Knox Bible

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One day, as he taught the people and preached to them in the temple, the chief priests and scribes, with the elders, came up

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and said to him, Tell us, What is the authority by which thou doest these things, and who gave thee this authority?

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Jesus answered them, I too have a question to ask; you must tell me this,

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Whence did John’s baptism come, from heaven or from men?

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Whereupon they cast about in their minds; If we tell him it was from heaven, they said, he will ask, Then why did you not believe him?

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And if we say it was from men, all the people will be ready to stone us; they will have it that John was a prophet.

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So they answered that they could not tell whence it came.

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Jesus said to them, And you will not learn from me what is the authority by which I do these things.✻

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And now he took occasion to tell the people this parable; There was a man who planted a vineyard, and let it out to some vine-dressers, while he went away to spend a long time abroad.

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And when the season came, he sent one of his servants on an errand to the vine-dressers, bidding them pay him his share of the vineyard’s revenues. Whereupon the vine-dressers beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.

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Then he sent another servant; and him too they sent away empty-handed, beating him first, and insulting him.

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Then he sent a third; and they drove him away wounded, like the others.

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So the owner of the vineyard said, What am I to do? I will send my well-beloved son, perhaps they will have reverence for him.

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But the vine-dressers, on seeing him, debated thus among themselves; This is the heir, let us kill him, so that his inheritance may pass into our hands.

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And they thrust him out of the vineyard and killed him. And now, what will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

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He will come and make an end of those vine-dressers, and give his vineyard to others. God forbid, they said, when they heard that.

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But he fastened his eyes on them, and said, Why then, what is the meaning of those words which have been written, The very stone which the builders rejected has become the chief stone at the corner?✻

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If ever a man falls against that stone, he will break his bones; if it falls upon him, it will grind him to powder.✻

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At this, the chief priests and scribes would gladly have laid hands on him there and then, but they were afraid of the people. They saw clearly that this parable of his was aimed at them.✻

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And so, watching for their opportunity, they sent agents of their own, who pretended to be men of honest purpose, to fasten on his words; then they would hand him over to the supreme authority of the governor.

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These put a question to him; Master, they said, we know that thou art direct in thy talk and thy teaching; thou makest no distinction between man and man, but teachest the way of God in all sincerity.

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Is it right that we should pay tribute to Caesar, or not?

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And he, aware of their malice, said to them, Why do you thus put me to the test?

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Shew me a silver piece. Whose likeness, whose name does it bear inscribed on it? When they answered, Caesar’s,

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he told them, Why then, give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.

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And they said no more; they were full of admiration at his answer, finding no means of discrediting his words in the eyes of the people.

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Then he was approached with a question by some of the Sadducees, men who deny the resurrection;

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Master, they said, Moses prescribed for us, If a man has a married brother who dies without issue, the surviving brother must marry the widow, and beget children in the dead brother’s name.✻

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There were seven brethren, the first of whom married a wife, and died without issue.

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So the next took her, and also died without issue,

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then the third, and so with all the seven; they left no children when they died,

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and the woman herself died last of all.

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And now, when the dead rise again, which of these will be her husband, since she was wife to all seven?

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Jesus told them, The children of this world marry and are given in marriage;

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but those who are found worthy to attain that other world, and resurrection from the dead, take neither wife nor husband;

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mortal no longer, they will be as the angels in heaven are, children of God, now that the resurrection has given them birth.

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But as for the dead rising again, Moses himself has told you of it in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.✻

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It is of living men, not of dead men, that he is the God; for him, all men are alive.

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At this, some of the scribes answered, Master, thou hast spoken well;

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no one dared to try him with further questions.

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Then he said to them, What do they mean by saying that Christ is the son of David?

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Why, David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Master, sit on my right hand✻

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while I make thy enemies a footstool under thy feet.

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Thus David calls Christ his Master; how can he also be his son?✻

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And he said to his disciples, in the hearing of all the people:

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Beware of the scribes, who enjoy walking in long robes, and love to have their hands kissed in the market-place, and to take the first seats in the synagogues, and the chief places at feasts;

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who swallow up the property of widows, under cover of their long prayers; their sentence will be all the heavier for that.