Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 21:39
And they caught him, and cast [him] out of the vineyard, and slew [him.]
39. cast him out of the vineyard ] Words that recall the crucifixion of Jesus outside the city of Jerusalem.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 39. Cast him out of the vineyard] Utterly rejected the counsel of God against themselves; and would neither acknowledge the authority of Christ, nor submit to his teaching. What a strange and unaccountable case is this! – a sinner, to enjoy a little longer his false peace, and the gratification of his sinful appetites, rejects Jesus, and persecutes that Gospel which troubles his sinful repose.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
39. And they caught him, and casthim out of the vineyardcompare Heb13:11-13 (“without the gatewithout the camp”);1Ki 21:13; Joh 19:17.
and slew him.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they caught him,…. Seized and laid hold of him, in a rude and violent manner, as they had some of the servants before. This regards their apprehending of Christ in the garden, by a band of soldiers and officers, sent by the chief priests and Pharisees, who with swords and staves took him, bound him, and led him away:
and cast him out of the vineyard; which is not to be understood of their casting him out of the synagogue, which is never said of them; nor does it so much relate to the leading of him without the gates of Jerusalem, where they crucified him, though this is a sense not to be despised and rejected; but rather, to the delivery of him to those, that were without the vineyard of the Jewish church and nation, to the Gentiles; to be mocked, scourged, and put to death by them:
and slew him: for though the sentence of death was pronounced on him by Pilate, an Heathen governor, and was executed by the Roman soldiers; yet it was through the instigation and at the pressing importunity of these husbandmen, the Jewish rulers; and who were afterwards frequently charged by the apostles with the murder of him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(39) Cast him out of the vineyard.The minor touches of a parable are not always to be pressed in our interpretation of it; but we can hardly help seeing here a latent reference to the facts (1) that our Lord was delivered over to the judgment of the Gentiles; and (2) that He was crucified outside the Holy City, (Joh. 19:20; Heb. 13:12), which was, in a special sense, as the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
“And they took him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him.”
The result was that the servants rejected the son, expelling him from the vineyard and killing him. This illustration was a clear warning to the Jewish leaders that both God and Jesus were fully aware of their murderous intentions. The expulsion from the vineyard might be seen as indicating that it was their intention for Jesus to be seen as excommunicated and cut off from Israel (the vineyard is Israel, not Jerusalem), and the killing simply described what was in their minds, and would eventually come to fruition. In the story it would be important that the son’s death take place outside the vineyard, otherwise the vineyard would be seen as tainted.
Mark has ‘they killed him and cast him forth out of the vineyard’. But the ideas are not necessarily contradictory, for Mark probably meant ‘mortally wounded him and cast him out of the vineyard’. In each case it is rather a matter of where they wished the emphasis to be placed. For if the son was physically attacked and mortally wounded on entering the vineyard, retreating before the onslaught and collapsing dead outside the vineyard, either through loss of blood or under their final blows, either description would be true. (And why cast his body out if he was already dead? It would simply draw attention to their crime. All they had to do was bury him in the vineyard.). The difference is thus one of emphasis, not of chronological order. Each is emphasising the killing in their own way. Matthew and Luke are emphasising that he was killed. Mark’s emphasis is on the blows that commenced the death throes of the son in the first place, the first initial, vindictive and murderous attack. ‘Killed him and cast him out’ are simply therefore to be seen as two events that took place alongside each other. (And verbs in translation can often be translated in different orders, depending on the grammar, for the physical order of words in one language is not necessarily the same as the physical order in another).
‘Cast him forth out of/from the vineyard.’ This could signify:
1). The expulsion of Him from Israel by being cut off from among the people and ‘branded’ a reject, a renegade, and an excommunicate (compareHeb 13:12-13).
2). The expulsion of Him to take His place among the Gentiles (cast out of the vineyard), the greatest humiliation that the Jews could place on a homeborn Israelite.
3). Simply a parabolic description of Him as rejected.
As with all Jesus’ parables that were not explained the actual application was left to the listener and the reader, so that different ones could take it in different ways which were not exclusive.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him .
Ver. 39. Cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him ] By wicked hands, Act 2:23 , and are therefore abhorred of God and men, and exiled out of the world, as it were, by a common consent of nations for their inexpiable guilt. And in Constantinople and Thessalonica (where are many thousand Jews at this day), if they but stir out of doors at any Easter time between Maundy Thursday at noon and Easter eve at night, the Christians, among whom they dwell, will stone them, because at that time they derided, buffeted, and crucified our blessed Saviour.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
39. ] This is partly to be understood of our Lord being given up to the heathen to be judged; but also literally, as related by all three Evangelists. See also Joh 19:17 , and Heb 13:11-12 . In Mark the order is different, . . .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
out = without, outside (as in Heb 13:12).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
39.] This is partly to be understood of our Lord being given up to the heathen to be judged; but also literally, as related by all three Evangelists. See also Joh 19:17, and Heb 13:11-12. In Mark the order is different, . . .
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 21:39. – , they cast Him out-and slew Him) St Mark reverses the order of these verbs. They rejected the Lord Jesus both before His death, by denying His right (Mat 21:23), and even more so, by delivering Him up to a Gentile tribunal; and also after His death, by a hostile interference with His sepulture; see ch. Mat 27:63-64, etc.[940]
[940] Mat 21:40. ) This coming was accomplished in the destruction of Jerusalem.-V. g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
caught: Mat 26:50, Mat 26:57, Mar 14:46-53, Luk 22:52-54, Joh 18:12, Joh 18:24, Act 2:23, Act 4:25-27
cast: Heb 13:11-13
slew: Act 2:23, Act 3:14, Act 3:15, Act 4:10, Act 5:30, Act 7:52, Jam 5:6
Reciprocal: 2Ki 11:1 – and destroyed Jer 11:9 – General Mat 27:23 – But Mat 27:31 – and led Mar 9:31 – The Son Mar 11:18 – and Mar 12:8 – cast Luk 9:44 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1:39
The wicked workers carried out their plot and slew the son of the householder. It refers to the treatment that Jesus was soon to receive at the hands of the wicked Jews in thrusting him into the hands of the Gentiles to be killed.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 21:39. Cast him forth out of the vineyard. This refers either to the excommunication which preceded death, or to the crucifixion outside the gates of Jerusalem; perhaps to both, the latter being a result of the former. Mark inverts the order.
And slew him. Our Lord here recognizes the fixed purpose of the rulers to kill Him. Yet there is still love in the warning.