Luke 20

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

By what authority?

¹ Now it came to pass, on one of those days, as He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, that the priests and the scribes, together with the elders, came up to Him ² and spoke to Him, saying, "Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?" ³ But He answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, and tell Me: ⁴ The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men?" ⁵ And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why did you not believe him?' ⁶ But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet." ⁷ So they answered that they did not know where it was from. ⁸ And Yeshua said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

The parable of the tenants

⁹ Then He began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. ¹⁰ Now at the season he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. ¹² And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. ¹³ Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps when they see him, they will respect him.' ¹⁴ But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.' ¹⁵ So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶ He will come and destroy these vinedressers and give the vineyard to others." And when they heard it, they said, "May it never be!" ¹⁷ But He looked at them and said, "What then is this that is written: 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner'? ¹⁸ Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder." ¹⁹ And the chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on Him that very hour, but they were afraid; for they knew that He had spoken this parable against them.

Questions in the temple

²⁰ So they watched Him closely and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor. ²¹ Then they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, we know that You say and teach rightly, and You do not show partiality, but teach the way of Elohim in truth. ²² Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" ²³ But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them, "Why do you test Me? ²⁴ Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?" They answered and said, "Caesar's." ²⁵ And He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to Elohim the things that are Elohim's." ²⁶ But they could not seize on His words in the presence of the people. And they marveled at His answer and were silent.

²⁷ Then some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, ²⁸ saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife, and he dies without children, his brother should take the wife and raise up seed for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and died without children. ³⁰ And the second took the wife, and he died without children. ³¹ Then the third took her, and likewise the seven also; they left no children, and died. ³² Last of all the woman died also. ³³ Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of them will she be? For the seven had her as wife." ³⁴ And Yeshua answered and said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; ³⁵ but those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; ³⁶ for they can no longer die, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of Elohim, being sons of the resurrection. ³⁷ But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, when he calls the Lord 'the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob.' ³⁸ Now He is not the Elohim of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him." ³⁹ Then some of the scribes answered and said, "Teacher, You have spoken well." ⁴⁰ And after that they dared not question Him anymore.

Whose Son is the Messiah?

⁴¹ And He said to them, "How can they say that the Messiah is the Son of David? ⁴² Now David himself says in the Book of Psalms: 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand ⁴³ until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.' ⁴⁴ David therefore calls Him 'Lord'; how then is He his Son?"

⁴⁵ Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, ⁴⁶ "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, ⁴⁷ who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation."

Notes

• 20:9 As in Matthew and Mark, the parable takes up Isaiah's song of the vineyard, where "the vineyard of Yahweh Tsevaot is the house of Israel" (Isaiah 5:7). Here the charge falls on the tenants, and the scribes and chief priests "knew that He had spoken this parable against them" (verse 19); it is a word to those who were keeping the vineyard, not against the vineyard, Israel itself. Luke alone records the people's cry, "May it never be!" (verse 16).
• 20:18 Yeshua quotes Psalm 118:22, the psalm the crowds had just sung at His entry (19:38), and then joins two other stone passages: "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense," over which "many among them will stumble; they will fall and be broken" (Isaiah 8:14-15), and the stone "cut out without hands" that struck the image "and broke them in pieces" (Daniel 2:34). In Hebrew the stone (even) and the son (ben) sound alike, a wordplay many have seen behind the turn from the son of the parable to the stone.
• 20:28 The Sadducees cite the law of the husband's brother (Deuteronomy 25:5-6), where "the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel." Judah's family had kept the custom before the Torah (Genesis 38:8), and the book of Ruth shows something like it in practice. The Sadducees, who accepted the books of Moses and, Josephus says, held only to what was written, use the law to make the resurrection look absurd.
• 20:37 At the bush Elohim told Moses, "I am the Elohim of your father, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob" (Exodus 3:6), and then gave His name, Yahweh, "the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob" (3:15), long after the patriarchs had died. Luke alone adds Yeshua's words "for all live to Him" (verse 38). "Sons of the resurrection" (verse 36) is a Hebrew way of saying "those who share in the resurrection," as "sons of this age" are those who belong to this age (verse 34).
• 20:42 The verse is Psalm 110:1, "Yahweh says to my Lord: 'Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet,'" where David calls someone greater than himself "my lord" (see the note at Matthew 22:44). Luke names the source as "the Book of Psalms," and the risen Yeshua later counts the Psalms among the Scriptures written "concerning Me" (24:44). Peter quotes the same verse at Shavuot (Pentecost) (Acts 2:34-35).

Luke 19 · Luke 21

Open in the study app