CVIII.
IN REPLY TO THE QUESTIONS AS TO HIS AUTHORITY,
JESUS GIVES THE THIRD GREAT GROUP OF PARABLES.
(In the Court of the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, A. D. 30.)
Subdivision C.
PARABLE OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.
aMATT. XXI. 33-46; bMARK
XII. 1-12; cLUKE XX. 9-19.
b1 And he began to speak
unto them cthe people [not the rulers] bin
parables. {cthis parable:}
a33 Hear another parable: There was a man that was a householder
[this party represents God], who planted a vineyard [this
represents the Hebrew nationality], and set a hedge about it,
and digged a bpit for the awinepress in it [The
winepress consisted of two tub-shaped cavities dug in the rock at different
levels, the upper being connected with the lower by an orifice cut through
from its bottom. Grapes were placed in the upper cavity, or trough, and
were trodden by foot. The juice thus squeezed from them ran through the
orifice to the trough below, from which it was taken and stored in leather
bottles until it fermented and formed wine], and built a tower
[a place where watchmen could be stationed to protect the vineyard from
thieves as the grapes ripened for the vintage], and let it out
to husbandmen [the rulers are here [590] represented;
and the rental was, as usual, a part of the fruits], and went
into another country. cfor a long time. [Jesus frequently
refers to this withdrawal of the visible presence of God from the world,
always bringing out the point that the withdrawal tests faithfulness. God
had come down upon Mt. Sinai, given the law and established the Hebrew
nation, after which he had withdrawn. That had indeed been a long time
ago; and for four hundred years before the appearance of John the Baptist,
God had not even sent a messenger to demand fruit. Some think the hedge
refers to the manner in which Palestine was protected by sea and desert
and mountain, but the hedge and the winepress and the tower are mere parabolic
drapery, for every man who planted a vineyard did all three.]
a34 And when {cat} the season aof the
fruits drew near, che sent unto the husbandmen a servant, {ahis
servants} i. e., the prophets] cthat they should
give him {bthat he might receive ato receive from
the husbandmen} of the {ahis} bfruits of the vineyard.
[Luke iii. 8--He expected the children of Israel to bring forth joy, love,
peace, and all the other goodly fruit of a godly life. And he looked to
those in authority to bring forth such results, and the prophets were sent
to the rulers to encourage them to do this.]
3 And {cbut} the husbandmen btook him, and beat him,
and sent him away empty,
4 And again he sent unto them cyet another servant: him also
they beat, bwounded in his head, and handled shamefully. cand
sent him away empty.
b5 And he sent cyet banother; ca
third: and him also they wounded, band him they killed: cand
cast him forth. band many others; beating some, and killing
some. a35 And the husbandmen
took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto
them in like manner. [For the treatment of the prophets, see such passages
as I. Kings xviii. 13; xxii. 24-27; II. Kings vi. 31; II. Chron. xxiv.
19-22; xxxvi. 15, 16. For a summary of the treatment of the prophets or
messengers of God, [591] see Heb. xi. 35-38.]
37 But b6 He had yet one, a
beloved son: aafterward bhe sent him last unto them,
c13 And the lord of the vineyard said, {bsaying,}
cWhat shall I do? [Isa. v. 4.] I will send my beloved
son; it may be they will reverence him. bThey will reverence
my son. [The lord of the vineyard was thoroughly perplexed. The conduct
of his husbandmen was outrageous beyond all expectation. He had no better
servants to send them unless his only son should take upon him the form
of a servant and visit them (Phil. ii. 5-8). Being tender and forgiving,
and unwilling to resort to extreme measures, the lord of the vineyard resolved
to thus send his son, feeling sure that the son would represent the person,
authority and rights of the father so much better than any other messenger
(Heb. i. 1-5; ii. 1-3), that it would be well-nigh impossible for the husbandmen
to fail of reverence towards him. In striking contrast, however, with this
expectation of the Father, the rulers, or the husbandmen, had just now
harshly demanded of the Son that he tell by what authority he did anything
in the vineyard.]
a38 But the {bthose} ahusbandmen, when
they saw {chim} athe son, cthey reasoned
one with another, asaid among themselves, {csaying,}
aThis is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take his inheritance.
cthat the inheritance may be ours. band the inheritance
shall be ours. [In thus bringing the story down to the immediate present,
and stating a counsel which his enemies had just spoken privately in each
other's ears, Jesus must have startled them greatly. He showed them, too,
that those things which made them deem it necessary to kill him were the
very things which proved his heirship. They regarded the Jewish nation
as their property, and they were plotting to kill Jesus that they might
withhold it from him (John xii. 19; xi. 47-50). That men might hope by
such high-handed lawlessness to obtain a title to a vineyard seems incredible
to us who have always been familiar with the even-balanced justice of constitutional
government; but in the East the looseness of governments, the selfish apathy
and lack [592] of public spirit among the people,
and the corrupt bribe-receiving habits of the judges makes our Lord's picture
even to this day, though rather exceptional, still true to life. At this
point Jesus turns from history to prophecy.]
8 And they took him, c15 And
they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him. [After two
intervening days the Jews would fulfill this detail by thrusting Jesus
outside the walls of Jerusalem and crucifying him there.]
a40 When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what
will he do unto those husbandmen? 41
They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will
let out the vineyard unto other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits
in their seasons. c16
[Jesus said] He will come and destroy these {bthe} husbandmen,
and will give the vineyard unto others. cAnd when they heard
it, they said, God forbid. [Part of the multitude, hearing only the
story, pronounced unhesitatingly the judgment which ought to be inflicted
upon such evil-doers, and Jesus confirmed their judgment. But others, perceiving
the meaning underlying the parable, shrank from accepting what would otherwise
have been to them a very proper ending, and said, Mee genoito, which
means literally, Be it not so, and which might properly be paraphrased
by our emphatic "Never!" but which the revisers in translating have, with
small warrant, seen fit to paraphrase by using the semi-profane expression,
"God forbid." There are fourteen such mistranslations in the epistles of
Paul according to the King James version and only one of them (Gal. vi.
14) is corrected in the Revised version. In defense of these translations
it is asserted that the phrase is an idiomatic invocation of the Deity,
but the case can not be made out, since the Deity is not addressed.]
17 But he looked upon them [Thus emphasizing the fact that they had
repudiated a most just decree. His look, doubtless, resembled that of a
parent surprised at the outspoken rebellion of his children], and
a42 Jesus saith {csaid,} aunto them, cWhat
then is this that is written, b10
Have ye not read even this scripture: aDid ye never [593] read
in the scriptures, cThe stone which the builders rejected, The
same was made the head of the corner? aThis
was from the Lord, And it is marvellous in our eyes? [The quotation
is from Ps. cxviii. 22, 23, which is here by Jesus applied as a prophecy
to the Pharisees, who, in their treatment of him, were like unskilled builders
who reject the very corner-stone of the building which they seek to erect.
The Pharisees were eager enough in their desire to set up a Messianic kingdom,
but were so blindly foolish that they did not see that this kingdom could
not be set up unless it rested upon Christ Jesus, its corner-stone. They
blundered in constructing their theory of the coming kingdom, and could
find no room for one such as Jesus in it.]
43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you,
and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
44 And he {c18 Every one} athat falleth on this {cthat}
astone shall be broken to pieces: but on whomsoever it shall
fall, it will scatter him as dust. [The stone, of course, represents
Jesus, and the two fallings set forth his passive and active state. In
the day when he passively submitted to be judged, those who condemned him
were broken (Matt. xxvii. 3-5; Luke xxiii. 48; Acts ii. 37); but in the
great day when he himself becomes the acting party and calls his enemies
to judgment, they shall prefer, and pray, that a mountain fall upon them--Rev.
vi. 15-17.]
45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees,
c19 And the scribes aheard his parables, they csought
to lay hands on him in that very hour, bfor they perceived that
he aspake of them. bspake the {cthis}
parable against them. a46
And when they sought to lay hands on him, cthey feared the people:
{bmultitude; amultitudes,} because they took him
for a prophet. band they left him, and went away. [Despite
the warning which Jesus gave them that they were killing the Son and would
reap the consequences, and despite the fact that he showed that the Psalm
which the people had used so recently with regard to him foretold a great
rejection which would prove to be a [594] mistake,
yet the rulers persisted in their evil intention to take his life, and
were only restrained by fear of the people, many of whom were Galilæans,
men of rugged courage, ready to draw swords on Jesus' behalf. Since they
could neither arrest nor answer him, they withdrew as a committee, but
returned again in the person of their spies.]
[FFG 590-595]
