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Mat_21:33 ff. Comp. Mar_12:1 ff, Luk_20:9 ff. Jesus, in Mat_21:28 ff., having shown His adversaries how base they are, now proceeds to do this yet more circumstantially in another parable (founded, no doubt, upon Isa_5:1 ff.), in which, with a lofty and solemn earnestness, He lays bare to them the full measure of their sin against God (even to the killing of His Son), and announces to them the punishment that awaits them.
ὤρυξεν ἐν αὐτῷ ληνόν ] dug a wine-vat in it. Comp. Xen. Oec. xix. 2 : ὁπόσον βάθος ὀρύττειν δεῖ τὸ φυτόν . This was a trough dug in the earth for the purpose of receiving the juice of the grape as it flowed down from the press through an aperture covered with a grating. See Winer, Realw. I. p. 653 f.
πύργον ] a tower, for watching the vineyard. Such tower-shaped structures were then, and are still, in common use for this purpose (Tobler, Denkbl. p. 113.
ἐξέδοτο ] he let it out (Pollux, i. 75; Herod, i. 68; Plat. Parm, p. 127 A; Dem. 268, 9), namely, to be cultivated. Seeing that the proprietor himself collects the produce (Mat_21:34; Mat_21:41), we must assume that the vineyard was let for a money rent, and not, as is generally supposed, for a share of the fruit. For nothing is said in this passage about payment in kind to the proprietor, including only part of the produce. Otherwise in Mar_12:2; Luk_20:10; comp. Weiss’ note on Mark.
τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτοῦ ] αὐτοῦ is often taken as referring to the vineyard; but without reason, for there is nothing to prevent its being referred to the subject last mentioned. It was his own fruit that the master wished to have brought to him. The fruit of the vineyard, and the whole of it too, belongs to him.
ἐλιθοβόλησαν ] they stoned him (Mat_23:37; Joh_8:5; Act_7:58 f., Mat_14:5; Heb_12:20), forms a climax to ἀπέκτ ., as being a “species atrox” (Bengel) of this latter.
ἐντραπής .] a reasonable expectation.
εἶπον ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ] they said one to another.
καὶ σχῶμεν τὴν κληρον . αὐτοῦ ] and let us obtain possession of his inheritance, namely, the vineyard to which he is the heir. In these words they state not the result of the murder (as in Mark), but what step they propose to take next. After the death of the son, who is therefore to be regarded as an only one, they intend to lay claim to the property.
ἐξέβαλον κ . ἀπέκτ .] differently in Mar_12:8, hence also the transposition in D, codd. of It. This passage contains no allusion to the previous excommunication (Grotius), or to the crucifixion of Christ because it took place outside of Jerusalem (comp. Heb_13:12 f.; so Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Olshausen), but simply describes the scene in which the son on his arrival is thrust out of the vineyard and murdered.
The parable illustrates the hostile treatment experienced time after time by God’s prophets (the δοῦλοι ) at the hands of the leaders (the husbandmen) of the Jewish theocracy (the vineyard),—an institution expressly designed for the production of moral fruit,—and also shows how their self-seeking and love of power would lead them to put to death even Jesus, the Son, the last and greatest of the messengers from God. Comp. Act_7:51 f. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, likewise find a meaning in the hedge (the law), the wine-vat (the altar), and the tower (the temple). So also Bengel, who sees in ἀπεδήμησεν an allusion to the “tempus divinae taciturnitatis;” while Origen takes it as referring to the time when God ceased to manifest Himself in a visible shape.