Chapter 20

¹One day as he was teaching the people in the Temple, and preaching the good news, the high priests and scribes came up with the elders ²and said to him,

“Tell us what authority you have for doing as you do, or who gave you any such authority?”

³He said to them,

“I will ask you a question too. ⁴Tell me, did John’s baptism come from heaven or from men?”

⁵And they argued with one another, and said,

“If we say ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ ⁶But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.”

⁷So they answered that they did not know where it came from. ⁸And Jesus said to them,

“Nor will I tell you what authority I have for doing as I do.”

⁹Then he went on to give the people this illustration:

“A man once planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went away for along absence. ¹⁰And at the proper time he sent a slave to the tenants to have them give him a share of the vintage, but the tenants beat him, and sent him back empty-handed. ¹¹And again he sent another slave, and they beat him also and mistreated him and sent him back empty-handed. ¹²And again he sent a third, but they wounded him too, and threw him outside. ¹³Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What can I do? I will send them my dear son; perhaps they will respect him.’ ¹⁴But when the tenants saw him, they argued with one another, ‘This is his heir! Let us kill him, so that the property will belong to us!’ ¹⁵So they drove him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶He will come and put those tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others.”

When they heard this they said,

“Heaven forbid!”

¹⁷He looked at them and said,

“Then what does this saying of Scripture mean,

“ ‘That stone which the builders rejected

Has become the cornerstone’?

¹⁸Whoever falls on that stone will be shattered, but whoever it falls upon will be pulverized.”

¹⁹And the scribes and high priests wanted to arrest him then and there, but they were afraid of the people, for they knew that he had aimed this illustration at them. ²⁰So they kept watch of him and set some spies who pretended to be honest men to fasten on something that he said, so that they might hand him over to the control and authority of the governor. ²¹And they asked him,

“Master, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and that you show no favor, but teach the way of God in sincerity. ²²Is it right for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

²³But he detected their trickery, and said to them,

²⁴“Show me a denarius. Whose head and title does it bear?”

They said,

“The emperor’s.”

²⁵He said to them,

“Then pay the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and pay God what belongs to God!”

²⁶So they could not fasten on what he said before the people, and they were amazed at his answer, and said nothing more.

²⁷Then some of the Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came up and asked him,

²⁸“Master, Moses made us a law that if a man’s brother die leaving a wife but no children, the man should marry the widow and raise up a family for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers. And the eldest married a wife and died childless. ³⁰And the second married her, ³¹and the third, and all the seven married her and died without leaving any child. ³²After ward the woman died too. ³³Now at the resurrection, which one’s wife will the woman be? For all seven of them married her.”

³⁴Jesus said to them,

“The people of this world marry and are married, ³⁵but those who are thought worthy to attain that other world and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are married. ³⁶For they cannot die again; they are like the angels, and through sharing in the resurrection, they are sons of God. ³⁷But that the dead are raised to life, even Moses indicated in the passage about the bush, when he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸He is not the God of dead men but of living, for all men are alive to him.”

³⁹Some of the scribes replied,

“Master, that was a fine answer!” ⁴⁰For they did not dare to ask him any more questions.

⁴¹But he said to them,

“How can the scribes say that the Christ is a son of David? ⁴²For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,

“ ‘The Lord has said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand,

⁴³Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet!*#“)

⁴⁴David then calls him lord. So how can he be his son?”

⁴⁵While all the people were listening, he said to his disciples,

⁴⁶“Beware of the scribes who like to go about in long robes, and love to be saluted with respect in public places, and to have the front seats in the synagogues and the best places at banquets— ⁴⁷men who eat up widows’ houses and to cover it up make long prayers! They will get all the heavier sentence!”