Mark 12:1–17

Parable of the Vine-growers

^1aAnd He began to speak to them in parables: “^bA man ^cplanted a vineyard and put a ¹wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and rented it out to ²vine-growers and went on a journey.

²“At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers.

³“They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

⁴“Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully.

⁵“And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others.

⁶“He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

⁷“But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’

⁸“They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹“What will the ¹owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others.

¹⁰“Have you not even read this Scripture:

‘^aThe stone which the builders rejected,

This became the chief corner stone;

^11aThis came about from the Lord,

And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

^12aAnd they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the ¹people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so ^bthey left Him and went away.

Jesus Answers the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes

^13aThen they sent some of the Pharisees and ^bHerodians to Him in order to ^ctrap Him in a statement.

¹⁴They came and said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and ¹defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it ²lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?

¹⁵“Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a ¹denarius to look at.”

¹⁶They brought one. And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.”

¹⁷And Jesus said to them, “^aRender to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they ¹were amazed at Him.