Comments

• Gramps49 Shipmate

  May 12

  I am going to address the last question. To me it appears that Jesus is drawing from Isaiah 8:14-15
  

  "He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare. Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured" (NIV).

  
  And Daniel 2:34–35, 44–45
  

  34 You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
  
  44 And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall [a]break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 45 Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”

  
  In Daniel’s imagery, the stone is not architectural—it is a divine, kingdom‑bringing force.
  
  Matthew blends the Psalm 118 cornerstone with Daniel’s apocalyptic stone.
  
  Matthew's Gospel is deeply concerned with the identity of the community of Jesus followers. Verse 43 explains why Jesus' movement continues after his death. If frames the disciples as the "new tenants" and it interprets the rejection of Jesus not as a failure, but a transition.
  
  I do not consider this a parable of the vineyard, as much as a parable of the Wicked Tenants. It is a dramatic hinge that exposes the corrupt leadership of the temple, predicts Jesus's death, explains the rise of the church and propels the story toward the rest of the Passion.
• jay_emm Kerygmania Host

  May 12

  Those at home can find the text at mark 12 and Matthew 21 30 (quoted above)
  
  We don't have the full exchange (or jesus had very odd interactions) so it's possible that there was some backstory that gets lost by the time it's recorded.
  
  He is by the temple, and I did see a video that (a)described big blocks at all 8 corners to hold the littler stones in place and (b) I think (wrongly?) called them all cornerstones.
  I think we could consider the possibility that the original phrase in Aramaic included the top stones.
  The picture shown had the bottom ones massive, if something happened to make it capsize you could be crushed (the flip side is that it would take a.lot to capsize it)
  
  It doesn't seem directly connected to the parable which reminds me of 1 Peter 2, which switches from a suckling babes to a rocky metaphor (including the same quote) just as quickly.
  
• Lamb Chopped Shipmate

  May 13

  I appreciate Gramps finding the Isaiah quote! It makes it a bit less murky, though I'm still wondering about the "have you never read" opposition. Maybe he's responding to the heart and not the words they spoke?
• Gramps49 Shipmate

  May 13 edited May 13

  Okay, Jesus tells the story of the Wicked Tenants. He asks the leaders of the temple what would the owner of the vineyard will do. The leaders reply, "He will put the wretched tenants to death and give the vineyard to the people who will pay what is due."
  
  In other words, Jesus, allows the leaders to condemn themselves. He sets a trap, when the leaders give their reply. It seems "Have you never read..." springs the trap on the leaders.
• W Hyatt Shipmate

  May 13

  Maybe the "have you never read" was because the point they were missing was not that of the parable, but of the role they were supposed to be filling in the kingdom of God?
• mark_in_manchester Shipmate

  May 15

  Maybe, up to v42, Jesus is 'the heir' and a victim - the agency rests with the owner, who the chief priests and Pharisees identify as God, with themselves in the role of the bad tenants. From 42 onwards He identifies himself in a different way - as the agent who will be their undoing, who will be the means by which their prediction about themselves is going to happen (foretold in their own prophesies). So there's a gear shift in the middle, as LC points out - and it reads to me like it's meant to be there.
• Hedgehog Shipmate

  May 15 edited May 15

  As for falling cornerstones, it looks like the term is linguistically ambiguous.
  
  I am far from a linguist, but the online Greek Bible seems to use the term
  κεφαλὴν γωνίας and I gather the first word means something like "head, top, primary, chief" and the second word means a corner or angle (either interior or exterior).
  
  That leads to the translation being "cornerstone" but as the notes to the NET Bible observe, it is "lexically possible" to translate the term as "keystone" (a key or primarily important stone in an angle) although elsewhere the term is clearly and unambiguously used to mean a cornerstone on which the structure is built.
  
  I am not sure where that leaves us, but it seems to me that it is possible that the term was meant for any key or important stone, whether it be the cornerstone or the keystone.
  
  Waaaaaaaaaaaay out of my depth here.
  
• Gramps49 Shipmate

  May 15

  @Hedgehog So, you like swimming with sharks?