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Mat_22:1. Καὶ ἀποκρ . ὁ Ἰης . πάλιν εἶπεν , κ . τ . λ .] In the full consciousness of His mission and His own superiority, Jesus replied ( ἀποκρ ., see note on Mat_11:25) to their hostile ζητεῖν , which only fear of the people kept in check, by adding another parabolic address ( ἐν παραβ . plural of the category). Olshausen and Keim are not justified in doubting this connection on the ground that Mat_21:45 f. is, as they suppose, the formal conclusion. The parable as given in Luk_14:16 ff. is not a Pauline modification of the one before us (Baur, Hilgenfeld), but is rather to be regarded as representing an imperfect version of it which had found its way into the document consulted by Luke. Others are of opinion that the parable in Luk_14:16 ff. is the more original of the two, and that here it is interwoven with another (Mat_22:8 ff.), the introduction to which, however, has disappeared, and that, in the process, still a third feature (Mat_22:6-7) has been added from the parable which precedes (Ewald, Schneckenburger, de Wette, Strauss, Weizsäcker, Keim, Scholten). But coming as it does after the remark of Mat_21:45 f., a somewhat copious parable such as that before us, so far from being a mere heaping of passage upon passage, is intended to serve as a forcible concluding address directed against His obdurate enemies,—an address, too, which does not interrupt the connection, since it was delivered before those for whom it was intended had had time to withdraw (Mat_22:15). As, in presence of such obduracy, thoughts of the divine love and of the divine wrath could not but crowd into the mind of Jesus; so, on the other hand, there could not fail to be something corresponding to this in their parabolic utterance.