Mark 11:27–12:12

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

^27vAnd they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, ²⁸and they said to him, ^w“By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” ²⁹Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. ³⁰Was the baptism of John ^xfrom heaven or from man? Answer me.” ³¹And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ^y‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ³²But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—^zthey were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was ^aa prophet. ³³So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

The Parable of the Tenants

12^bAnd he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted ^ca vineyard ^dand put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and ^eleased it to tenants and ^fwent into another country. ²When the season came, he sent a servant¹ to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ^3gAnd they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ^4gAgain ^hhe sent to them another servant, and ⁱthey struck him on the head and ^jtreated him shamefully. ^5gAnd he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. ⁶He had still one other, ^ka beloved son. ^lFinally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But those tenants said to one another, ^m‘This is the heir. Come, ⁿlet us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸And they took him and killed him and ^othrew him out of the vineyard. ⁹What will the owner of the vineyard do? ^pHe will ^qcome and destroy the tenants and ^rgive the vineyard to others. ^10sHave you not read ^tthis Scripture:

^u“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;²

¹¹this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

¹²And ^vthey were seeking to arrest him ^wbut feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they ^xleft him and went away.