Mark 12:1-12

The Parable of the Vineyard. The genuineness of this parable is disputed (1) because it is allegorical in character; (2) because it reflects a later situation and assumes Christ's death; (3) because it embodies an open claim to Messiahship which is in consistent with the prudent and guarded answers of Jesus to questions about authority. That this parable, unlike most others, is an allegory, does not render it suspect as an utterance of Jesus (Mark 4:1 *). That such a parable is out of place before the death of Christ involves the dubious assumption that Jesus could not have viewed His death as marking the end of God's mercy to Israel. While the Messianic claim is more boldly asserted here than elsewhere, yet throughout this section of the gospel, there is less reticence about the Messiahship, and the moral of the parable is not explicitly drawn which does harmonise with the prudence of the sayings of Jesus. On the other hand, if a later composition, the story is, in some respects, strange. Why do the details not fit the Crucifixion, if they are composed after the event (contrast Mark 12:8 with Matthew 21:39)? and why is there no allusion to the Resurrection? (See Burkitt, Trans. of Third Congress of Religions, ii. 321f.) The opening of the story is based on Isaiah 5:1 f., while the words of the husbandmen in Mark 12:7 recall Genesis 37:20. The story describes the history of Israel, and implies that Jesus felt Himself to be God's last appeal to His people, and also thought their rejection of Him would issue in His becoming the foundation of a new community which should inherit God's kingdom. The quotation in Mark 12:10 f. is from Psalms 118:22 f. It is used in Acts 4:11 and 1 Peter 2:4; 1 Peter 2:7.