Chapter 12

¹Then he began to speak to them in figures.

“A man once planted a vineyard and fenced it in and hewed out a wine-vat and built a watch tower, and he leased it to tenants and left the neighborhood. ²At the proper time he sent a slave to the tenants to get from them a share of the vintage. ³And they took him and beat him and sent him back empty-handed. ⁴And again he sent another slave to them. And they beat him over the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵And he sent another; and him they killed; and so with many others, some they beat and some they killed. ⁶He still had one left to send, a dearly loved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is his heir! Come on, let us kill him, and the property will belong to us!’ ⁸So they took him and killed him, and threw his body outside of the vineyard. ⁹What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come back and put the tenants to death and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Did you never read this passage of Scripture:

“ ‘That stone which the builders rejected

Has become the cornerstone;

¹¹This came from the Lord

And seems marvelous to us’?”

¹²And they tried to have him arrested, but they were afraid of the people, for they knew that the illustration was aimed at them. And they left him and went away.

¹³They sent some Pharisees and Herodians to him to entrap him in argument. ¹⁴And they came up and said to him,

“Master, we know that you tell the truth regardless of the consequences, for you are not guided by personal considerations, but teach the way of God with sincerity. Is it right to pay the poll tax to the emperor or not? ¹⁵Should we pay it, or refuse to pay it?”

But he saw through their pretense, and said to them,

“Why do you put me to such a test? Bring me a denarius to look at.”

¹⁶And they brought him one. He said to them,

“Whose head and title is this?”

And they told him,

“The emperor’s.”

¹⁷And Jesus said,

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

And they were astonished at him.

¹⁸Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question.

¹⁹“Master,” they said, “Moses made us a law that if a man’s brother died, leaving a wife but no child, the man should marry the widow and raise up a family for his brother. ²⁰There were once seven brothers. And the eldest married a wife and died, leaving no child. ²¹And the second married her, and died without leaving any child, and so did the third. ²²And none of the seven left any child. Finally, the woman died too. ²³At the resurrection, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven of them married her.”

²⁴Jesus said to them,

“Does not this show that you are wrong, and do not understand either the Scriptures or the power of God? ²⁵For when people rise from the dead, there is no marrying or being married, but they live as angels do in heaven. ²⁶But as to the dead being raised, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷He is not God of dead men but of living! You are entirely wrong.”

²⁸One of the scribes came up and heard them arguing. He saw that Jesus had answered them well, and he asked him,

“Which is the first of all the commands?”

²⁹Jesus answered,

“The first one is, ‘Hear, Israel! The Lord our God is one lord, ³⁰and you must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind, and your whole strength.’ ³¹And this is the second: ‘You must love your neighbor as you do yourself.’ No other command is greater than these.”

³²The scribe said to him,

“Really, Master, you have finely said that he stands alone, and there is none but he, ³³and to love him with one’s whole heart, one’s whole understanding, and one’s whole strength, and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self is far more than all these burnt-offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴And Jesus saw that he answered thoughtfully, and he said to him,

“You are not far from the Kingdom of God!”

And no one ventured to ask him any more questions.

³⁵As Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he answered them and said,

“How can the scribes say that the Christ is a son of David? ³⁶David himself, under the influence of the holy Spirit, said,

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

Until I put your enemies under your feet.*#“)

³⁷David himself calls him lord, and how can he be his son?”

The mass of the people liked to hear him. ³⁸And in the course of his teaching he said to them,

“Beware of the scribes who like to go about in long robes and to be saluted with respect in public places, ³⁹and to have the front seats in the synagogues and the best places at dinners— ⁴⁰men that eat up widows’ houses and to cover it up make long prayers! They will get a far heavier sentence!”

⁴¹And he sat down facing the treasury and watched the people dropping money into it; and many rich people were putting in large sums. ⁴²A poor widow came up and dropped in two little copper coins which make a cent. ⁴³And he called his disciples to him and said,

“I tell you that this poor widow has put in more than all these others who have been putting money into the treasury. ⁴⁴For they all gave of what they had to spare, but she in her want has put in everything she possessed—all she had to live on.”