) putting a wall around it,
3) digging a winepress and 4) building a tower.
Mark records 1) planting a vineyard, 2) putting a wall around it, 3) digging a vat
under the winepress and 4) building a tower.
Luke is the most abbreviated and records only 1) planting a vineyard.
Cultural context: Walls were often built about vineyards to keep out animals. The
winepress and vat was constructed such that the grape juice would flow to the lowest point. A watch tower
served as a lookout to guard against thieves and fire. Wealthy landowners often leased their land out to
tenant farmers in a sharecropping deal where rent is paid as a portion of production. During the first
century, the landowners were usually Roman, which did not sit well with Galilean Jews.
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Matthew 21:33-45 |
Mark 12:1-12 |
Luke 20:9-19 |
34) When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. 35)
The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. 36) Again he sent another
group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. |
2) At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the
vineyard from the vine-growers. 3) They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4) Again he sent
them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. 5) And he sent another, and
that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. |
10) At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the
produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11) And he proceeded to
send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. 12) And
he proceeded to send a third; and this one also they wounded and cast out. |
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Observations:
Matthew records two groups of slaves being sent and mistreated. The first group had
one slave beaten, another killed and another stoned.
Mark records three initial slaves who were beaten, wounded in the head and murdered.
Subsequent slaves were treated just as badly.
Luke records only three slaves sent with each being beaten.
Cultural context: There is an ascending level of ill treatment: 1) beating, 2) killing and
3) stoning. Stoning is considered worse as an execution for apostasy or false prophecy and implies disgrace
as well as death.
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Matthew 21:33-45 |
Mark 12:1-12 |
Luke 20:9-19 |
37) But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38) But when the vine-growers
saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’
39) They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. |
6) He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect
my son.’ 7) But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the
inheritance will be ours!’ 8) They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. |
13) The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will
respect him.’ 14) But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the
heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ 15a) So they threw him out of the vineyard
and killed him. |
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Observations:
All three accounts share that the son of the owner was sent, and after deliberations,
the vine-growers murdered him. Matthew and Luke record the murder outside the vineyard
and Mark inside.
Cultural context: With the arrival of the son, tenant farmers presume that the landowner
has passed away. In murdering the heir, the vineyard becomes an ownerless property which becomes available
to the first squatters according to Jewish law. However the parable portrays the tenants as being too
presumptuous, because there are a number of ways the land could have been inherited and not necessarily
through the son. The parable is intended to portray the tenants as wicked and stupid.
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Matthew 21:33-45 |
Mark 12:1-12 |
Luke 20:9-19 |
40) Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?" 41) They
said to Him, "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other
vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons." |
9) What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give
the vineyard to others. |
15b) What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16) He will come and destroy these
vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others." When they heard it, they said, "May it never be!" |
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Observations:
All three accounts ask the question, "what will the owner do?" And all three report
that the owner will destroy the offending vine-growers and get new ones.
Cultural context: It was well known that landowners had the legal and social power to
exert their will on tenants so this question would have been on everyone’s mind. Asking questions was
a standard rabbinic way of involving the listeners of the teaching. Why did the landowner take so long
to evict the evil tenants? In answering the question, the listeners pronounce judgment on themselves.
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Matthew 21:33-45 |
Mark 12:1-12 |
Luke 20:9-19 |
42) Jesus *said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED,
THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’? |
10) Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF
CORNER stone; 11) THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?" |
17) But Jesus looked at them and said, "What then is this that is written: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS
REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone’? |
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Observations:
When Jesus asks, "have you not read?", He is calling attention to Psalm 118:22-23, which
in effect, say that the Scriptures points to Jesus Himself.
Psalm 118 is a song praising God’s loyal love. It describes a man of God who was appointed
by divine choice to a high position in the nation of Israel. This elect champion found himself rejected by
his friends and fellow countrymen, and at the same time violently opposed by his enemies. With faith in God
he battles for his nation, and he triumphs in such a manner that displays the power and goodness of the Lord.
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Matthew 21:33-45 |
Mark 12:1-12 |
Luke 20:9-19 |
43) Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a
people, producing the fruit of it. 44) And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever
it falls, it will scatter him like dust." |
Mark offers no pertinent verses. |
18) Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it
will scatter him like dust." |
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Observations:
Matthew 21:43 is the only account that further explains the parable. Here Jesus
associates the vineyard with the kingdom of God. Verse 44 is an allusion to Isaiah 8:14-15.
Luke also loosely translates Isaiah 8:14-15.
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Matthew 21:33-45 |
Mark 12:1-12 |
Luke 20:9-19 |
45) When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking
about them. 46) When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a
prophet. |
12) And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He
spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away. |
19) The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on Him that very hour, and they feared the
people; for they understood that He spoke this parable against them. |
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Observations:
All three accounts recorded that Jewish religious leaders recognized that the parable was
about them. Motivated to consider seizing Jesus, they feared the public’s reaction.
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