Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Matthew 21:23-46, By what authority, two sons and the tenants
The chief priests and elders demand to know Jesus' authority. He answers with a question about John, then with two parables: a son who says no and goes, and tenants who kill the owner's son.
Matthew 21:23-46, in every translation this tool compares.
The temple leaders demand to know who gave Jesus the right to act as he does, and he answers with a question about John's baptism that they dare not answer. He then tells of two sons, one who refuses his father but later obeys and one who agrees but never goes, and says outcasts are entering God's kingdom ahead of the leaders. In a second story, tenants of a vineyard abuse the owner's servants and kill his son, and Jesus applies Psalm 118's rejected stone to himself. The leaders see that the stories are aimed at them.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/chief-priests-and-council\/","n":"Chief priests, elders and the council","s":"The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/estates-and-laborers\/","n":"Estates, tenants and day laborers","s":"Wealthy owners, often living in town, let their land to tenant farmers for a share of the crop or hired day laborers in the marketplace and paid them a denarius at sundown.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/prophets-rejected\/","n":"Prophets rejected and killed","s":"Israel's memory of prophets mocked, beaten and killed by their own people. By Jesus' day tradition had lengthened the list of martyred prophets.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/parables\/","n":"Parables and riddles","s":"Short stories that compared one thing to another. Jewish teachers used them to make a point plain, and without the point stated they worked as riddles.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/israel-the-vine\/","n":"Israel the vine","s":"The prophets and psalms pictured Israel as God's vine or vineyard, planted and tended by him and judged when it bore no fruit. A golden vine over the temple gate kept the picture in front of every worshiper.","r":""}
Answering a question with a question was standard Jewish debate, and Jesus' reply rests on the principle that a commissioned messenger carries the full authority of the one who sent him (Keener). A son who promised and did not go was worse than one who refused, since sons were bound to obey and honor their fathers (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). The vineyard follows Isaiah 5:1-7, where the vineyard is Israel; Bailey notes that Jesus adds what Isaiah does not have, an absent owner and tenants. Killing unarmed messengers was treachery everywhere in antiquity, and hearers would think of the persecuted prophets (the cultural backgrounds notes). Hearers would also wonder why the owner had not acted sooner; aristocrats would have thought him naive (Keener). The stone of Psalm 118:22 is joined to other stone texts by shared key words, and a later rabbi warned that whether the pot falls on the rock or the rock on the pot, woe to the pot (Keener). Large estates owned by foreigners or rich Jews were leased to poor tenants, and many absentee landlords were known for harsh treatment (Wilkins).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 21:23-27, 21:28-30, 21:33-46, 21:40-41 and 21:44
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 21:24, 21:28-31, 21:35, 21:37 and 21:44
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 32, The Parable of the Noble Vineyard Owner and His Son
- Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, 6.4 The Two Sons, and 7.8 The Wicked Tenants
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 21:33
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 21:33-35
