Mark 11:27–12:12

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

²⁷Then they ^*came again to Jerusalem. ^aAnd as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders ^*came to Him,

²⁸and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?”

²⁹And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

³⁰“Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.”

³¹And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

³²“But if we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of the crowd, for everyone was regarding John to have been a real prophet.

³³And answering Jesus, they ^*said, “We do not know.” And Jesus ^*said to them, “Neither ¹will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

CHAPTER 12

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“And at the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vine-growers.

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

⁴“And 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, 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“And 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 has become the chief corner stone;

^11aThis came about from the ¹Lord,

And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

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