Matius 21:33-46

The Parable of the Tenants

21:33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner ¹  who planted a vineyard. ²  He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then ³  he leased it to tenant farmers ⁴  and went on a journey. 21:34 When the harvest time was near, he sent his slaves ⁵  to the tenants to collect his portion of the crop. ⁶  21:35 But the tenants seized his slaves, beat one, ⁷  killed another, and stoned another. 21:36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them the same way. 21:37 Finally he sent his son to them, ⁸  saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 21:38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ 21:39 So ⁹  they seized him, ¹⁰  threw him out of the vineyard, ¹¹  and killed him. 21:40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 21:41 They said to him, “He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest.”

21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. ¹² 

This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? ¹³ 

21:43 For this reason I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people ¹⁴  who will produce its fruit. 21:44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls will be crushed.” ¹⁵  21:45 When ¹⁶  the chief priests and the Pharisees ¹⁷  heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 21:46 They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds, because the crowds ¹⁸  regarded him as a prophet.

Matius 20:1-16

Workers in the Vineyard

20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner ¹⁹  who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 20:2 And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, ²⁰  he sent them into his vineyard. 20:3 When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, ²¹  he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. 20:4 He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ 20:5 So they went. When ²²  he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, ²³  he did the same thing. 20:6 And about five o’clock that afternoon ²⁴  he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ 20:7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’ 20:8 When ²⁵  it was evening ²⁶  the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give the pay ²⁷  starting with the last hired until the first.’ 20:9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay. ²⁸  20:10 And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. 20:11 When ²⁹  they received it, they began to complain ³⁰  against the landowner, 20:12 saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’ 20:13 And the landowner ³¹  replied to one of them, ³²  ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? ³³  20:14 Take what is yours and go. I ³⁴  want to give to this last man ³⁵  the same as I gave to you. 20:15 Am I not ³⁶  permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ³⁷  20:16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

[21:33]  ¹ tn The term here refers to the owner and manager of a household.

[21:33]  ² sn The vineyard is a figure for Israel in the OT (Isa 5:1-7). The nation and its leaders are the tenants, so the vineyard here may well refer to the promise that resides within the nation. The imagery is like that in Rom 11:11-24.

[21:33]  ³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[21:33]  ⁴ sn The leasing of land to tenant farmers was common in this period.

[21:34]  ⁵ tn See the note on the word “slave” in 8:9.

[21:34]  sn These slaves represent the prophets God sent to the nation, who were mistreated and rejected.

[21:34]  ⁶ tn Grk “to collect his fruits.”

[21:35]  ⁷ sn The image of the tenants mistreating the owner’s slaves pictures the nation’s rejection of the prophets and their message.

[21:37]  ⁸ sn The owner’s decision to send his son represents God sending Jesus.

[21:39]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the tenants’ decision to kill the son in v. 38.

[21:39]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “seizing him.” The participle λαβόντες (labontes) has been translated as attendant circumstance.

[21:39]  ¹¹ sn Throwing the heir out of the vineyard pictures Jesus’ death outside of Jerusalem.

[21:42]  ¹² tn Or “capstone,” “keystone.” Although these meanings are lexically possible, the imagery in Eph 2:20-22 and 1 Cor 3:11 indicates that the term κεφαλὴ γωνίας (kefalh gwnia") refers to a cornerstone, not a capstone.

[21:42]  sn The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The use of Ps 118:22-23 and the “stone imagery” as a reference to Christ and his suffering and exaltation is common in the NT (see also Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet 2:6-8; cf. also Eph 2:20). The irony in the use of Ps 118:22-23 here is that in the OT, Israel was the one rejected (or perhaps her king) by the Gentiles, but in the NT it is Jesus who is rejected by Israel.

[21:42]  ¹³ sn A quotation from Ps 118:22-23.

[21:43]  ¹⁴ tn Or “to a nation” (so KJV, NASB, NLT).

[21:44]  ¹⁵ tc A few witnesses, especially of the Western text (D 33 it sy^s Or Eus^syr), do not contain 21:44. However, the verse is found in א B C L W Z (Θ) 0102 Ë^1,13 Ï lat sy^c,p,h co and should be included as authentic.

[21:44]  tn Grk “on whomever it falls, it will crush him.”

[21:44]  sn This proverb basically means that the stone crushes, without regard to whether it falls on someone or someone falls on it. On the stone as a messianic image, see Isa 28:16 and Dan 2:44-45.

[21:45]  ¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[21:45]  ¹⁷ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[21:46]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “they”; the referent (the crowds) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Both previous occurrences of “they” in this verse refer to the chief priests and the Pharisees.

[20:1]  ¹⁹ sn The term landowner here refers to the owner and manager of a household.

[20:2]  ²⁰ tn Grk “agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day.”

[20:2]  sn The standard wage was a denarius a day. The denarius was a silver coin worth about a day’s wage for a laborer in Palestine in the 1st century.

[20:3]  ²¹ tn Grk “about the third hour.”

[20:5]  ²² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:5]  ²³ tn Grk “he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour.”

[20:6]  ²⁴ tn Grk “about the eleventh hour.”

[20:8]  ²⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:8]  ²⁶ sn That is, six o’clock in the evening, the hour to pay day laborers. See Lev 19:13b.

[20:8]  ²⁷ tc ‡ Most witnesses (including B D W Θ Ë^1,13 33^vid Ï latt sy) have αὐτοῖς (autois, “to them”) after ἀπόδος (apodos, “give the pay”), but this seems to be a motivated reading, clarifying the indirect object. The omission is supported by א C L Z 085 Or. Nevertheless, NA²⁷ includes the pronoun on the basis of the greater external attestation.

[20:9]  ²⁸ tn Grk “each received a denarius.” See the note on the phrase “standard wage” in v. 2.

[20:11]  ²⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:11]  ³⁰ tn The imperfect verb ἐγόγγυζον (egonguzon) has been translated ingressively.

[20:13]  ³¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the landowner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:13]  ³² tn Grk “And answering, he said to one of them.” This construction is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified in the translation.

[20:13]  ³³ tn Grk “for a denarius a day.”

[20:14]  ³⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:14]  ³⁵ tn Grk “this last one,” translated as “this last man” because field laborers in 1st century Palestine were men.

[20:15]  ³⁶ tc ‡ Before οὐκ (ouk, “[am I] not”) a number of significant witnesses read ἤ (h, “or”; e.g., א C W 085 Ë^1,13 33 and most others). Although in later Greek the οι in σοι (oi in soi) – the last word of v. 14 – would have been pronounced like ἤ, since ἤ is lacking in early mss (B D; among later witnesses, note L Z Θ 700) and since mss were probably copied predominantly by sight rather than by sound, even into the later centuries, the omission of ἤ cannot be accounted for as easily. Thus the shorter reading is most likely original. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[20:15]  ³⁷ tn Grk “Is your eye evil because I am good?”