The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
And he began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the wine press, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed; and so with many others, some they beat and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son; finally he sent him to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' And they took him and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture:
'The very stone which the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner;
this was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
And they tried to arrest him, but feared the multitude, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them; so they left him and went away.
Gloss - After the Lord had closed the mouths of His tempters by a wise question, He next shews their wickedness in a parable.
Wherefore it is said: "And He began to speak unto them by parable. A certain man planted a vineyard."
Pseudo-Jerome - God the Father is called a man by a human conception. The vineyard is the house of Israel; the hedge is the guardianship of Angels; the winefat is the law, the tower is the temple, and the husbandmen, the priests.
Bede, in Marc., 3, 42 - Or else, the hedge is the wall of the city, the winefat is the altar, or those winefats, by which three psalms receive their name.
Theophylact - Or, the hedge is the law, which prohibited their mingling with strangers. There follows: "And went into a far country."
Bede - Not by any change of place, but He seemed to go away from the vineyard, that He might leave the husbandmen to act on their own freewill.
It goes on: "And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard."
Pseudo-Jerome - The servants who were sent were the prophets, the fruit of the vineyard is obedience; some of the prophets were beaten, others wounded, others slain.
Wherefore it goes on: "And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty."
Bede - By the servant who was first sent we must understand Moses, but they beat him, and sent him away empty, because "they angered Moses in the tents." [Psalm 106:6]
There follows: "And again he sent unto them another servant, and they wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled."
This other servant means David and the other Psalmists, but they wounded Him in the head and shamefully handled him, because they despised the songs of the Psalmists, and rejected David himself, saying, "What portion have we in David?" [1 Kings 12,16]
It goes on: "And he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some."
By the third servant and his companions, understand the band of the prophets. But which of the prophets did they not persecute? In these three kinds of servants, as the Lord Himself elsewhere pronounces, may be included in a figure all the doctors under the law, when He says, "that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me." [Luke 24:44]
Theophylact - Or else, by the first servant, understand the prophets who lived about the time of Elias, for Zedekiah the false prophet beat Micaiah [2 Chronicles 18:23]; and by the second servant whom they wounded in the head, that is, evil entreated, we may understand the prophets who lived about the time of Hosea and Isaiah; but by the third servant understand the prophets who flourished about the time of Daniel and Ezekiel.
It goes on: "Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, Perchance they will reverence my son."
Pseudo-Jerome - The well-beloved son and the last is the Only-begotten; and in that He says, "They will reverence my son," He speaks in irony.
Bede - Or else, this is not said in ignorance, but God is said to doubt, that freedom of will may be left to man.
Theophylact - Or else, He said this not as thought He were ignorant of what was to happen, but to shew what it was right and fitting that they should do.
"But those husbandmen said amongst themselves, This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours."
Bede - The Lord proves most clearly that the chiefs of the Jews did not crucify the Son of God through ignorance, but through envy; for they understood that this was He to whom it was said, "I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance." [Psalm 2:8]
But these evil husbandmen strove to seize upon it by slaying Him, when the Jews crucifying Him tried to extinguish the faith which is by Him, and rather to bring forward their own righteousness which is by the Law, and to thrust it on the nations, and to imbue them with it.
There follows: "And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard."
Theophylact - That is, without Jerusalem, for the Lord was crucified out of the city.
Pseudo-Jerome - Or else, they case Him out of the vineyard, that is, out of the people, saying "Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil." [John 8:48]
Bede - Or, as far as in them lay, they cast Him out of their own borders, and gave Him up to the Gentiles that they might receive Him.
There follows: "What then will the Lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy those husbandmen, and give the vineyard unto others."
Augustine, de Con Evan, ii, 70 - Matthew indeed subjoins that they answered and said, "He will miserably destroy those wicked men," [Matthew 21:41] which Mark here says was not their answer, but that the Lord after putting the question, as it were answered Himself. But we may easily understand either that their answer was subjoined without the insertion of, "they answered," or "they said," which at the same time was implied; or else, that their answer, being the truth, was attributed to the Lord, since He also Himself gave this answer concerning them, being the Truth.
Theophylact - The Lord of the vineyard then is the Father of the Son who was slain, and the Son Himself is He who was slain, who will destroy those husbandmen, by giving them up to the Romans, and who will give the people to other husbandmen, that is, to the Apostles.
Read the Acts of the Apostles, and you will find three thousand, and five thousand on a sudden believing and bearing fruit to God.
Pseudo-Jerome - Or else, the vineyard is given to others, that is, to those who come from the east, and from the west, and from the south, and from the north, and who sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
Bede - But that this was done by Divine interposition He affirms, by immediately afterwards adding, "And have ye not read this Scripture, The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone in the corner?"
As if He had said, how is this prophecy to be fulfilled, save in that Christ, being rejected and slain by you, is to be preached to the Gentiles, who will believe on Him? Thus then as a corner stone, He will found the two people on Himself, and of the two people will build for Himself a city of the faithful, one temple. For the masters of the synagogue, whom He had just called husbandmen, He now calls "builders", because the same persons, who seemed to cultivate His people, that they might bear the fruits of life, like a vineyard, were also commanded to construct and adorn this people, to be, as it were, a house worthy to have God for its inhabitant.
Theophylact - The stone then which the builders refused, the same has become the headstone of the corner, that is, of the Church. For the Church is, as it were, the corner, joining together Jews and Gentiles; and this corner has been made by the Lord, and is wonderful in our eyes, that is, in the eyes of the faithful; for miracles meet with detraction from the faithless. The Church indeed is wonderful, as it were resting on wonders, for the Lord worked with the Apostles, and confirmed the word with signs. And this is what is meant, when it is said, "This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
Pseudo-Jerome - This rejected stone, which is borne by that corner where the lamb and the bread met in the supper, ending the Old and beginning the New Testament, does things marvellous in our eyes [Psalm 118:23] as the topaz.
Bede - But the Chief Priests shewed that those things which the Lord had spoken were true; which is proved from what follows: "And they sought to lay hold on him;" for He Himself is the heir, whose unjust death He said was to be revenged by the Father. Again, in a moral sense, each of the faithful, when the Sacrament of Baptism is intrusted to him, receives on hire a vineyard, which he is to cultivate. But the servant sent to him is evil intreated, beaten, and cast out, when the word is heard by him and despised, or, what is worse, even blasphemed; further, he kills, as far as in him lies, the heir, who has trampled under foot the Son of God. The evil husbandman is destroyed; and the vineyard given to another, when the humble shall be enriched with that gift of grace, which the proud man has scorned. And it happens daily in the Church, that the Chief Priests wishing to lay hands on Jesus, are held back by the multitude, when some on, who is a brother only in name, either blushes or fears to attack the unity of the faith of the Church, and of its peace, though he loves it not, on account of the number of good brethren who dwell together within it.
- text taken from Catena Aurea - Gospel of Mark by Saint Thomas Aquinas, translated by William Whiston, 1842