Lange Commentary - Mark 12:1 - 12:12

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Lange Commentary - Mark 12:1 - 12:12


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

2. The Parable concerning the Counsel of the Sanhedrim against the Messiah. Mar_12:1-12.

(Parallels: Mat_21:33-46; Luk_20:9-17.)

1     And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the wine-fat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. 2And at the season he sent tothe husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of 3 the vineyard. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. 4And again he sent unto them another servant: and at him they cast stones, and 5 wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some. 6Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my Song of Solomon 7 But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. 8And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. 9What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. 10And have ye not read this scripture: The stone which the builders re jected is become the head of the corner: 11This was the Lord’s doing [from the Lord], and it is marvellous in our eyes? 12And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people; for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

See the parallel passages in Matthew and Luke.—Mark relates only the second of the three parables, which Christ, according to Matthew, connected with His rejection of the commission of the Sanhedrim, for the purpose of indicating to them what He awaited at their hands, and how they, as the murderers of the Messiah, should be subjected to the punishment of losing the Messianic kingdom. It is the very parable in which they are made to appear as the murderers of the Messiah in connection with the persecutors of the prophets. In the first verse, we obtain a hint from Mark that Jesus delivered several parables ( ἐí ðáñáâïëáῖò ëÝãåéí ) before His opponents. Mark is, further, more exact than Matthew in the climax of the messages sent by the lord of the vineyard. According to him, the first servant is beaten upon the back, and sent empty away; the second is wounded in the head, insulted, and sent away covered with disgrace; the third is killed. This triple fate is then met by many others. In consequence of this conduct the lord of the vineyard despatches his son; and of him Mark observes that he was the only son. From Matthew we learn that servants were twice sent,—on the first occasion in smaller, on the second, in greater numbers; and their fate is to be beaten, killed, stoned. Luke records only an increased abuse of the several servants despatched. The actual ground-thought is in each case the same: repeated messages, increased injuries, and, as a consequence, augmented hardening of heart and rebellion. Then we have the opposition between the sending of the servants and the sending of the son,—between the generous hope of the lord, that pious fear and remorse would be manifested, and the flagitious design respecting the inheritance on the part of the vinedressers. Christ, according to Matthew, makes His enemies pronounce judgment, and declare what would be the dealing of that lord with his servants; according to Mark, the condemnation is expressed by Christ Himself. The passage from the Psalms, Mark quotes in conclusion, as does Luke; the citation from Isaiah, introduced by Matthew, is not here given. And further, the ìὴ ãÝíïéôï , spoken by the opponents in Luk_20:16, is wanting. Graphic narrative and a freshness of delineation are the characteristics of Mark in this passage, as in others.

Mar_12:2. Of the fruit.—The stipulated portion of the product. For the agreement of Matthew with Mark in this passage, consult Note on Matthew.

Mar_12:4. And again he sent.—We admit, there is undoubtedly a kind of periodic succession in the missions hinted at; but this is not to be settled in an external, petty way, of which an example is presented in Meyer.—At him they cast stones.—’ Åêåöåëáßùóáí is to be explained in accordance with the difference between it and the simple ἔäåéñáí . Beating with sticks upon the back, casting stones at the head, marked the first gradation, to which the second pair corresponded,—being sent away empty, shamefully disfigured. As this word, in other collocations, means simply to recapitulate, to relate summarily, we must interpret here according to the context. Meyer says, Mark has confounded êåöáëáéüù with êåöáëßæù . But the latter would have been too strong; and it is possible that the verb before us might have recommended itself to him as capable of bearing two senses, and this double-force we have endeavored to indicate. Wakefield’s interpretation, “They made short work of him,” is too one-sided.

Mar_12:9. Killed him and cast him out.—The order is reversed in Matthew and Luke. Grotius and De Wette make it a hysteron-proteron. Meyer says, it is only another description.

He will come and will.—Kuinoel, following Vatablus, makes this the reply of the Pharisees in Mat_21:24. It is plain that Mark gives a more brief account of the matter. The Lord spoke the judgment which His parable forced from the lips of His enemies. See Note on Matthew.

Mar_12:12. For they knew that He had spoken against them.—Meyer would make these words, as well as in Luke, apply to the people and not to the members of the Sanhedrim. He intends this explanation to account for the apparent want of the proper succession in words. According to some commentators, these words should follow êñáôῆóáé . But the order presents no difficulty at all. They would have seized Christ at once very willingly, and yet they ventured not, etc. This is only a reflection; and our words present the key, the concluding explanation. Their common purpose, to put the Messiah to death upon the first favorable occasion, rose in these and similar moments of exasperation to such a pitch, that they would have gladly seized Him on the spot, and killed Him, if they had only dared to do so.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1 Upon the import of the parable, see the remarks upon the passage in Matthew. The planting of the vineyard is to be looked upon as the promise and the law, or generally as the covenant-word in its identity with believing hearts. The hedge is not the law in itself, but is to be interpreted as being that external institution by which Israel was separated from the other nations (Eph_2:14); the wine-press, or tank, considered in connection with the altar of sacrifice and the martyrdom of the prophets, indicates the inner side of the congregation; and hence we are led to consider the tower, typifying civil order, law, and protection, as the opposite of the wine-press. The wine-fat is sunk into the earth and hidden; the tower rises on high, apparent to every eye, the sign of the vineyard.

2. We must remark, further, that we have here pictured the gradual augmentation of selfishness, of hostility to, and revolt from, the Lord, on the part of the theocratic servants and vassals of God. This representation presents at the same time a type of the climax of injuries inflicted upon the prophets, and above all, of the climax of the Lord’s magnanimity, as opposed to the disgraceful conduct of the servants. The struggle of divine grace with the obdurate unbelief of the administrators of His plan of mercy divides into two periods: 1. The period of long-suffering; and 2. the period of judgment. The first era has two chief periods: a. The Establishment, b. the Missions; which we may divide into, 1. The missions of servants, rising by a threefold climax; 2. the mission of the Son, in which, again, three points present themselves: A. The wicked proposal; B. the murder of the Son; and C. the casting of his corpse forth out of the vineyard. But, in the same manner, are three points to be observed in the Judgment: 1. The destruction of the evil-doers; 2. the entrusting of the vineyard to others; and 3. a donation of the vineyard to others, instead of a relation of vassalage.

3. The nature of the theocracy.—On the one side, it had a political, national end; on the other, a religious: and therefore the lord demands not all the fruit, but only a portion. The transformation of the theocracy into hierarchy: 1. The servants of God begin by converting His vineyard, which, under the condition of feudal service, He had let out to them, into a private possession. 2. They treat the prophets and reformers, who desire to call their condition of pependence back to their recollection, as enemies, and so treat mediately the Lord as an enemy. 3. They killed the son and heir, not in ignorance, but knowing him to be the heir, and actually because he was the heir: so evil-disposed were they.

4. The prospect, which the Lord presented, of the vineyard being handed over to strangers, to the Gentiles, must have exasperated the Sanhedrim almost more than the proclamation of their own downfall.

5. The parable before us is illustrated and expanded by the parables which Matthew makes precede and follow. If we examine the idea of this parable, we shall find that the germs of the two other parables are contained in the one before us.

6. Christ the beloved, the only Son, that is, the only-begotten Son of God; Christ, the last sent, is a mark of the revelation being perfected; Christ, the corner-stone, indicates the perfected Redeemer and Head of the Church.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See the foregoing Reflections, and the Commentary on Matthew.—The mournful, historical fact, that the administrators of the sacred things of God fail so often to attain salvation; or, the night side of the priesthood.—The history of the priestly office under the old economy, a perpetual symbol of warning to the priestly (ministerial) office under the new.—The contest which the Lord, from the remotest ages, has been engaged in with the unfaithful servants of His word and His grace.—The immemorial contrast between unfaithful officers of God and faithful messengers from God.—How the gracious generosity of God strives with the obdurate unbelief of men up to the moment of final decision.—The final purpose of God (They will reverence My Son), and the last purpose of the rebellious servants (This is the heir; come, let us kill him, etc.).—The Lord in heaven is willing rather to have the appearance of folly in sending His Son, than that His grace should not be revealed to the uttermost.—Grace in highest glory appearing alone, to the apparent neglect of wisdom, justice, and omnipotence, and yet, at that very moment, uniting in itself all the attributes of wisdom, justice, and omnipotence.—How all the perfections of God are comprehended in the glory of His grace: 1. By seeming to vanish in it; 2. by again appearing, glorified in it.—The last point by which God’s grace seeks to obtain a hold, is pious fear in men.—Finally: Christ the last mission of God’s grace to mankind, Joh_3:16; Heb_10:26-27; Heb_12:18.—The contradiction in the words, This is the heir, let us kill him; or, the remnant of faith in unbelief, making unbelief damning.—To the exercise of long-suffering succeeds that of judgment.—The heir and the inheritance cannot be separated.—The murder of the heir converted into the glorification of the inheritance.—The parabolical statement of Christ’s glorification, a supplement to the parable of His rejection.—The determination of God as to the wicked counsel of the opponents of Christ: 1. Their counsel allowed; 2. defeated; 3. turned to the service of God’s design.—The theocracy as a building of God: 1. A completed building; 2. a preparation for a second building.—Christ, the great miracle of God.—The enmity manifested towards the Lord’s word, enmity shown to the dazzling brightness with which the picture of His enemies was drawn.—The wicked shudder before the picture of their own life.—The impotency of Jesus’ foes.—Jesus’ address before the people; or, the fault of the priests, and the fault of the laity: 1. Difference; 2. connection.

Hedinger:—God spares neither labor nor expense in sustaining and extending His Church.—Be fruitful in good works.—The fate of the servants sent into God’s vineyard.—Osiander:—The more frequently the obdurate are called to repent, the more insane and senseless is the position assumed by them.—The riches of the goodness and long-suffering of God in sending faithful servants, who are zealous to the very death for His house.—The witnesses of the truth.—O that the pious would stir one another up to goodness with the same industry that the godless excite one another to wickedness!—Canstein:—Sin is very frightful: it ceases not where it has begun; one sin springs from another.—Quesnel:—So many deadly sins, so many murderous acts against Jesus Christ.—Canstein:—The enemies of the truth can, no doubt, in some manner say such in itself is truth; yet their answer proceeds not from truth, because their hearts are not temples of truth.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—God and His grace are bound to no people.—What the proud generation of Satan rejects, laughs to scorn, tramples under foot, that God raises in defiance of it, to the glory of Himself.—The world, despite its efforts, cannot execute its malice and wickedness sooner than God, from hidden reasons, permits.

Lisco:—That the only Son is sent, and sent the last, magnifies both the love of the Lord and the offence of the servants.—Braune:—Official sins: The wine-press is the ministerial office, which should express the letters, the peel covering the divine word, which should expound the divine word, the fruit of the vine, and make wine from it to refresh the heart. (Let it be remarked that this interpretation is not sufficient; comp. Doctrinal Reflection, 1.) Isa_5:1-2. Fates of prophets: Micaiah was scourged (1Ki_22:24), and also Jeremiah (Jer_37:15); Isaiah, Amos, and others were killed (1Ki_18:13); Zechariah was stoned (2Ch_24:21); and we find in Nehemiah (Mar_9:26) that the prophets of God had been slain: Act_7:52; Heb_11:36-38.—The judgment of Jesus in the Pharisees’ mouths (The Lord will come, etc.), the first note of the fearful cry, His blood be on us, and on our children (Mat_27:25).—The world’s salvation is, never theless, triumphant. From the Jews it passed to the Gentiles, from the benighted east to the clear west, from the enervated south to mighty north; and when yet farther?—Still God’s kingdom remains.—They raged, but a hook had been put into their nose, and a bridle into their lips (Isa_37:29).

Schleiermacher:—Truth we owe to men, yet we are ourselves bound by it according to our ability.—In every circumstance we must let love point out how we can render the best service to the truth in dealing with each individual.—Brieger:—Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him, etc.: Heb_13:13 (referring to the heir being cast out of the vineyard); Isa_28:16.

Footnotes:

Mar_12:1.—Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Meyer] read ëáëåῖí instead of ëÝãåéí , following B., G., L., Ä ., [Syriac, Vulgate].

Mar_12:3.—Lachmann, Tischendorf read êáß , after B., D., L., Ä . Meyer: from Mat_21:35.

Mar_12:4.—The reading of B., D., L., Ä ., Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer,] êἀêåéíïí ἐêåöáëáßùóáí êáὶ ἠôßìçóáí , does not seem thorough enough, as opposed to the climax supported by Cod. A. and others, viz., beating and sending empty—wounding in the head and sending home shamefully handled.

Mar_12:5 .—Codd. B., C., D., L., Ä . omit ðÜëéí .