Mark 12:1-12. Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen 1. _by parables_ Another Parable spoken at this time was that of "_the Two Sons_" (Matthew 21:28-32), and "_the Marriage of the King's Son_" (Matthew 22:1-14). St Mark relates only the second of these three Parables. _A certain man planted a vineyard_... [ Continue Reading ]
_at the season_ i. e. when the fruit season drew near. _a servant_ So Luke 20:10; _his servants_, Matthew 21:34; the prophets and other eminent messengers of God raised up at particular periods for particular purposes. "Servi sunt ministri extraordinarii, majores; agricolæ, ordinarii." Bengel. _of... [ Continue Reading ]
_they caught him_ The gradual growth of the outrage is clearly traced: (i) The first servant they "_caught, beat, and sent away empty;_" (ii) at the second they "_cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled;_" (iii) the third "_they killed_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_wounded him in the head_ The original word, which generally denotes to _comprehend in one sum, or under one head_, is nowhere else used in this sense. Some MSS. omit the words _they cast stones_, and instead of "_sent him away shamefully handled_," read simply, "_used him shamefully_" (comp. 2 Samu... [ Continue Reading ]
_Having yet therefore_ Note here the description of this last of the ambassadors of the householder. Not only was he his son, but his _only one_, his _well-beloved_, "a sone most dereworth," Wyclif. This marks as strongly as possible the difference of rank between Christ and the prophets, by whom "_... [ Continue Reading ]
_This is the heir_ "he for whom the inheritance is meant, and to whom it will in due course rightfully arrive not as in earthly relations, by the death, but by the free appointment, of the actual possessor." Christ is "heir of all things," not as He is the Son of God, but as He is the Son of Man. _... [ Continue Reading ]
_and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard_ The order is reversed in the first and third Gospels, which remind us of Naboth, whom they "carried forth _out of the city_, and stoned him with stones that he died" (1 Kings 21:13), and of Him, Who _suffered without the gate_(Hebrews 13:12-13; John... [ Continue Reading ]
_he will come_ According to St Matthew, this was the answer of the Pharisees themselves, either, before they were aware, pronouncing sentence against themselves, or pretending in the hardness of their hearts not to see the drift of the Parable. The answer was followed by "a deep God forbid" from sev... [ Continue Reading ]
_And have ye_ Rather, AND DID YE NEVER READ THIS SCRIPTURE? referring them to Psalms 118:21; Psalms 118:23, a Psalm which the Jews applied to the Messiah, and which is actually twice applied to Him by St Peter, in Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7. St Luke (Luke 20:17) tells us that our Lord fastened His eyes... [ Continue Reading ]
_they sought_ All three Evangelists take note of the exasperation of our Lord's hearers at words which they now clearly perceived were directed against themselves. The chief priests and Pharisees sought to arrest Him on the spot at once (Luke 20:19), but they were afraid of the multitudes, who regar... [ Continue Reading ]
The Question of the Tribute Money 13. _And they send_ Having failed themselves, the Jewish authorities resolved to send some of the Pharisees in company with the Herodians, to try to force Him to commit Himself by the answers He might give to their treacherous questions. A series of distinct attack... [ Continue Reading ]
_Master, we know_ This was said in a spirit of hypocritical flattery, as though they were ready to pay Him honour as the Messiah. We find Nicodemus saying the same thing in a spirit of sincerity (John 3:2). _and carest for no man_ This was a cunning temptation to lift Himself above all respect for... [ Continue Reading ]
_knowing their hypocrisy_ "verum se eis ostendit, ut dixerant." Bengel. _bring me_ "They would not be likely to carry with them the hated Roman coinage with its heathen symbols, though they might have been at once able to produce from their girdles the Temple shekel. But they would only have to ste... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whose is this image_ "The little silver coin, bearing on its surface the head encircled with a wreath of laurel, and bound round with the sacred fillet the well-known features, the most beautiful and the most wicked, even in outward expression, of all the Roman Emperors, with the superscription run... [ Continue Reading ]
_Render_ Literally, GIVE BACK, PAY AS BEING DUE. "therefore yelde ye to Cæsar," Wyclif. It was not a question of a _voluntary gift_, but of a _legal due_. The head of the Emperor on the coin, the legend round it, and its circulation in the country, were undeniable proofs of the right of the actually... [ Continue Reading ]
The Question of the Sadducees Respecting the Resurrection 18. _the Sadducees_ Hitherto the Sadducees, "few, rich, and dignified," had stood aloof, and affected to ignore the disciples of the despised "Prophet of Nazareth.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Moses wrote_ The Law concerning the Levirate marriage is found in Deuteronomy 25:5. It was ordained for the preservation of families, that if a man died without male issue, his brother should marry his widow, and that the firstborn son should be held in the registers to be the son of the dead broth... [ Continue Reading ]
_there were seven brethren_ It was probably a fictitious case, for the Jews were averse to the fulfilling of the enactment at all.... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the resurrection therefore_ Their difficulty originated entirely in a carnal notion that the connections of this life must be continued in another.... [ Continue Reading ]
_because ye know not_ Our Lord traces their error to ignorance (i) of the Scriptures, and (ii) of the power of God. He deals with the latter phase of ignorance first.... [ Continue Reading ]
_when they shall rise_ Had they known the power of God they could not have imagined that it was limited by death, or that the life of "the children of the resurrection" was a mere repetition of man's present mortal existence. Compare the argument of St Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:39-44, based on the en... [ Continue Reading ]
_in the book of Moses_ They had brought forward the name of _Moses_to perplex _Him_, He now appeals to the same great name in order to confute _them_. He does not reprove them for attaching a higher importance to the Pentateuch than to the Prophets, but for not tracing the Divine Mind on the importa... [ Continue Reading ]
_He is not the God of the dead_ Our Lord thus taught them that the words implied far more than that God was the God, in Whom Abraham and the patriarchs trusted and worshipped. _but the God of the living_ Jehovah could not have called Himself the God of persons who do not exist, and over whom death... [ Continue Reading ]
The Question of the Scribe 28. _one of the scribes_ From Matthew 22:34-35, it appears that he was a Pharisee, and a Master of the Law. _Which is the first commandment of all?_ This question, on which the schools of Hillel and Shammai were disagreed, the Lawyer put, tempting our Lord (Matthew 22:35)... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Jesus answered him_ Pointing, it may be, to the Scribe's _tephillah_, תפלה, the little leather box containing in one of its four divisions the _Shema_(Deuteronomy 6:4), which every pious Israelite repeated twice a day. _The first of all the commandments_ The Saviour quotes the introduction to... [ Continue Reading ]
_the second is like, namely this_ According to the best MSS. the reading is, THE SECOND IS THIS. The Lord had named only one commandment as great to the rich young ruler (Luke 10:27). To the Scribe He names two, as forming together "the great and first commandment." Besides quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5... [ Continue Reading ]
_burnt offerings and sacrifices_ The Scribe gathers up in his reply some of the great utterances of the Prophets, which prove the superiority of love to God and man over all mere ceremonial observances. See 1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 51; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8.... [ Continue Reading ]
_discreetly_ "wysely," Wyclif. The word only occurs here in the N.T., and denotes "with knowledge and understanding." _Thou art not far_ The perception of Divine truth which his answer had shewed, revealed that he wanted but little to become a disciple of Christ. "Si non procul es, intra; alias præ... [ Continue Reading ]
Our Lord's Counter-Question 35. _And Jesus answered and said_ He seemed to have turned to a number of the Pharisees (Matthew 22:41) who had collected together, to converse probably over the day's discomfiture. The great counter-question is brought forward by St Matthew in all its historic importanc... [ Continue Reading ]
_David himself said_ The Pharisees are referred to the cx th Psalm, which the Rabbis regarded as distinctly Messianic. "_The Lord_(_Jehovah) said unto my Lord_(_Adonai_), _Sit thou on My right hand till I make thy foes a footstool for thy feet_." In this lofty and mysterious Psalm, David, speaking b... [ Continue Reading ]
_whence is he then his son?_ Abraham had never called Isaac or Jacob or any of his descendants _his lord_. Why then had David done so? There could be but one answer: "Because that Son would be David's Son as regarded human birth, his Lord as regarded His Divine Nature." This answer, however, the Pha... [ Continue Reading ]
Admonition to beware of the Scribes 38. _And he said_ The terrible denunciations of the moral and religious shortcomings of the leaders of the nation, which now fall from our Lord's lips, are given far more fully by St Matthew, Matthew 23:1-39. It was only the Jewish Christians, for whom that Evang... [ Continue Reading ]
_the chief seats_ The seats of honour for the elders of the synagogue were placed in front of the ark containing the Law, in the uppermost part, where they sat with their faces to the people. In the synagogue at Alexandria there were seventy-one golden chairs, according to the number of the members... [ Continue Reading ]
_devour widows" houses_ as guardians and administrators of their property _greater damnation_ "pei taken longe dom," Wyclif. The word denotes "judgment," "punishment." The verb from which it comes denotes "to judge," pass sentence, condemn. In 1 Corinthians 11:29, the words rendered _damnation, disc... [ Continue Reading ]
The Widow's Mite 41. _And Jesus sat_ In perfect calm and quiet of spirit after all the fierce opposition of this "day of Questions." _the treasury_ This treasury, according to the Rabbis, consisted of thirteen brazen chests, called "trumpets", because the mouths through which the money was cast in... [ Continue Reading ]
_a certain poor widow_ One of the helpless class which He had just described as _devoured_by the extortion of the Scribes and Pharisees. In three words St Mark presents to us a picture of her desolation: she was alone, she was a widow, and she was poor. _two mites_ "Sche sente tweye mynutis, pat is,... [ Continue Reading ]
_he called unto him_ "De re magna. Specimen judicii olim exercendi, pro statu cordium." Bengel. _more in, than all they_ It is not said that the gifts of the others were worthless. Many possessed, no doubt, no worth (Matthew 6:1); others, a greater or a less. The greatest value, however, attached i... [ Continue Reading ]
_of their abundance_ i. e. of their _superfluity_, "of þat þing þat was plenteuous to hem." Wyclif. _she of her want_ "of hir myseste sente alle þingis þat she hadde, al hir lyflode," Wyclif. Observe all the graphic touches in the account of the widow's mite. (i) Our Lord was _sitting_over against t... [ Continue Reading ]