Church Fathers Commentary Mark 12:1-12

"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. And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruits of the vineyard. And they took him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent unto them another servant; and him they wounded in the head, and handled shamefully. And he sent another; and him they killed: and many others; beating some, and killing some. He had yet one, a beloved son: he sent him last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. Have ye not read even this scripture: The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner; This was from the Lord, And it is marvellous in our eyes? And they sought to lay hold on him; and they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spake the parable against them: and they left him, and went away." — Mark 12:1-12 (ASV)

Glossa Ordinaria: After the Lord had closed the mouths of His tempters with a wise question, He next shows their wickedness in a parable.

Therefore it is said: And He began to speak to them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard.

Pseudo-Jerome: God the Father is called a man by way of a human analogy. The vineyard is the house of Israel; the hedge is the guardianship of angels; the winepress is the Law, the tower is the temple, and the tenants are the priests.

The Venerable Bede: Alternatively, the hedge is the wall of the city, the winepress is the altar, or those winepresses for which three psalms are named.¹

Theophylact of Ohrid: Or, the hedge is the Law, which prohibited their mixing with foreigners.

There follows: And went into a far country.

The Venerable Bede: Not by changing His location, but He seemed to go away from the vineyard so that He might leave the tenants to act on their own free will.

It goes on: And at the season he sent to the tenants a servant, that he might receive from the tenants 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, and others killed.

Therefore it goes on: And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.

The Venerable 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 106:16).

There follows: And again he sent to them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled.

This other servant signifies David and the other Psalmists. They wounded him in the head and treated him shamefully 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 again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some.

By the third servant and his companions, understand the company of the prophets. But which of the prophets did they not persecute? In these three kinds of servants, a figure of all the teachers under the Law may be included, as the Lord Himself elsewhere declares 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 of Ohrid: Alternatively, by the first servant, understand the prophets who lived around the time of Elijah, for Zedekiah the false prophet beat Micaiah (2 Chronicles 18:23). By the second servant whom they wounded in the head—that is, mistreated—we may understand the prophets who lived around the time of Hosea and Isaiah. By the third servant, understand the prophets who were active around the time of Daniel and Ezekiel.

It goes on: Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last to them, saying, They will reverence my son.

Pseudo-Jerome: The well-beloved son, sent last, is the Only-begotten. When He says, They will reverence my son, He speaks in irony.

The Venerable Bede: Alternatively, this is not said out of ignorance. Rather, God is said to express uncertainty so that free will may be left to man.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Or, He said this not as though He were ignorant of what was to happen, but to show what was right and proper for them to do.

But those tenants said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.

The Venerable Bede: The Lord proves most clearly that the leaders of the Jews did not crucify the Son of God out of ignorance, but out of envy, for they understood that this was He to whom it was said, I will give you the nations for your inheritance (Psalm 2:8).

But these evil tenants strove to seize it by killing Him. When the Jews crucified Him, they tried to extinguish the faith that is through Him, and instead promote their own righteousness, which is from the Law, forcing it on the nations and instilling it in them.

There follows: And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.

Theophylact of Ohrid: That is, outside Jerusalem, for the Lord was crucified outside the city.

Pseudo-Jerome: Or, they cast Him out of the vineyard—that is, out of the people—saying, You are a Samaritan, and have a demon (John 8:48).

The Venerable Bede: Or, as far as it was in their power, they cast Him out of their own borders and gave Him over to the Gentiles so that they might receive Him.

There follows: What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the tenants, and will give the vineyard to others.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Matthew indeed adds that they answered and said, He will miserably destroy those wicked men (Matthew 21:41). Mark here says this was not their answer, but that the Lord, after asking the question, answered it Himself, as it were.

But we can easily understand this in one of two ways. Either their answer was added without the phrases "they answered" or "they said" being inserted, though they were implied. Or, because their answer was true, it was attributed to the Lord—since He, being the Truth, also gave this same answer concerning them.²

Theophylact of Ohrid: The Lord of the vineyard, then, is the Father of the Son who was killed, and the Son Himself is He who was killed. He will destroy those tenants by handing them over to the Romans, and He will give the people to other tenants—that is, to the Apostles.

Read the Acts of the Apostles, and you will find three thousand, and then five thousand, suddenly believing and bearing fruit for God.

Pseudo-Jerome: Or, 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.

The Venerable Bede: But that this was done by divine intervention He confirms, by immediately adding, "And have you not read this Scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner?"

As if He had said, "How is this prophecy to be fulfilled, except by Christ, being rejected and killed by you, being preached to the Gentiles, who will believe in Him?" Thus, as a cornerstone, He will found the two peoples on Himself and from the two peoples build for Himself one temple, a city of the faithful.

For the leaders of the synagogue, whom He had just called tenants, He now calls "builders," because the same people who were supposed to cultivate His people like a vineyard, so that they might bear the fruits of life, were also commanded to construct and adorn this people to be, as it were, a house worthy to have God as its inhabitant.

Theophylact of Ohrid: The stone, then, which the builders refused, has become the head of the corner—that is, of the Church. For the Church is, as it were, the corner, joining Jews and Gentiles together.

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 are met with slander from the faithless.

The Church is indeed wonderful, resting on wonders, as it were, 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 marvelous 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 marvelous in our eyes (Psalm 118:23), like the topaz.

The Venerable Bede: But the Chief Priests showed that the things the Lord had spoken were true, which is proven by what follows: And they sought to lay hold on him. For He Himself is the heir, whose unjust death He said would be avenged by the Father.

Again, in a moral sense, each of the faithful, when the Sacrament of Baptism is entrusted to him, receives a vineyard on lease, which he is to cultivate. But the servant sent to him is mistreated, beaten, and cast out when the word is heard by him and despised—or, what is worse, even blasphemed. Furthermore, he kills the heir, as far as it is in his power, who has trampled underfoot the Son of God.

The evil tenant is destroyed, and the vineyard is given to another, when the humble are 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. This occurs when someone, who is a brother only in name, either blushes or fears to attack the unity and peace of the Church's faith. Though he does not love it, he is restrained on account of the number of good brethren who dwell together within it.

1. in Marc., 3, 42
2. de Con Evan, ii, 70