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Matthew21:33–46

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

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Matthew 21:33–46 — The Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

33

Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

akousate Allēn parabolēn ēn Anthrōpos oikodespotēs hostis ephyteusen ampelōna kai periethēken phragmon autō kai ōryxen lēnon en autō kai ōkodomēsen pyrgon kai exedeto auton geōrgois kai apedēmēsen

Word by word27 · parsed
ἀκούσατεakousateListen toG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
akouō: to hear Aorist imperative plural. Pulpit hears the reversal in it: “The domineering and lately imperious party are reduced to the position of pupils.”
ἌλληνAllēnanotherG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
παραβολὴνparabolēnparableG3850
√ παραβολή — a similitude ("parable"), iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
parabolē: a similitude, parable The word is thrown down as a challenge, not an illustration. Maclaren: the parable's “pungent severity ... with its transparent veil of narrative” depends entirely on who is listening, and v. 45 records that they saw through the veil at once.
ἦνēnThere wasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἌνθρωποςAnthrōposa landownerG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
οἰκοδεσπότηςoikodespotēs. . .G3617
√ οἰκοδεσπότης — the head of a familyNounNominative Masculine Singular
oikodespotēs: the head of a family A compound of house and master. The whole parable turns on the fact that the vineyard is household property with an heir, so that killing the son is not theft from an absentee investor but an assault on a family's succession.
ὅστιςhostiswhoG3748
√ ὅστις — which some, iPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐφύτευσενephyteusenplantedG5452
√ φυτεύω — to set out in the earth, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
phyteuō: to set out in the earth, plant A relatively uncommon verb (the Verifier counts the lexeme in 11 verses). Maclaren draws the doctrine from the single word: “The only explanation of them is that God enclosed that bit of the wilderness, and with His own hands set growing there these exotics. Neither the theology nor the ritual is of man's establishing.”
ἀμπελῶναampelōnaa vineyardG290
√ ἀμπελών — a vineyardNounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
περιέθηκενperiethēkenHe putG4060
√ περιτίθημι — to place aroundVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
φραγμὸνphragmona wallG5418
√ φραγμός — a fence, or inclosing barrier (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
phragmos: a fence, inclosing barrier Rare (4 verses). It is the one furnishing that has a double function, protecting and dividing, which is why the commentators divide over it: Cambridge and Pulpit read national separateness, Benson the ceremonial law, and Pulpit records that “many, however, see in it the protection of angels.”
αὐτῷautōaround itG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὤρυξενōryxendugG3736
√ ὀρύσσω — to "burrow" in the ground, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ληνὸνlēnona winepressG3025
√ ληνός — a trough, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
lēnos: a trough, vat Barnes is precise about the mistranslation of the whole apparatus: “The original word does not mean the ‘press’ in which the grapes were trodden, but the ‘vat or large cistern’ into which the wine ran.” Cambridge adds that Matthew has the upper vat (ληνός) where Mark has the lower (ὑπολήνιον).
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
αὐτῷautōitG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ᾠκοδόμησενōkodomēsenbuiltG3618
√ οἰκοδομέω — to be a house-builder, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πύργονpyrgona towerG4444
√ πύργος — a tower or castleNounAccusative Masculine Singular
pyrgos: a tower or castle Barnes reports Hackett's field observation of such towers still standing thick around Bethlehem. Maclaren and Cambridge both refuse to allegorize it: the furnishings “simply express the completeness of the equipment of the vineyard, as in Isaiah's song ... and suggest his question, ‘What could have been done more?’”
καὶkaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐξέδετοexedetohe rented it outG1554
√ ἐκδίδωμι — to give forth, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ekdidōmi: to give forth, let out Middle voice. Cambridge identifies the arrangement as the metayer tenancy, the tenant paying the owner a share of the produce, and notes that under Rome “it was customary ... to restore conquered lands on condition of receiving a moiety of the produce.” The rent is therefore fruit, not money, which is why v. 34 sends for fruit and v. 43 ends in fruit.
αὐτὸνauton. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
γεωργοῖςgeōrgoisto [some] tenantsG1092
√ γεωργός — a land-worker, iNounDative Masculine Plural
geōrgos: a land-worker, farmer The keyword of the unit (it occurs in only 17 verses of the Greek canon, and five of them are this parable's verses). Maclaren fixes the referent: the husbandmen “in Matthew, are exclusively the rulers, while in Luke they are the people,” and he refuses to let the nation hide behind its leaders.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπεδήμησενapedēmēsenwent away on a journeyG589
√ ἀποδημέω — to go abroad, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
apodēmeō: to go abroad JFB glosses it from the parallel: “‘for a long time’ (Lu 20:9), leaving the vineyard to the laws of the spiritual husbandry during the whole time of the Jewish economy.”
34

When the harvest time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Hote ho kairos tōn karpōn ēngisen apesteilen autou tous doulous pros tous geōrgous labein autou tous karpous

Word by word18 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὍτεHoteWhenG3753
√ ὅτε — at which (thing) too, iAdverb
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
καιρὸςkairosharvest timeG2540
√ καιρός — an occasion, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
kairos: an occasion, season The appointed moment when a claim becomes due. Gill grounds it in the law of the fourth and fifth year fruit (Leviticus 19:23), so that the owner's demand is not arbitrary impatience but the first lawful moment.
τῶνtōn. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
καρπῶνkarpōn. . .G2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
ἤγγισενēngisendrew nearG1448
√ ἐγγίζω — to make near, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
engizō: to make near The verb of approach. The reckoning does not arrive by the owner's return (that waits for v. 40) but by the season itself coming close.
ἀπέστειλενapesteilenhe sentG649
√ ἀποστέλλω — set apart, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
δούλουςdoulousservantsG1401
√ δοῦλος — a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntaryNounAccusative Masculine Plural
doulos: a slave Pulpit fills the referent from the prophets' own idiom, quoting Jeremiah 35:15, “I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them.” Ellicott cautions that no exact match in Israel's history should be forced on the successive sendings.
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
γεωργοὺςgeōrgoustenantsG1092
√ γεωργός — a land-worker, iNounAccusative Masculine Plural
λαβεῖνlabeinto collectG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Infinitive Active
lambanō: to take, receive Receive, not extract. The owner sends to take delivery of what is already owed, and the tenants answer by taking the men sent (v. 35, same lexeme).
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
καρποὺςkarpous[share of the] fruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Plural
karpos: fruit The word that closes the parable's argument at v. 41 and its verdict at v. 43. Rent in this vineyard is produce, so the charge against the tenants is never that they held the land but that they withheld its yield.
35

But the tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hoi geōrgoi labontes autou tous doulous edeiran men hon de apekteinan hon de elithobolēsan hon

Word by word16 · parsed
καὶkaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
γεωργοὶgeōrgoitenantsG1092
√ γεωργός — a land-worker, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
λαβόντεςlabontesseizedG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
lambanō: to take, seize The hinge word of the unit. Taking is what the owner asks for and what the tenants do instead, first to the slaves (here), then to the son (v. 39, same participle).
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
δούλουςdoulousservantsG1401
√ δοῦλος — a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntaryNounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἔδειρανedeiranThey beatG1194
√ δέρω — properly, to flay, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
derō: to flay Gill connects it to the synagogue scourging of forty stripes save one, “by which the skin was flayed off; as the word here signifies,” and to Hebrews 11:36. The lexical force is deliberate: the first outrage already draws blood.
μὲνmenG3303
√ μέν — properly, indicative of affirmation or concession (in fact)Conjunction
ὃνhononeG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἀπέκτεινανapekteinankilledG615
√ ἀποκτείνω — to kill outrightVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
apokteinō: to kill outright JFB anchors each item in a text: “and beat one—see Jer 37:15; 38:6. and killed another—see Jer 26:20-23. and stoned another—see 2Ch 24:21.” The tally is not rhetorical invention but a summary of recorded history.
ὃνhon[another]G3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
δὲdeandG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἐλιθοβόλησανelithobolēsanstonedG3036
√ λιθοβολέω — to throw stones, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
lithoboleō: to throw stones Stoning is the community's own judicial form (Deuteronomy 17:7), turned against God's messengers. Barnes notes it need not always be fatal, and that Mark has the stoned servant wounded in the head and sent away.
ὃνhona thirdG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
36

Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group. But the tenants did the same to them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Palin apesteilen allous doulous pleionas tōn prōtōn kai epoiēsan hōsautōs autois

Word by word11 · parsed
ΠάλινPalinAgainG3825
√ πάλιν — (adverbially) anew, iAdverb
palin: anew, again One word carrying the whole doctrine of divine forbearance in the parable.
ἀπέστειλενapesteilenhe sentG649
√ ἀποστέλλω — set apart, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἄλλουςallousotherG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
δούλουςdoulousservantsG1401
√ δοῦλος — a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntaryNounAccusative Masculine Plural
πλείοναςpleionasmoreG4119
√ πλείων — more in quantity, number, or qualityAdjectiveAccusative Masculine PluralComparative
pleiōn: more in quantity, number or quality A genuine ambiguity the English resolves. Ellicott takes the increase as one of weight (“the greater power and fulness of the work of the later prophets”), Pulpit and Gill as one of number.
τῶνtōnthan theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
πρώτωνprōtōnfirst [group]G4413
√ πρῶτος — foremost (in time, place, order or importance)AdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
καὶkaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐποίησανepoiēsan[the tenants] didG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ὡσαύτωςhōsautōsthe sameG5615
√ ὡσαύτως — as thus, iAdverb
hōsautōs: as thus, likewise The adverb of repetition. Poole warns against pressing each detail of the abuse, since “we must not look to fit every particular phrase in a parable in the explication.”
αὐτοῖςautoisto themG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
37

Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Hysteron apesteilen autou ton huion pros autous Entrapēsontai mou ton huion legōn

Word by word13 · parsed
δὲdevvvG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὝστερονHysteronFinallyG5305
√ ὕστερον — more lately, iAdverb
hysteron: more lately, afterward A plain adverb of sequence carrying the parable across the line from history into the present hour of the speaker.
ἀπέστειλενapesteilenhe sentG649
√ ἀποστέλλω — set apart, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
υἱὸνhuionsonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounAccusative Masculine Singular
huios: a son Gill marks the change of category: “not a servant as before, but a son; his own son, his only begotten son, the son of his love.” The slaves were sent with a message; the son is sent as the owner's own standing in person.
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτοὺςautousthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἘντραπήσονταιEntrapēsontaiThey will respectG1788
√ ἐντρέπω — to invert, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
entrepō: to invert, put to shame Future passive. The verb assumes that the son's presence carries its own compelling weight, so that refusal requires hardening rather than mere disagreement. JFB: the clause “is designed to teach the almost unimaginable guilt of not reverentially welcoming God's Son.”
μουmoumyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
egō: I, me The possessive “my” is the whole force of the sentence: not a better envoy, but the owner's own.
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
υἱόνhuionsonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounAccusative Masculine Singular
λέγωνlegōnhe saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
legō: to say Function word; but Poole and Pulpit both use it to guard against reading ignorance into God, Poole insisting the words express “what they ought to do, and what God might reasonably expect from them.”
38

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance.’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Hoi geōrgoi idontes ton huion eipon en heautois Houtos estin ho klēronomos deute apokteinōmen auton kai schōmen autou tēn klēronomian

Word by word21 · parsed
δὲdeBut whenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
γεωργοὶgeōrgoitenantsG1092
√ γεωργός — a land-worker, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἰδόντεςidontessawG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
horaō: to see, attend to Recognition, not mere sight. Pulpit makes the whole guilt hang on it: “This is the great element in the guilt of his rejection.” Gill concedes that not all knew him, “some were entirely ignorant of him,” which keeps the charge from being flattened onto every hearer.
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
υἱὸνhuionsonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounAccusative Masculine Singular
εἶπονeiponthey saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἐνentoG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἑαυτοῖςheautoisone anotherG1438
√ ἑαυτοῦ — him- (her-, it-, them-, also (in conjunction with the personal pronoun of the other persons) my-, thy-, our-, your-) self (selves), etcReflexive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ΟὗτόςHoutosThisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
κληρονόμοςklēronomosheirG2818
√ κληρονόμος — a sharer by lot, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
klēronomos: a sharer by lot, heir The enemies name what the reader is meant to confess. Their calculation is coherent only if the son's claim is real, so the plot itself is a hostile testimony to his sonship.
δεῦτεdeuteComeG1205
√ δεῦτε — come hither!VerbImperative2nd Person Plural
deute: come hither! A parsed verb without tense: pure summons.
ἀποκτείνωμενapokteinōmenlet us killG615
√ ἀποκτείνω — to kill outrightVerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Plural
αὐτὸνautonhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
σχῶμενschōmentakeG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Plural
echō: to hold Aorist subjunctive, “let us hold.” Cambridge sees the legal absurdity and uses it: killing an heir never conveys title, and “not more impossible than the thought of the Pharisees that by the death of Jesus they would gain the spiritual supremacy.”
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
κληρονομίανklēronomianinheritanceG2817
√ κληρονομία — heirship, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
klēronomia: heirship, inheritance The noun is the vineyard itself considered as estate. Pulpit names what the rulers actually coveted: “supremacy over the minds and consciences of men,” and quotes Augustine, “Ut possiderent, occiderunt; et quia occiderunt, perdiderunt.”
39

So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai labontes auton exebalon exō tou ampelōnos kai apekteinan

Word by word9 · parsed
καὶkaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λαβόντεςlabontesthey seizedG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
lambanō: to take, seize Third occurrence of the unit's hinge verb, now with the son as its object.
αὐτὸνautonhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐξέβαλονexebalon[and] threw [him]G1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ekballō: to eject Aorist active. The verb of expulsion from a place one has a right to be. Pulpit notes the possible double reference, to Calvary outside the gate and to excommunication, being “given over to the heathen to be judged and condemned.”
ἔξωexōout ofG1854
√ ἔξω — out(-side, of doors), literally or figurativelyPreposition
exō: outside Redundant after the compound verb, and therefore emphatic: out, and out.
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἀμπελῶνοςampelōnosvineyardG290
√ ἀμπελών — a vineyardNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπέκτεινανapekteinankilled [him]G615
√ ἀποκτείνω — to kill outrightVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
apokteinō: to kill outright The parable's verb of murder, now spent on the heir. Poole notes that Christ here “prophesieth his own death by the means of these wicked priests,” and that in doing so he showed them he was neither ignorant of their plot nor afraid of it.
40

Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to those tenants?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

oun Hotan ho kyrios tou ampelōnos elthē ti poiēsei ekeinois tois geōrgois

Word by word12 · parsed
οὖνounThereforeG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
ὍτανHotanwhenG3752
√ ὅταν — whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty)Conjunction
hotan: whenever Indefinite in time, definite in fact. The parable does not date the reckoning; it only makes it unavoidable.
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
κύριοςkyriosownerG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
kyrios: supreme in authority, lord In the story a landlord, in the citation two verses later the God of Israel. Matthew lets the single noun carry both, so the question “what will the lord do?” is already a question about judgment.
τοῦtouof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἀμπελῶνοςampelōnosvineyardG290
√ ἀμπελών — a vineyardNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἔλθῃelthēreturnsG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
erchomai: to come Aorist subjunctive. JFB identifies the historical referent as “that judicial trial of the nation and its leaders which issued in the destruction of their whole state.”
τίtiwhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ποιήσειpoiēseiwill he doG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
poieō: to make or do The verb the tenants used in v. 36 (“they did likewise”) is now turned on them: what will be done to the doers.
ἐκείνοιςekeinoisto thoseG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Masculine Plural
ekeinos: that one The distancing demonstrative that makes the trap work.
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
γεωργοῖςgeōrgoistenantsG1092
√ γεωργός — a land-worker, iNounDative Masculine Plural
41

“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and will rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the fruit at harvest time.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

apolesei autous Kakous kakōs Legousin autō kai ekdōsetai ton ampelōna allois geōrgois hoitines apodōsousin autō tous karpous en tois kairois autōn

Word by word21 · parsed
ἀπολέσειapoleseiHe will bringG622
√ ἀπόλλυμι — to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figurativelyVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
apollymi: to destroy fully Future indicative. The hearers, not Jesus, choose the severest available verb, which is what makes the sentence self-passed. Barnes: they “answered according as they knew people would act, and would act justly in doing it.”
αὐτούςautousthoseG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ΚακοὺςKakouswretchesG2556
√ κακός — worthless (intrinsically, suchAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
kakos: worthless, bad Paired with its own adverb for effect. Ellicott corrects the older English: “Better, those miserable men, the adjective being the same as the preceding adverb.”
κακῶςkakōs{to a} wretched {end}G2560
√ κακῶς — badly (physically or morally)Adverb
kakōs: badly The adverb that completes the jingle; Pulpit gives the Vulgate, “Malos male perdet,” which keeps it.
ΛέγουσινLegousinthey repliedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτῷautōG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐκδώσεταιekdōsetaiwill rent outG1554
√ ἐκδίδωμι — to give forth, iVerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ekdidōmi: to let out Future middle, matching the aorist middle of v. 33. ⚙ The second letting is on exactly the same terms as the first, which is the quiet warning inside the promise: the vineyard is never conveyed, only leased.
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ἀμπελῶναampelōnavineyardG290
√ ἀμπελών — a vineyardNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἄλλοιςalloisto otherG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveDative Masculine Plural
γεωργοῖςgeōrgoistenantsG1092
√ γεωργός — a land-worker, iNounDative Masculine Plural
οἵτινεςhoitineswhoG3748
√ ὅστις — which some, iPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Plural
hostis: which some, such as Indefinite relative: tenants of a certain kind. Pulpit notes the clause “is peculiar to Matthew,” and that the speakers “did not clearly apprehend the bearing of this detail.”
ἀποδώσουσινapodōsousinwill giveG591
√ ἀποδίδωμι — to give away, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
apodidōmi: to give back, render what is due A verb of debt discharged. The contrast with the first tenants is not zeal but honesty.
αὐτῷautōhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtous[his]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
καρποὺςkarpousshare of the fruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἐνenatG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
καιροῖςkairoisharvest timeG2540
√ καιρός — an occasion, iNounDative Masculine Plural
kairos: season, occasion Plural here against v. 34's singular. Pulpit: “the good husbandmen would be always ready to render to their Lord the fruits of faith and obedience, at every holy season.”
αὐτῶνautōn. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
42

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ho Iēsous Legei autois Oudepote anegnōte en tais graphais Lithon hon hoi oikodomountes apedokimasan Houtos egenēthē eis kephalēn gōnias hautē egeneto Para Kyriou Kai estin thaumastē en hēmōn ophthalmois

Word by word29 · parsed
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ΛέγειLegeisaidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisto themG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ΟὐδέποτεOudepotevvvG3763
√ οὐδέποτε — not even at any time, iAdverb
ἀνέγνωτεanegnōteHave you never readG314
√ ἀναγινώσκω — to know again, iVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
anaginōskō: to know again, to read Ellicott notes the cut of the particular psalm: it is the one “which had supplied the ‘hosanna' shouts of the multitude on the preceding day,” so the men who resented yesterday's acclamation are sent back to the verse just above it.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ταῖςtaistheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
γραφαῖςgraphaisScripturesG1124
√ γραφή — a document, iNounDative Feminine Plural
ΛίθονLithon[The] stoneG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
lithos: a stone Anarthrous. Pulpit lists the prophetic stones the hearers would already have connected to Messiah, Isaiah 28:16, Daniel 2:34, Zechariah 3:9, “so that the Pharisees could be at no loss to understand the allusion.”
ὃνhonG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
οἰκοδομοῦντεςoikodomountesbuildersG3618
√ οἰκοδομέω — to be a house-builder, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
oikodomeō: to be a house-builder Present participle: the ones who are building, right now. Gill supplies the rabbinic usage that makes the insult land: “the disciples of the wise men are called ‘builders.'” Poole adds that these builders “proved destroyers and pullers down, instead of builders.”
ἀπεδοκίμασανapedokimasanrejectedG593
√ ἀποδοκιμάζω — to disapprove, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
apodokimazō: to disapprove, reject after testing A rare lexeme (9 verses) and the sharpest word in the citation. It presumes examination and competence, so the rejection cannot be excused as ignorance; Barnes reads the ground of it from Isaiah 53:2-3, a lack of “what they esteemed to be comely or desirable.”
ΟὗτοςHoutosG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐγενήθηegenēthēhas becomeG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to become Aorist passive. Someone else placed the stone.
εἰςeistheG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
κεφαλὴνkephalēnvvvG2776
√ κεφαλή — the head (as the part most readily taken hold of), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Feminine Singular
γωνίαςgōniascornerstoneG1137
√ γωνία — an angleNounGenitive Feminine Singular
gōnia: an angle, corner The load-bearing joint where two walls meet. Pulpit and Cambridge both take the architecture theologically: the corner is where Jew and Gentile are bonded into one house (Ephesians 2:19-22, 1 Peter 2:6-7).
αὕτηhautēThisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Feminine Singular
ἐγένετοegenetoisG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ΠαρὰParafromG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
ΚυρίουKyriou[the] LordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
kyrios: Lord The same noun that named the vineyard's owner in v. 40. ⚙ The parable and the psalm are stitched together by one word: the lord who comes to reckon is the Lord from whom the stone comes.
ΚαὶKaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔστινestinit isG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
θαυμαστὴthaumastēmarvelousG2298
√ θαυμαστός — wondered at, iAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
thaumastos: wondered at, marvellous Geneva: “That matter (in that the stone which was cast away is made the head) is the Lord's doing which we behold and greatly marvel at.” Barnes lists what is wonderful, that God chose his only Son, that the Son was despised and killed, and that a church of Jew and Gentile was raised on him.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἡμῶνhēmōnourG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Plural
ὀφθαλμοῖςophthalmoiseyesG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounDative Masculine Plural
43

Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Dia touto legō hymin hoti hē basileia tou Theou arthēsetai aph’ hymōn kai dothēsetai ethnei poiounti autēs tous karpous

Word by word19 · parsed
ΔιὰDiaThereforeG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
dia: through, because of With the accusative: on this account. The sentence is a verdict drawn from the citation, not a new topic.
τοῦτοtouto. . .G3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
βασιλείαbasileiakingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
basileia: royalty, kingdom Gill argues at length that what is removed is the Gospel and the church state rather than the civil polity, since “it was of God, and in a short time was to depart from them” on other grounds. JFB reads it as “God's visible Kingdom, or Church, upon earth, which up to this time stood in the seed of Abraham.”
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἀρθήσεταιarthēsetaiwill be taken awayG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
airō: to lift up, take away The lexicon gives the root sense “to lift up,” so the kingdom is not smashed or forfeited but carried off, and the future passive names no carrier. ⚙ Read with v. 42, where the stone is set “from the Lord” and not by the builders, the two verses make one claim: the placing and the removing are both his act, so the tenants are the occasion of the removal and never its agent. Gill resists applying it to the civil polity, which he thinks was departing on other prophetic grounds, and takes it of the Gospel and the Gospel church state.
ἀφ’aph’fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ὑμῶνhymōnyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δοθήσεταιdothēsetaigivenG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
didōmi: to give The second divine passive. ⚙ Read together, the two verbs forbid both complacency and triumphalism: what can be lifted from one tenant can be lifted from another.
ἔθνειethneito a peopleG1484
√ ἔθνος — a race (as of the same habit), iNounDative Neuter Singular
ethnos: a race, nation Singular. Benson quotes Campbell that this is “one of the clearest predictions of the rejection of the Jews and of the call of the Gentiles”; Pulpit identifies it with “the Christian Church, the spiritual Israel,” citing Acts 15:14 and 1 Peter 2:9.
ποιοῦντιpoiountiwho will produceG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Participle ActiveDative Neuter Singular
poieō: to make, produce Present participle: fruit-bearing as a continuing condition of tenancy. Geneva ties it to the Spirit rather than to nationality: “They bring forth the fruits of the kingdom of God, who bring forth the fruit of the Spirit, and not of the flesh, Ga 5:16-26.”
αὐτῆςautēsitsG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Feminine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
καρποὺςkarpousfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Plural
karpos: fruit The word closes the argument it opened at v. 34. Nothing in the indictment or the sentence is about ownership; everything is about yield.
44

He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai ho pesōn epi touton ton lithon synthlasthēsetai d’ hon eph’ an pesē likmēsei auton

Word by word15 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoHe whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
πεσὼνpesōnfallsG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
piptō: to fall Aorist participle. The stumbling here is the man's own motion; nothing is done to him but by himself. Maclaren calls it “a remediable injury, a self-inflicted injury, a natural injury, without the active operation of Christ to produce it at all.”
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τοῦτονtoutonthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λίθονlithonstoneG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
lithos: a stone The same stone as v. 42, now considered as obstacle rather than as corner. Pulpit and Barnes both connect the falling to Isaiah 8:14-15, the stone of stumbling and rock of offence.
συνθλασθήσεταιsynthlasthēsetaiwill be broken to piecesG4917
√ συνθλάω — to dash together, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
synthlaō: to dash together, shatter Future passive. Gill is careful to exclude a pious misreading: the clause is not about a believer's contrition or a believer's stumbling into sin, but about those “to whom Christ is a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence.” Pulpit agrees, since “the subject here is the punishment of the obdurate.”
δ’d’butG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὃνhonheG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἐφ’eph’on whomG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ἂνanG302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
πέσῃpesēit fallsG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
piptō: to fall Aorist subjunctive with ἄν: whenever it may fall. The indefiniteness is temporal, not conditional.
λικμήσειlikmēseiwill be crushedG3039
√ λικμάω — to winnow, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
likmaō: to winnow The last and strangest verb of the discourse. Winnowing does not merely destroy, it separates and disperses, so the image is judgment that sorts. Cambridge cites Lightfoot and Benson cites Whitby for the suggestion that the two Jewish modes of stoning lie behind the verse, the man thrown down on the stone and the stone dropped on the man, and Barnes and Gill describe that custom in detail from the Mishnah; Pulpit and Cambridge both judge the earthen vessel the better picture.
αὐτόνauton. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
45

When the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they knew that Jesus was speaking about them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai hoi archiereis kai hoi Pharisaioi akousantes autou tas parabolas egnōsan hoti legei peri autōn

Word by word15 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiWhenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἀρχιερεῖςarchiereischief priestsG749
√ ἀρχιερεύς — the high-priest (literally, of the Jews, typically, Christ)NounNominative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ΦαρισαῖοιPharisaioiPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἀκούσαντεςakousantesheardG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
akouō: to hear Aorist participle, answering the imperative that opened the unit at v. 33: “Hear ye.” They did hear, exactly, and it changed nothing.
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὰςtasG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
παραβολὰςparabolasparablesG3850
√ παραβολή — a similitude ("parable"), iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
parabolē: parable Plural: JFB refers it to “that of the Two Sons and this one of the Wicked Husbandmen.”
ἔγνωσανegnōsanthey knewG1097
√ γινώσκω — to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applications and with many implications (as follow, with others not thus clearly expressed)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ginōskō: to know ⚙ The parable does not fail as communication, and the unit refuses the comfortable idea that parables merely obscure. Gill: “their own consciences told them they were the men.”
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
λέγειlegei[Jesus] was speakingG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
legō: to speak Present tense held inside past narration, keeping the accusation live.
περὶperiaboutG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
αὐτῶνautōnthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
autos: them, themselves The pronoun the hearers supplied for themselves; Jesus had said “those tenants” (v. 40, the far demonstrative).
46

Although they wanted to arrest Him, they were afraid of the crowds, because the people regarded Him as a prophet.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai zētountes kratēsai auton ephobēthēsan tous ochlous epei eichon auton eis prophētēn

Word by word12 · parsed
καὶkaiAlthoughG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ζητοῦντεςzētountesthey wantedG2212
√ ζητέω — to seek (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
zēteō: to seek Present participle: not a single impulse but a standing intention. Luke 20:19 puts it in “the same hour,” as JFB notes.
κρατῆσαιkratēsaito arrestG2902
√ κρατέω — to use strength, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
krateō: to use strength, seize ⚙ The verb completes the parable by enacting it: within a sentence of hearing themselves described as men who seize and kill, they are looking for a way to seize and kill.
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐφοβήθησανephobēthēsanthey were afraidG5399
√ φοβέω — to frighten, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
phobeō: to frighten, be afraid Aorist passive. Gill is exact about what this restraint was and was not: they were held back by the crowd's regard for Jesus, not by their own consciences, and “though they understood his meaning, they were not deterred thereby, but on another account.”
τοὺςtousof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ὄχλουςochlouscrowdsG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἐπεὶepeibecauseG1893
√ ἐπεί — thereupon, iConjunction
εἶχονeichon[the people] regardedG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
echō: to hold Imperfect, with εἰς: a continuing popular verdict. Geneva's marginal note is the widest frame in the brief on this restraint: “The wicked can do nothing but what God wills.”
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
εἰςeisasG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
προφήτηνprophētēna prophetG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounAccusative Masculine Singular
prophētēs: a foreteller, prophet The crowd's estimate falls short of the confession the parable demands (the heir, the cornerstone), and it is nevertheless the thing that keeps him alive to Passover. Pulpit notes the consequence: this “accounts for the joyful acquiescence of the Pharisaical party in the offer of Judas.”

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The vineyard God built, and the word he lent to Isaiah — 21:33

Every commentator in the brief hears Isaiah 5:1-2 in the first sentence, and none of them treats that as a discovery. Ellicott: the parable “points in the very form of its opening to the great example of the use of that image in Isaiah 5:1 .” JFB says the details “are taken, as is the basis of the parable itself, from that beautiful parable of Isa 5:1-7, in order to fix down the application and sustain it by Old Testament authority.” Cambridge, Poole, Gill, Benson and Pulpit all say the same, and Pulpit adds the one difference that matters: in Isaiah the Lord tends the vineyard himself and it yields wild grapes, while here it is let out and the tenants keep the fruit. Pulpit draws the consequence, that “in the earlier times it was the nation that apostatized ... In later days it is the teachers, rabbis, priests, false prophets.” ⚙ The Greek supports that shift of target. The furnishings are all aorists with a single subject: ἐφύτευσεν, περιέθηκεν, ὤρυξεν, ᾠκοδόμησεν. Nothing in the vineyard is the tenants' work. Maclaren presses exactly this: “Neither the theology nor the ritual is of man's establishing,” and he refuses to allegorize wall, vat and tower, since “they simply express the completeness of the equipment.” Cambridge's Maccabean coin detail is the sharpest historical note in the brief: the vine was a minted national emblem, so this was not a figure of speech being borrowed but a badge being repossessed.

ii. Slaves sent to receive, and taken instead — 21:34-36

⚙ One lexeme governs these verses. λαβεῖν (G2983) in v. 34 is why the slaves come, “to receive”; λαβόντες in v. 35 is what the tenants do to them; the same participle in v. 39 is what they do to the son. The receivers are received. Barnes supplies the lexical violence of the first blow, that derō “properly means to flay or to take off the skin,” and JFB anchors each of the three fates in a text: beating at Jeremiah 37:15 and 38:6, killing at Jeremiah 26:20-23, stoning at 2 Chronicles 24:21. Barnes widens the list to Hebrews 11:37, Jeremiah 44:4-6, 2 Chronicles 36:16 and Nehemiah 9:26; Poole, independently, names 1 Kings 19:10, 2 Chronicles 36:16, Nehemiah 9:26 and Jeremiah 44:4-5. That convergence, four commentators reaching the same handful of texts, is the strongest sourced ground in the unit for reading v. 35 as a summary of recorded prophetic history rather than as invention. Poole also sets the limit: “we must not look to fit every particular phrase in a parable in the explication.” The second sending is compressed into one adverb, ὡσαύτως, “likewise”; Pulpit reads the compression as mercy, since “each step of their wickedness and obstinacy was met with renewed mercy.” Ellicott and Pulpit disagree, honestly and inconsequentially, over whether πλείονας means more prophets or greater ones.

iii. The heir, named by his murderers — 21:37-39

JFB states the claim the grammar makes: “our Lord here severs Himself, by the sharpest line of demarcation, from all merely human messengers, and claims for Himself Sonship in its loftiest sense.” ⚙ Two features of the Greek carry it. First, Ἐντραπήσονται (G1788) is future passive: reverence for the son is not a courtesy the tenants might extend but something the son's presence would work in them, so refusal requires hardening. Second, the confession is put in the murderers' mouths: ὁ κληρονόμος, “the heir.” Their plan is only rational if his title is real. Cambridge notes the legal absurdity, that killing an heir conveys nothing, and turns it into the interpretation: it was “not more impossible than the thought of the Pharisees that by the death of Jesus they would gain the spiritual supremacy.” On v. 37 the commentators divide, and the division is worth keeping visible. Poole holds that the owner's “perhaps they will reverence him” expresses “what they ought to do, and what God might reasonably expect,” never what God supposed; Gill agrees and insists God's omniscience “reaches to all future events”; Pulpit takes the harder line that God “puts aside his foreknowledge, and gives scope to man's free will.” On v. 39 Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit all read the casting out before the killing as Matthew's pointer to a death outside the city, with Hebrews 13:12 and John 19:17 named; Gill reads it instead of the handing over to Gentile hands.

iv. The verdict they passed on themselves — 21:40-41, 21:43

Pulpit puts Christ's question beside Isaiah 5:3, where the Lord likewise “makes the people give the verdict,” and Gill says the same, that Isaiah 5:4 is the passage “our Lord had greatly in view when he spake this parable.” Barnes explains the tactic without flattery: had Jesus stated the judgment outright “they would not have heard him,” so by parable “he led them along to ‘state themselves' the very truth which he wished to communicate.” ⚙ The Greek of the answer is a jingle the English cannot keep: Κακοὺς κακῶς ἀπολέσει, adjective and adverb from the same root flanking the verb. JFB calls it “an emphatic alliteration not easily conveyed in English,” and Geneva labels it “a kind of proverb, showing what punishment the wicked are worthy of.” Ellicott records the two readings of the speakers' state of mind, real unconsciousness or “affected horror,” and hears in their sentence an unconscious prophecy like Caiaphas's in John 11:49-51. There is a real textual and interpretive knot the brief preserves: Matthew has the hearers answer, while Mark 12:9 and Luke 20:15-16 give the words to Jesus, and Luke adds the crowd's “God forbid.” Poole reviews the harmonizations and settles on the likeliest, that the rulers said it first and Christ then confirmed and opened it, at which point they recoiled. Cambridge takes the interruption as coming from the crowd, not the rulers. ⚙ We flag this rather than resolve it. Then v. 43 makes the transfer explicit with two divine passives, ἀρθήσεται and δοθήσεται: the kingdom is not seized from them by a rival, it is taken and given. JFB notes that this verse “is given by Matthew only.”

v. The stone: rejected, set, and falling — 21:42, 21:44

The imagery changes and the subject does not. Pulpit states the transposition cleanly: “The vineyard is now a building; the husbandmen are the builders; the Son is the stone.” Ellicott notices what makes the citation of Psalm 118:22 cut: it stands “in the immediate context of the verse which had supplied the ‘hosanna' shouts of the multitude on the preceding day.” Cambridge dates the psalm to the second Temple's dedication and reads the original cornerstone as the nation itself, “rejected at first, afterwards restored from captivity,” then notes that in Acts 4:11, Ephesians 2:20 and 1 Peter 2:6 Christ himself is the head of the corner, holding both readings together because “Christ was the Representative first of the Jewish Nation ... then of the Church.” Ellicott takes the same double sense further and finds the stone here in the Gentile converts. ⚙ The Greek verb of rejection is ἀπεδοκίμασαν (G593), “to disapprove,” a rare lexeme the Verifier finds in only nine verses: not a casual discard but a formal verdict after examination, which is precisely what the Sanhedrin was for. Then v. 44 gathers three Old Testament stones into one sentence. Maclaren says so explicitly: Christ “weaves into one the whole of them, that in Isaiah about the ‘sure foundation,' and that in Daniel about ‘the stone cut out without hands.'” Ellicott names Isaiah 8:14-15 for the stumbling and Daniel 2:35 and 2:44 for the grinding; JFB adds Zechariah 12:2; Geneva glosses λικμήσει (G3039) from the threshing floor, “he uses a word which properly signifies separating the chaff from the corn with winnowing.” Maclaren's structural observation is the best thing in the brief on this verse: “In the one case, the stone is represented as passive, lying quiet; in the other, it has acquired motion.” Pulpit says it in one line: “Christ in his humiliation is the Stone against which men fall; Christ in his glory and exaltation is the Stone which falls on them.”

vi. They knew, and they were afraid — 21:45-46

Gill: “They knew that the whole was levelled against them, and designed for them, and exactly hit their case.” ⚙ The two closing verbs are the parable's real ending. ἔγνωσαν (G1097, aorist) says the interpretation landed; ἐφοβήθησαν (G5399, aorist passive) says what stopped them, and it was not conscience. Ellicott: “Open violence they did not dare to venture on, and they had to fall back upon the more crooked paths of stratagem and treachery.” Cambridge sets out the Sanhedrin's two requirements, speed before Passover and privacy away from the Galilean crowd, and concludes that “treachery alone enabled the Jews to secure their end,” which is how Judas becomes necessary. Pulpit names the moral inversion without softening it: “as bad men always act, instead of repenting of the evil, they are only exasperated against him who detected them.” Geneva's marginal note on v. 46 is the widest frame anyone in the brief offers: “The wicked can do nothing but what God wills.” ⚙ The final irony is grammatical: εἶχον αὐτὸν εἰς προφήτην, an imperfect, “they were holding him for a prophet.” The crowd's half-right estimate of Jesus is the only thing keeping him alive for three more days, and it is the same estimate that had protected John (Matthew 21:26).

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Offered as this tool's own fallible reading, to be tested against the text. Read the parable by its lexemes rather than its allegory and it stops being a story about who owns Israel and becomes a story about a single verb. λαμβάνω (G2983) runs through it four times: the owner sends slaves to receive fruit (v. 34), the tenants take the slaves (v. 35), the tenants take the son (v. 39). Receiving turns into seizing, and the tenants' only theological error is a mistake about direction. They think a vineyard is something you hold; the parable knows it is something you hand over. So the charge in v. 41 is not that they occupied the land but that they kept the fruit, and the sentence in v. 43 is not annihilation but reassignment to ἔθνει ποιοῦντι, a nation actually producing. That participle is present, continuous. It describes an activity, not a pedigree, which means the new tenants hold on exactly the terms the old ones broke, and the verb of letting out is middle both times (v. 33, v. 41): the owner lets it on his own terms, twice. ⚙ Two consequences we would press, knowing they can be pressed back. First, this parable gives no Gentile Christian any security the Jewish leadership lacked, and Pulpit saw it, applying the whole thing to the seven churches of Asia; the second set of tenants is described by what it does, so it can fail the same way. Second, the two stone sayings of v. 44 are not one threat said twice. Maclaren's distinction between the stone at rest and the stone in motion is, we think, correct and important: falling over Christ in his humiliation is an injury, and Maclaren calls it remediable; being fallen upon by Christ in his exaltation is not. Between those two there is room for the whole of repentance, which is why v. 42 is framed as a question, “Have you never read,” and not as a sentence. ⚙ Where we stop short: we cannot settle from the Greek whether the answer in v. 41 came from the rulers, the crowd, or Jesus himself, and Matthew, Mark and Luke do not agree. We leave the seam showing.

They thought a vineyard was something to hold; the parable knows it is something to hand over. (Not a verse: a machine reading offered for testing.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Isaiah's song of the vineyard, repossessed structural / thematic: confirmed

The hedge, the winepress, the tower and the planting of v. 33 are the furnishings of Isaiah 5:1-2, and the verdict of v. 41 answers Isaiah 5:5-7, where the Lord takes away the hedge and lays the vineyard waste. Ellicott, JFB, Cambridge, Poole, Gill, Benson, Maclaren and Pulpit all record the dependence, and JFB says why it is there: “in order to fix down the application and sustain it by Old Testament authority.” Pulpit marks the deliberate difference, that Isaiah's vineyard is tended by the Lord himself and yields wild grapes while Matthew's is let out and the tenants withhold good fruit, so that the blame moves from nation to leadership. Gill and Pulpit both note that Isaiah 5:3-4 likewise makes the hearers pronounce the verdict, which is the mechanism of vv. 40-41.

Isaiah 5:1-7 · Psalm 80:8-16 · Jeremiah 2:21

basis: A Greek to Hebrew pair, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and the Verifier offers no verbal basis; the link rests on the shared furnishings and structure of Isaiah's vineyard song, named as the parable's foundation by Ellicott, JFB, Cambridge, Poole, Gill, Benson, Maclaren and Pulpit. Not tiered verbal, since Matthew does not quote Isaiah 5 and the BSB text makes no citation formula here. Psalm 80 and Jeremiah 2 are added on Cambridge's and Poole's listing as further instances of the same vineyard motif, on the same non-verbal footing.

The stone the builders rejected, quoted from Psalm 118 structural / thematic: confirmed

Verse 42 is an explicit citation, introduced by “Have you never read in the Scriptures,” of Psalm 118:22-23. Ellicott notes the cut of it: the quotation stands beside the verse of the same psalm that had supplied yesterday's “Hosanna” (Matthew 21:9). Cambridge holds that the psalm “was probably composed for the first celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles after the completion of the Second Temple,” and that the stone was first the nation itself, “rejected at first, afterwards restored from captivity,” before Christ transferred the image to his church. Geneva defines the term: “The chiefest stone in the corner is called the head of the corner: which bears up the couplings or joints of the whole building.” JFB traces the apostolic use through Acts 4:11 and 1 Peter 2:4-6.

Psalm 118:22-23 · Acts 4:11 · 1 Peter 2:6-7 · Ephesians 2:20

basis: An explicit Old Testament citation, marked in the BSB text by “Have you never read in the Scriptures,” but Matthew's Greek and the psalm's Hebrew share no computable Strong's lexeme, so the Verifier can record no verbal basis and the pair is not tiered verbal. Quotation is certain on the text's own citation formula, attested by Ellicott, Barnes, JFB, Cambridge, Geneva, Poole, Gill and Pulpit; the NT refs (Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:6-7, Ephesians 2:20) are the apostolic reuse of the same psalm, named by JFB, Cambridge and Barnes.

The Synoptic triple: same vineyard, same lexemes verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark 12:1-11 and Luke 20:9-18 tell this parable with the same vocabulary, and here the Verifier can weigh the link rather than assert it. Mark 12:1 shares γεωργός, ἀμπελών and the rare φραγμός with our verse 33; Luke 20:9 shares γεωργός, ἀμπελών and παραβολή. The differences the commentators record are as instructive as the agreement: Cambridge notes Luke drops the hedge and that Matthew's upper vat (ληνός) is Mark's lower winefat (ὑπολήνιον); Maclaren notes the husbandmen are the rulers in Matthew and the people in Luke; JFB and Poole both note that Mark and Luke give the verdict of v. 41 to Jesus rather than to the hearers.

Mark 12:1 · Mark 12:9 · Luke 20:9 · Luke 20:16

basis: Verifier, Greek to Greek: Mark 12:1 shares G1092 γεωργός (in 17 vv), G290 ἀμπελών (in 21 vv) and G5418 φραγμός (in only 4 vv, the rare lexeme that justifies the verbal tier); Luke 20:9 shares G1092 γεωργός, G290 ἀμπελών and G3850 παραβολή (in 48 vv); Mark 12:9 and Luke 20:16 share G1092 γεωργός and G290 ἀμπελών. All four refs are New Testament, so no cross-Testament restriction applies.

The stone saying in Mark and Luke, and the winnowing verbal / quotation: confirmed

The stone half of the discourse also stands in all three Gospels. Mark 12:10 shares with our verse 42 the rare ἀποδοκίμαζω alongside λίθος and οἰκοδομέω; Luke 20:18 shares λίθος and πίπτω with verse 44. ⚙ One caution the brief does not supply and we cannot check from it: verse 44 is textually disputed in the wider manuscript tradition, and Luke 20:18 is its nearest parallel, so part of the weight of this particular pair is a question about Matthew's text rather than about Matthew's argument. ⚙ The lexeme in v. 42 deserves the weight: ἀπεδοκίμασαν (G593) means to disapprove after testing, a formal rejection on examination, which is exactly the office the Sanhedrin claimed.

Mark 12:10 · Luke 20:18 · Luke 20:17

basis: Verifier, Greek to Greek: Mark 12:10 shares G593 ἀποδοκιμάζω (in only 9 vv, the rare lexeme justifying the verbal tier) with G3037 λίθος (in 54 vv) and G3618 οἰκοδομέω (in 39 vv). Luke 20:18 shares G3037 λίθος and G4098 πίπτω (in 86 vv) with our v. 44; those two lexemes are common, so Luke's link would be structural on its own strength and is carried here only by the fact that all three Gospels are reporting one saying. All refs are New Testament.

The stone of stumbling and the crushing stone typological

Verse 44 fuses two Old Testament stones. Ellicott names both: “a manifest reference to the ‘stumbling and falling and being broken' of Isaiah 8:14-15 ,” and then “a rapid transition to the imagery and the thoughts, even to the very words, of Daniel 2:35 ; Daniel 2:44 ,” where the image of gold and clay is broken and blown away like summer chaff. Maclaren says Christ “weaves into one the whole of them” and centres them on himself; JFB adds Zechariah 12:2; Geneva reads λικμήσει as a winnowing word, “separating the chaff from the corn.” Cambridge points to 1 Peter 2:8 for the same rock of offence.

Isaiah 8:14-15 · Daniel 2:34-35 · Daniel 2:44-45 · 1 Peter 2:8

basis: Greek to Hebrew for the Isaiah and Daniel refs, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and the link cannot be tiered verbal; and Matthew uses no citation formula at v. 44, which is why we tier it typological rather than structural even though the vocabulary of stumbling and of chaff is close. Attestation is ancient and widely held: Ellicott, Maclaren, Benson, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Cambridge and Pulpit all name Isaiah 8:14-15 and Daniel 2:34-45 here, and Cambridge adds 1 Peter 2:8 (a Greek to Greek ref, but sharing no lexeme with v. 44 in the Verifier's candidates).

Servants sent, and sent again, and killed structural / thematic: confirmed

Verses 34 to 36 summarize a settled pattern of Israel's history rather than a single episode, and four commentators independently reach nearly the same texts. JFB cites 2 Kings 17:13, 2 Chronicles 36:16 and Nehemiah 9:26 on v. 36, and Jeremiah 37:15, 38:6, Jeremiah 26:20-23 and 2 Chronicles 24:21 on v. 35. Barnes adds Jeremiah 44:4-6 and 2 Chronicles 24:20-21. Poole reaches 1 Kings 19:10, 2 Chronicles 36:16, Nehemiah 9:26 and Jeremiah 44:4-5. Pulpit quotes the pattern in the prophets' own words from Jeremiah 35:15, “I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them.”

2 Chronicles 24:19-21 · 2 Chronicles 36:15-16 · Jeremiah 7:25-26 · Nehemiah 9:26

basis: Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and the tier cannot be verbal; Matthew makes no citation here, only a summary. The shared pattern, God sending servants early and repeatedly, the servants beaten, stoned and killed, is named at these very texts by JFB, Barnes, Poole and Pulpit, which is the recorded basis.

The heir killed for his inheritance: Joseph's brothers and Naboth's vineyard typological

JFB reads the tenants' conference at v. 38 against Genesis 37:18-20 and John 11:47-53, and on v. 39 sets 1 Kings 21:13 beside Hebrews 13:11-13. Pulpit independently reaches the same Genesis text: “We are reminded of the conspiracy against Joseph, his father's well belowed son ( Genesis 37:20 ).” ⚙ The Naboth parallel is the sharper of the two, and neither JFB nor anyone else in the brief develops it: Naboth's is the one other vineyard in Scripture whose owner is judicially murdered so that the land may pass to those who covet it, and Naboth too is taken outside and stoned on a false verdict. We offer that as a figural reading, not as a claim Matthew makes.

Genesis 37:18-20 · 1 Kings 21:1-19 · John 11:47-53

basis: Greek to Hebrew for Genesis and 1 Kings, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and the link is figural, not verbal. Genesis 37:18-20 is cited here by JFB and Pulpit and 1 Kings 21:13 by JFB, so the Joseph and Naboth figures are attested rather than invented; the extension of the Naboth reading (the vineyard seized by judicial murder, the owner stoned outside the city) is our own and is marked as such in the body. John 11:47-53, JFB's third ref, is Greek to Greek but shares no lexeme with this unit in the Verifier's candidates, so it too stands on the shared plot, not on vocabulary.

Vinedressers elsewhere in the Greek canon structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The Verifier's candidate list turns up every other canonical use of γεωργός, and the results are a caution about method rather than a set of allusions. John 15:1 calls the Father the geōrgos, which reverses this parable's assignment: there God tends the vine himself, as in Isaiah 5, and here he lets it out. James 5:7 uses the farmer's patience for waiting on the Lord's coming, and 2 Timothy 2:6 and 1 Corinthians 9:7 use the vineyard worker's right to eat of the fruit, the very right these tenants abuse. Luke 13:6 shares ἀμπελών, παραβολή and φυτεύω, and JFB sends the reader there first.

John 15:1 · James 5:7 · 2 Timothy 2:6 · 1 Corinthians 9:7 · Luke 13:6

basis: Verifier, Greek to Greek, real shared lexemes but a different motif, so deliberately not tiered verbal: John 15:1, James 5:7 and 2 Timothy 2:6 share G1092 γεωργός (in 17 vv); 1 Corinthians 9:7 shares G290 ἀμπελών (in 21 vv) and G5452 φυτεύω (in 11 vv); Luke 13:6 shares G290 ἀμπελών, G3850 παραβολή (in 48 vv) and G5452 φυτεύω. These are lexical neighbours, not quotations or allusions, and we claim nothing more than a shared field of vineyard imagery.

Flagged: how the prophets are said to have died flagged: verify source

Barnes glosses “killed another” at v. 35 with “Isaiah is said to have been put to death by sawing him asunder,” and Pulpit assigns the same to Hebrews 11:37. ⚙ This needs flagging. Hebrews 11:37 says “they were sawn in two” without naming anyone; the identification with Isaiah comes from later Jewish and early Christian tradition (the Ascension of Isaiah, the Talmudic accounts), not from the Old Testament. The stoning of Zechariah son of Jehoiada at 2 Chronicles 24:20-21 is canonical and secure, and the killing of prophets by the sword in Elijah's day (1 Kings 19:10) is canonical; the sawing of Isaiah is not. We keep the sourced claim, and we keep the label on it.

Hebrews 11:37 · 2 Chronicles 24:20-21 · 1 Kings 19:10

basis: Provenance is contested. Hebrews 11:37 (“sawn asunder”) names no victim; the attachment to Isaiah is extra-canonical tradition, reported as tradition (“is said to have been”) by Barnes and repeated by Pulpit and Gill. The other two refs are secure canonical accounts of prophets killed, so the general pattern behind v. 35 stands even though this particular identification does not. Cross-Testament in any case (Greek Hebrews to Hebrew Chronicles and Kings), so no verbal basis is computable.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Son sent last: not a better messenger but the heir ancient/widely-held

⚙ The parable's christology is carried by two grammatical facts. First, the owner's own household is at stake, since he is οἰκοδεσπότης (v. 33), so the one sent “later” is not a superior envoy but the succession itself. Gill marks the change of kind: “not a servant as before, but a son; his own son, his only begotten son, the son of his love.” JFB draws the line the text draws: “our Lord here severs Himself, by the sharpest line of demarcation, from all merely human messengers, and claims for Himself Sonship in its loftiest sense? (Compare Heb 3:3-6).” Ellicott makes the same comparison with Hebrews 1:1-2, “the contrast between the prophets and the Son.” Second, the title is spoken by the murderers, not the narrator: Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ κληρονόμος. JFB again: “God's inheritance was destined for, and in due time is to come into the possession of, His own Son in our nature (Heb 1:2).” ⚙ And the sending is answered in its own terms: he is thrown outside the vineyard and killed there, which Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit all read with Hebrews 13:12, “Jesus also suffered without the gate,” and John 19:17-20.

Hebrews 1:1-2 · Hebrews 13:12 · John 19:17-20 · Mark 12:6

The rejected stone made the head of the corner ancient/widely-held

Verse 42 is Christ's own citation of Psalm 118:22-23 against the men whose office was to test and approve. ⚙ The verb is exact: ἀπεδοκίμασαν (G593), to reject after examination, and it is rare (nine verses). The builders did their work and reached a verdict; the verdict was reversed by the one who does not build by their plans, and the reversal is what the psalm calls marvellous. Barnes: “Christ is often compared to a stone, a cornerstone, a tried, that is, a sure, firm foundation - all in allusion to the custom of building, Acts 4:11 ; Romans 9:33 ; Ephesians 2:20 ; 1 Peter 2:7 .” Geneva defines the office of the stone: it “bears up the couplings or joints of the whole building,” and Pulpit takes that as Christ uniting Jew and Gentile in one house, citing Ephesians 2:19-22 and 1 Peter 2:6-7. Cambridge and Ellicott both hold the nation's and Christ's claim on the image together rather than choosing between them. JFB records the apostolic use, that Peter “made glorious use of” it before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:11) and returned to it in 1 Peter 2:4-6. Henry's application is the oldest kind: “May Christ become more and more precious to our souls, as the firm Foundation and Cornerstone of his church.”

Psalm 118:22-23 · Acts 4:11 · Ephesians 2:19-22 · 1 Peter 2:4-7 · Isaiah 28:16

Two encounters with one stone: stumbling now, judgment then ancient/widely-held

Maclaren's reading of v. 44 is the most careful in the brief and we adopt it: “In the one case, the stone is represented as passive, lying quiet; in the other, it has acquired motion.” The first is what a man does to himself by rejecting a lowly Christ, and Maclaren calls it “a remediable injury, a self-inflicted injury”; the second is Christ in exaltation coming down in judgment, and that is “utter, absolute, grinding destruction.” Pulpit compresses it: “Christ in his humiliation is the Stone against which men fall; Christ in his glory and exaltation is the Stone which falls on them.” Cambridge says the same in order of time, sorrow now and “utter destruction” at the judgment of the earth. JFB applies both to the same people, first corporately “in the tremendous destruction of Jerusalem,” then personally “in a more awful sense still.” ⚙ We would add only what the tense adds: v. 42 is put as a question, “Have you never read,” and the space between the two stones is the space in which that question can still be answered. Gill guards the same point from the other side, that “whilst there is life, the means of grace continue.”

Isaiah 8:14-15 · Daniel 2:34-35 · Luke 20:18 · 1 Peter 2:8

The vineyard let out again, on the same terms novel

⚙ Offered as a reading rather than a received doctrine. The transfer in vv. 41 and 43 is usually taken, and rightly, as the call of the Gentiles: Benson quotes Campbell that this is “one of the clearest predictions of the rejection of the Jews and of the call of the Gentiles, which we have in this history,” and JFB identifies the new nation as “the great evangelical community of the faithful, which, after the extrusion of the Jewish nation, would consist chiefly of Gentiles, until ‘all Israel should be saved' (Ro 11:25, 26).” ⚙ What the Greek adds is that the terms do not change. ἐκδώσεται in v. 41 is the same middle voice as ἐξέδετο in v. 33, and the new tenants are described by a present participle, ποιοῦντι, producing. Nothing is conveyed in freehold. Pulpit saw the consequence and pressed it on the church: “God gives privileges, and looks for results worthy of these graces ... and if a Church is still unfaithful, he takes away his Spirit, and lets it lapse, and gives its inheritance to others,” citing the letters to the seven churches. Maclaren refuses the same escape for nations: “National responsibilities are not to be slipped out of by being shifted on to the broad shoulders of governments or influential men.” ⚙ So the christological point is a warning as much as a promise: Christ is the heir, and every later tenant holds under him by producing fruit, not by having replaced someone.

Romans 11:17-25 · Acts 15:14 · 1 Peter 2:9 · Galatians 5:22-23

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering; the parse and gloss of every word cited above come from that apparatus, and the thread bases from the Verifier's computed shared-lexeme output. Nothing lexical here is our invention, and where we have gone beyond the sources we have marked the sentence with ⚙.

Textual uncertainty specific to this unit. (1) Verse 44 is absent from some early witnesses (notably the Western tradition) and is sometimes judged a harmonization to Luke 20:18. The brief supplies no apparatus of variants, so we neither assert nor deny the reading; we treat the verse as the BSB prints it and note here that its text is disputed. (2) The speaker of v. 41 is genuinely unsettled: Matthew gives the verdict to the hearers, Mark 12:9 and Luke 20:15-16 give it to Jesus, and Luke adds the crowd's “God forbid.” Poole reviews the harmonizations and prefers that the rulers said it first and Christ then confirmed and applied it; Cambridge and Pulpit suggest the bystanders spoke; Ellicott holds it peculiar to Matthew that the hearers answered at all. We have left the disagreement visible rather than choosing. (3) Cambridge states flatly that “the words ‘went into a far country' are not in the original text” of v. 33, which is a judgment about the Greek text behind the older English versions, not about BSB, whose “went away on a journey” follows ἀπεδήμησεν closely.

Sources and their limits. Maclaren's and Gill's entries for this unit are capped in the brief (Maclaren's v. 33 exposition by nearly 12,000 characters, his v. 44 sermon by nearly 15,000), so our quotations from them are drawn only from the portions supplied and may not represent their full argument; we did not fetch the remainder. Henry's entry is a single block covering 21:33-46 rather than verse-by-verse comment, so his voice is anchored once, at v. 42, where his cornerstone application belongs. Poole's entries for vv. 34-35, 38, 40, 42-43 and 45 are cross-references to his notes on later verses rather than separate comment. Gill's rabbinic citations (Misnah Sanhedrin, Maimonides, the vineyard measurements) are reproduced from his own footnotes and have not been checked against the sources.

What we could not establish. The sawing of Isaiah, offered by Barnes at v. 35, is extra-canonical tradition and is flagged as such in its own thread. The successive sendings of servants have no agreed historical mapping, and Ellicott says so outright, that “we cannot find any exact parallel in the history of Israel”; Benson's assignment of the second sending to the latter prophets and John the Baptist, and Gill's to the Maccabean martyrs, are conjecture, not evidence. The commentators also differ on the reference of the hedge (national geography, the ceremonial law, angelic protection) and on whether πλείονας in v. 36 means more prophets or greater ones, and we have recorded the disagreement instead of resolving it. Cross-Testament threads in this unit carry no Verifier lexeme basis at all, because a Greek to Hebrew pair shares no computable Strong's number; every such link here is tiered structural or typological for that reason, and the reason is stated in each badge.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)