Mark 12:1

ἐν παραβολαῖς : the plural may be used simply because there are more parables than one even in Mk., the main one and that of the Rejected Stone (Mark 12:10-11), but it is more probably generic = in parabolic style (Meyer, Schanz, Holtz., H. C.). Jesus resumed (ἤρξατο) this style because the circumstances called forth the parabolic mood, that of one “whose heart is chilled, and whose spirit is saddened by a sense of loneliness, and who, retiring within himself, by a process of reflection, frames for his thoughts forms which half conceal, half reveal them” The Parabolic Teaching of Christ, p. 20. ἀμπελῶνα : a vineyard, the theme suitably named first. ἄμπελος is the usual word in Greek authors, but Kypke cites some instances of ἀμπελὼν in late authors. ὑπολήνιον (here only), the under vat of a wine press, into which the juices trampled out in the ληνὸς flowed. ἐξέδετο (W.H [109]), a defective form, as if from δίδω. Cf. ἀπέδετο, Hebrews 12:16.

[109] Westcott and Hort.