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The Parable of the Tenants

12 Then[a] he began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard.[b] He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then[c] he leased it to tenant farmers[d] and went on a journey. At harvest time he sent a slave[e] to the tenants to collect from them[f] his portion of the crop.[g]

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Footnotes

  1. Mark 12:1 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
  2. Mark 12:1 sn The vineyard is a figure for Israel in the OT (Isa 5:1-7). The nation and its leaders are the tenants, so the vineyard here may well refer to the promise that resides within the nation. The imagery is like that in Rom 11:11-24.
  3. Mark 12:1 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
  4. Mark 12:1 sn The leasing of land to tenant farmers was common in this period.
  5. Mark 12:2 tn See the note on the word “slave” in 10:44.sn This slave (along with the others) represent the prophets God sent to the nation, who were mistreated and rejected.
  6. Mark 12:2 tn Grk “from the tenants,” but this is redundant in English, so the pronoun (“them”) was used in the translation.
  7. Mark 12:2 tn Grk “from the fruits of the vineyard.”