God before you. way V 13. 32 For John came unto you in the of righteousness, and ye believed him not: "but the pub- Luke iil. 12, licans and the harlots believed him and ye, when ye had seen it, trepented not afterward, that ye might believe him. : u 33 Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: 34 and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they mighty receive the fruits of it. 35 And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants more than the first and they did unto them likewise. 37 But last of all t The Vatican MS. has, did not even repent. a literally, a man (which was) an householder. ▾ the original has only, left the country. prefer this latter on account of the explanation following:- go before,'-not entirely without hope for you, that you may follow, but not necessarily implying your following. The door of mercy was not yet shut for them: see John xii. 35: Luke xxiii. 34. The idea of shewing the way' by being their example, is also included. There were publicans among the disciples, and probably repentant harlots among the women who followed the Lord. 32.] in the way of righteousness, not only in the way of God's commandments, so often spoken of, but in the very path of ascetic purity which you so much approve; yet perhaps it were better to let the simpler sense here be the predominant one, and take righteousness for repentance,' as Noah is called a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet. ii. 5) in similar circumstances. repent afterward are words repeated from the parable (ver. 29), and serving to fasten the application on the hearers. 33-46.] PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD LET OUT TO HUSBANDMEN. Mark xii. 1-12. Luke xx. 9-19. This parable is in intimate connexion with Isa. v. 1 ff., and was certainly intended by our Lord as an express application of that passage to the Jews of His time. Both St. Mark and St. Luke open it with a "began to speak...," as a fresh beginning, by our Lord, of a series of parables. St. Luke adds, that it was spoken to the people. Its subject is, W or, w Χ z 2 Chron. Cant. viii. 11, xxiv. 21: Neh. ix. 26. Acts vii. 52. 15. Heb. xi. xxxvi. 16. ch. v. 12. xxiii. 34, 37. 1 Thess. ii. 36, 37. his fruits. The of course, the continued rejection of God's 66 The 37.] See Luke ver. 13: Mark ver. 6. Our Lord sets forth His heavenly Father in human wise deliberating, "What shall I do?" a Ps. ii. 8. Heb. i. 2. b Ps. ii. 2. ch. xxvi. 3: John xi. 53. xxvii. 1. a b he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence 38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they my son. said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. 39 © And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew 40 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? 41 They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, d Acts xiii. 16: d and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, 6: xxviii. 28. which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Acts iv. 27. ech. xxvi. 50, him. &c. Acts ii. 23. IV. 7: xviii. Rom. ix.-xi. (Luke) and it may be they will reverence him," to signify His gracious adoption, for man's sake, of every means which may turn sinners to repentance. The difference here is fully made between the Son and all the other messengers; see Mark,—“ having yet therefore one Son, his wellbeloved. and, as Stier remarks, this is the real and direct answer to the question in ver. 23. The Son appears here, not in his character of Redeemer, but in that of a preacher-a messenger demanding the fruits of the vineyard. (See ch. iv. 17.) 38. This within. is] So Nicodemus, John iii. 2, "we know that thou art a teacher come from God," even at the beginning of His ministry; how much more then after three years spent in His divine working. The latent consciousness that Jesus was the Messiah, expressed in the prophecy of Caiaphas (John xi. 49-52; compare the Thou hast said of our ch. xxvi. 64), added no doubt to the guilt of the Jewish rulers in rejecting and crucifying Him, however this consciousness may have been accompanied with ignorance of one kind or other in all of them,-see Acts iii. 17 and note. the heir] This the Son is in virtue of His human nature: see Heb. i. 1, 2. come, let us kill him] The very words of Gen. xxxvii. 20, where Joseph's brethren express a similar resolution: and no doubt used by the Lord in reference to that history, so deeply typical of His rejection and exaltation. This resolution had actually been taken, see John xi. 53: and that immediately after the manifestation of His power as the Son of God in the raising of Lazarus, and also immediately after Caiaphas's prophecy. let us seize] See John xi. 48. As far as this, the parable is History: from this point, Prophecy. 39.] This is partly to be understood of our Lord being given up to the heathen to be judged; but also literally, as related by all three Evan 42 Jesus gelists. See also John xix. 17, and Heb. xiii. 11, 12. In Mark the order is different, "they killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard." 40, 41.] See Isa. v. 5. All means had been tried, and nothing but judgment was now left. St. Mark and St. Luke omit the important words they say unto him, though St. Luke has given us the key to them, in telling us that the parable was spoken in the hearing of the people, who seem to have made the answer. Perhaps however the Pharisees may have made this answer, having missed, or pretended to miss, the sense of the parable; but from the strong language used, I incline to the former view. Whichever said it, it was a self-condemnation, similar to that in ch. xxvii. 25: the last form, as Nitzsch finely remarks (cited by Stier), of the divine warnings to men, when they themselves speak of the deeds which they are about to do, and pronounce judgment upon them.' So striking, even up to the last moment, is the mysterious union of human free-will with divine foresight (see Acts ii. 23: Gen. 1. 20), that after all other warnings frustrated, the conscience of the sinner himself interposes to save him from ruin. In the original the adverb rendered "miserably" is that belonging to the adjective rendered "wicked." This could hardly be given in a version in English it may be represented by some such expression as, "He will destroy them wretchedly, wretches as they are." The which, applied to persons, is not equivalent to who: it means, of a kind, who: "who" would identify, "which" classifies. They do not specify who, but only of what sort, the new tenants will be. The clause is peculiar to Matthew. We may observe that our Lord here makes when the lord ... cometh coincide with the destruction of Jerusalem, which is incontestably the overthrow of the wicked husbandmen. This passage forms therefore 44 And ePs. cxviii. 22. Isa.xxviii. 16. Acts iv. 11. Eph. ii. 20. 1 Pet. ii. 6, 7. saith unto them, e Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 43 Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given fch. viii. 12. to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. ▾ whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to 45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the iver multitude, because they took him for a prophet. XXII. 1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them Rev. xix. 7, y render, he that hath fallen. an important key to our Lord's prophecies, and a decisive justification for those who, like myself, firmly hold that the coming of the Lord is in many places to be identified, primarily, with that overthrow. 42.] A citation from the same Psalm of triumph from which the multitudes had taken their Hosannas. This verse is quoted with the same signification in Acts iv. 11: 1 Pet. ii. 6, 7, where also the cognate passage Isa. xxviii. 16 is quoted, as in Rom. ix. 33. The builders answer to the husbandmen, and the addition is made in this changed similitude to shew them that though they might reject and kill the Son, yet He would be victorious in the end. the head of the corner] The corner-stone binds together both walls of the building; so Christ unites Jews and Gentiles in Himself. See the comparison beautifully followed into detail, Eph. ii. 20-22. On marvellous in our eyes, compare Acts iv. 13, 14. 43.] Our Lord here returns to the parable, and more plainly than ever before announces to them their rejection by God. The vineyard is now the kingdom of God. The nation here spoken of is not the Gentiles in general, but the Church of the truly faithful, the "holy nation, peculiar people" of 1 Pet. ii. 9: see Acts xv. 14. 44.] A reference to Isa. viii. 14, 15, and Dan. ii. 44, and a plain identification of the stone there mentioned with that in Ps. cxviii. The stone is the whole kingdom and power of the Messiah summed up in Himself. he that hath fallen....] he that takes offence, that makes it a stone of stumbling, (or perhaps, he that is superimposed on it, as a stone in the building: but not so probably, as the breaking would want due interpretation,) shall be broken: powder. 46 But h 15. Zech. xii. 3. Rom. ii. 8. ix. 83. 1 Pet. Isa. lx. 12. Dan. ii. 44. Luke vii. 16. John vii. 40. a Luke xiv. 16. 9. see Luke ii. 34: but on whomsoever, as its enemy, it shall come in vengeance, as prophesied in Daniel, it shall dash him in pieces. Meyer maintains that the meaning of the word is not this, but literally 'shall winnow him,' throw him off as chaff. But the confusion thus occasioned in the parable is quite unnecessary. The result of winnowing is complete separation and dashing away of the worthless part and it is surely far better to understand this result as the work of the falling of the stone, than to apply the words to a part of the operation for which the falling of a stone is so singularly unsuited. 45, 46.] All three Evangelists have this addition. St. Mark besides says "and they left him and went their way," answering to our ch. xxii. 22. Supposing St. Mark's insertion of these words to be in the precise place, we have the following parable spoken to the people and disciples: see below. CHAP. XXII. 1–14.] PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING'S SON. Peculiar to Matthew. A parable resembling this in several particulars occurs in Luke xiv. 15-24, yet we must not hastily set it down as the same. Many circumstances are entirely different: the locality and occasion of delivery different, and in both cases stated with precision. And the difference in the style of the parables is correspondent to the two periods of their utterance. That in Luke is delivered earlier in our Lord's ministry, when the enmity of the Pharisees had yet not fully mani fested itself: the refusal of the guests is more courteous, their only penalty, exclusion;-here they maltreat the servants, and are utterly destroyed. This binds the parable in close connexion with that son, again by parables, and said, 2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto & a certain king, which made a b marriage for his 3 and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are b Prov. ix. 2. bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my d oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. 5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: 6 and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. 71 But when the king heard 2 literally, was likened. a literally, a man (which was) a king. b render, wedding-feast. N.B. This is not corrected in verses 4, 8, 9, 10: but it is in the original the same word throughout. render, banquet: see note. e render, his own. course. d render, bulls. f of the wicked husbandmen in the last chapter, and with this period of our Lord's 2.] The householder of the former parable is the KING here, who makes a marriage for his Son. The word thus rendered is not always necessarily 'a marriage,' but any great celebration, as accession to the throne, or coming of age, &c. Here however the notion of a marriage is certainly included; and the interpretation is, the great marriage supper (Rev. xix. 9) of the Son of God: i. e. His full and complete union to His Bride the Church in glory: which would be to the guests the ultimate result of accepting the invitation. See Eph. v. 25-27. The dif ficulty, of the totality of the guests in this case constituting the Bride, may be lessened by regarding the ceremony as an enthronization, in which the people are regarded as being espoused to their prince. On the whole imagery, compare Ps. xlv. 8.] These servants are not the prophets, not the same as the servants in ch. xxi. 34, as generally interpreted :-the parable takes up its ground nearly from the conclusion of that former, and is altogether a New Testament parable. The office of these servants was to summon those who had been invited, as was customary (see Esth. v. 8 and vi. 14); these being the Jewish people, who had been before, by their prophets and covenant, invited. These first servants are then the first messengers of the Gospel,-John the Baptist, the Twelve, and the Seventy,- who preached, saying 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand. And even our Lord Himself must in some sort be here included, inasmuch as He took the form of a servant, read, But the king was wroth. and preached this same truth, with how- Luke xix. 27. d ch. x. 11, 18. thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and Dan. ix. 26. destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9 Go ye Acts xiii. 46. therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as ech. xiii. 38, they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was h furnished with guests. е 11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12 and 8 see note. brought him to his death at last and the guilt of the death of the Lord abode upon them (ch. xxvii. 25). They repeatedly insulted and scourged the Apostles (see Acts iv. 3; v. 18, 40). 7.] The occurrence of this verse before the opening of the Feast to the Gentiles has perplexed some interpreters: but it is strictly exact: for although the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, yet the final rejection of the Jews and the substitution of the Gentiles did not take place till that event. were: his armies] The Roman armies ; bad and good] Both the open sinners and h render, filled. 47. f Eph. iv. 24. Col. iii. 10, 12. Rev. iil. 4: xvi. 15: xix. 8. 11, 12.] This second part of the parable is in direct reference to the word of prophecy, Zeph. i. 7, 8: "The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish... all such as are clothed with strange apparel." The coming of the King to see his guests is the final and separating Judgment of the Church, see ch. xxv. 19,-when that distinction shall be made, which God's ministers have no power nor right to make in admissions into the visible Church. Yet as Trench remarks (Parables, p. 207), this coming of the King is not exclusively the final one, but every trying and sifting judgment adumbrates it in some measure.. no With regard to the wedding garment, we must not, I think, make too much of the usually cited Oriental custom of presenting the guests with such garments at feasts. For (1) it is not distinctly proved that such a custom existed; the passages usually quoted (Gen. xlv. 22: Judg. xiv. 12: 2 Kings v. 22) are thing to the purpose; 2 Kings x. 22 shews that the worshippers of Baal were provided with vestments, and at a feast: and at the present day those who are admitted to the presence of Royalty in the East are clothed with a caftan: but all this does not make good the assumption: and (2) even granting it, it is not to be pressed, as being manifestly not the salient point of this part of the parable. The guest was bound to provide himself with this proper habit, out of respect to the feast and its Author: how this was to be provided, does not here appear, but does elsewhere. The garment is the imputed and inherent righteousness of the Lord Jesus, put on symbolically in Baptism (Gal. iii. 27), and really by a true and living faith (ib. ver. 26),-without which |