Charles Ellicott Commentary Mark 12
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Mark 12
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Mark 12
"And he began to speak unto them in parables. A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and digged a pit for the winepress, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into another country." — Mark 12:1 (ASV)
And he began to speak to them by parables.—See Notes on Matthew 21:33-36. The parable which, like that of the Sower, and like the Sower's alone, is related in all the first three Gospels, was one which had obviously impressed itself strongly, as that had done, on the minds of those who heard it, and was reproduced by independent reporters with almost textual exactness.
A place for the winefat.—Better, simply, a vine vat.
"And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruits of the vineyard." — Mark 12:2 (ASV)
A servant: The variations in the reports are, as has been said, few and slight, but it is worth noting that St. Mark speaks of “one servant” having been sent, and then another, and another, and then many others, while St. Matthew divides them simply into two great groups. St. Mark, characteristically, seizes on the most vivid presentation of the facts.
"And again he sent unto them another servant; and him they wounded in the head, and handled shamefully." — Mark 12:4 (ASV)
At him they cast stones.—The participle so rendered is missing from the best manuscripts, and probably originated in a marginal note explaining how the laborers wounded the second servant.
"He had yet one, a beloved son: he sent him last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son." — Mark 12:6 (ASV)
His well-beloved.—Added by St. Mark to St. Matthew’s briefer form, he sent unto them his son.
"What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others." — Mark 12:9 (ASV)
He will come and destroy the husbandmen. Saint Matthew reports the words as having been spoken by “the bystanders.” Here they form part of the parable itself. We may think of them as having been probably taken up and repeated by our Lord after they had been uttered by others.
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