Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 21:40
When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
Mark relates the latter verse as Christs own words, Mar 12:9; so doth Luke, Luk 20:15,16, adding, that when they heard it, they said, God forbid. It is said, to solve this difficulty,
1. That they say unto him must not be understood of the Pharisees, but some of the hearers; the Pharisees said only, God forbid.
2. Others think the Pharisees and elders did at first say as is here expressed, but our Saviour then telling them they were the men and opening it further to them, they said, God forbid.
It is very possible the Pharisees and elders might first say it, and that our Saviour confirming and opening their words, showing them how they had given judgment against themselves, they said, God forbid; so both they might say these words, and Christ also. This I take to be the most satisfactory answer. By those words also our Saviour declares, that his church should shortly be taken out of the hands of these Pharisees, and elders, and priests, and put into the hands of his apostles and a gospel ministry.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
40. When the lord therefore of thevineyard comethThis represents “the settling time,”which, in the case of the Jewish ecclesiastics, was that judicialtrial of the nation and its leaders which issued in the destructionof their whole state.
what will he do unto thosehusbandmen?
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh,…. In a way of providence, to call these husbandmen to an account; not only for the fruit they were to bring to him; but for their barbarity to his servants, the prophets, time after time; and especially, for the inhuman usage and murder of his own son;
what will he do unto those husbandmen? This question is put to the chief priests, elders, and Scribes: and they themselves, who are designed hereby, are made judges in this case, just as the inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah are, in Isa 5:4 which passage of Scripture our Lord had greatly in view when he spake this parable.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
40. When the Lord of the vineyard cometh Alford quotes this phrase as a decisive instance in which the destruction of Jerusalem is called the coming of the Lord. But we reply that the Lord who comes is not the Son, nor the Son of man; but God the Father Almighty. The coming is no way identical with the phrase by which Christ’s comings are expressed; inasmuch as this coming is only a part of the parabolic action by which God’s general providential visitation is typified.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those vineyard workers? They say to him, ‘He will evilly (kakos) destroy those evil (kakos) men, and will let out the vineyard to other vineyard workers, who will render him the fruits in their seasons’.”
What the Lord of the vineyard will do is then spelled out by means of the answer to a typical question. What will He do with them? He will ‘evilly’ destroy the evil men who have done this thing, and give the vineyard to others. That is He will visit them with what we describe as ‘evils’. It does not mean that He will behave evilly, but that He will visit them with ‘evils’ in judgment. Note the play on words which emphasises that what they have sown they will reap. No one could really have been in doubt about the final ending of their tenancy. It was the obvious conclusion. Nevertheless its literal fulfilment was remarkable. For Jerusalem would, within forty years after the death of Jesus, be destroyed. Evils would come upon it and the priesthood would be destroyed. And the care of God’s people would have been removed elsewhere, initially, among other places, to Syrian Antioch (Acts 13), and then to the church leaders of the local communities. But Jerusalem would be left empty.
‘To other vineyard workers.’ Presumably Jesus is referring to the Apostles and their companions, compare Mat 16:18-19; Mat 18:18. Luk 22:30 and see Mat 20:1-15. We can compare here Mat 21:43, ‘The Kingly Rule of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation bringing forth its fruits’, not strictly another nation, but a new believing Israel as headed by His followers. It was of that new Israel, which excluded the unbelievers in the old Israel, that all who became Christians would become a member (Rom 11:17-27; Gal 3:29; Gal 6:16; Eph 2:11-22).
In these four words are summed up what we call ‘the church age’. The Chief Priests, Scribes and Pharisees, and Elders will be replaced by the Apostles and their co-workers (see Mat 28:19-20), and then God’s vineyard will really expand as never before.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 21:40-42. When the Lord thereforecometh According to St. Mark and St. Luke, Jesus answered this question himself; which, according to St. Matthew, the priests answered: this apparent inconsistency may be reconciled by supposing, that after they had said to him, God forbid! as St. Luke tells us, they repeated his words ironically,he will miserably destroy those wicked men, &c. speaking with a tone of voice expressive of the disposition of their mind, and then added contemptuously, “which will render him the fruits in their seasons, which will behave better, no doubt, than we have done:” for they understood his parables, and designed to affront him by ridiculing what he said. Besides, unless we suppose that the priests spoke these words ironically, the answer which St. Matthew tells us Jesus returned to them, will lose much of its force, because it implies that the priests had denied that the vine-yard was to be taken from them, and given to others. Jesus saith, Mat 21:42 did ye never read, &c. “If the vine-yard is not to be taken away from you, and given to others, what is the meaning of Psa 118:22.? Doth not that passage of Scripture foretel, that the Messiah shall be rejected by the Jewish great men, and that though they crucify him, He shall become the head of the corner, or of the church? Now what else is this, but that he shall bebelieved on by the Gentiles, and unite them to the church of God, as a head cornerstone unites the two sides of a building?” Accordingly St. Luke expresses the connection of our Lord’s answer with their denial more clearly, Luk 20:17. See the note on Psa 118:21-22. Jeffery’s Review, p. 119 and Macknight. Dr. Campbell reads, Mat 21:42. “A stone which the builders rejected, is made the head of the corner. This the Lord hath effected, and we behold it with admiration.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 21:40 f. According to Mark and Luke, it is Jesus who replies. But how appropriate and how striking (comp. Mat 21:31 ) that the adversaries themselves are forced to pronounce their own condemnation (in answer to Schneckenburger, de Wette, Bleek)!
.] as despicable creatures (scoundrels), He will miserably destroy them . The collocation serves to indicate in an emphatic manner the correspondence between the conduct in question and its punishment. See Wetstein’s note; Fritzsche, Diss. in 2 Cor. ii. p. 147 f.; Lobeck, Paralip . p. 58. Comp. Eur. Cycl . 270: ; and, in general, Lobeck, ad Soph. Aj . 866; Elmsl. ad Eur. Med . 787. If we are to apply the parable in accordance with the order of thought, and, therefore, in conformity with the meaning intended by Jesus Himself, we cannot understand the coming of the and the execution of the punishment as denoting the second advent and the last judgment ; for, apart from the fact that it is God and not Christ that is represented by the , the words , . . ., would point to the period subsequent to the advent and the judgment, a reference not in keeping with the sense of the passage. The true reference is to the destruction of Jerusalem , the shape in which the divine judgment is to overtake the then guardians of the theocracy, whereupon this latter would be entrusted to the care of other guides ( i.e . the leaders of the Christian church as representing the true ), who as such will be called upon to undertake the duties and responsibilities of their unfaithful predecessors. Comp. Mat 22:7 ; Joh 7:34 ; Eph 4:11 f. Such are the things which those hostile questioners “ ” (Euthymius Zigabenus).
] refers to the : at the terms prescribed to them for doing so .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
40 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
Ver. 40. What will he do, &c. ] Nay, what will he not do? God will run upon them, even on their neck, upon the “thick bosses of their bucklers,”Job 15:26Job 15:26 . They that would kill their enemy, strike not where he can defend himself. But so doth God, he strikes through all, yea, through the loins, Deu 33:11 , even to the very soul, Jer 4:10 . This made Moses cry out, “Who knoweth the power of thine anger?” Psa 90:11 . Surely it is such, as none can either avoid or abide.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
40, 41. ] See Isa 5:5 . All means had been tried, and nothing but judgment was now left. Mark and Luke omit the important words , though Luke has given us the key to them, in telling us that the parable was spoken in the hearing of the people , who seem to have made the answer. Perhaps however the Pharisees (as suggested by Trench, Parables, in loco) may have made this answer, having missed , or (as Olshausen thinks, Biblisch. Comm. i. p. 793, and Stier, R. J. ii. 363) pretended to miss, the sense of the parable ; but from the strong , I incline to the former view. Whichever said it, it was a self-condemnation, similar to that in ch. Mat 27:25 : the last form , as Nitzsch finely remarks (cited by Stier, ib.), of the divine warnings to men, ‘when they themselves speak of the deeds which they are about to do, and pronounce judgment upon them.’ So striking, even up to the last moment, is the mysterious union of human free-will with divine foresight (see Act 2:23 ; Gen 1:20 ), that after all other warnings frustrated, the conscience of the sinner himself interposes to save him from his sin.
The expression . is one of the purest Greek: , Aristoph. Plut. 65, and indeed passim in the best writers.
] of a kind, who: would identify, classifies. They do not specify who , but only of what sort , the new tenants will be. The clause is peculiar to Matthew. We may observe that our Lord here makes coincide with the destruction of Jerusalem , which is incontestably the overthrow of the wicked husbandmen. This passage forms therefore an important key to our Lord’s prophecies, and a decisive justification for those who, like myself, firmly hold that the coming of the Lord is in many places to be identified, primarily, with that overthrow.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 21:40-46 . Application . ., etc.: what would you expect the owner to do after such ongoings have been reported to him? Observe the subjunctive after compared with the indicative after , Mat 21:34 . points to a definite time past, is indefinite ( vide Hermann, Viger , p. 437).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Cometh = shall have come.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
40, 41.] See Isa 5:5. All means had been tried, and nothing but judgment was now left. Mark and Luke omit the important words , though Luke has given us the key to them, in telling us that the parable was spoken in the hearing of the people, who seem to have made the answer. Perhaps however the Pharisees (as suggested by Trench, Parables, in loco) may have made this answer, having missed, or (as Olshausen thinks, Biblisch. Comm. i. p. 793, and Stier, R. J. ii. 363) pretended to miss, the sense of the parable; but from the strong , I incline to the former view. Whichever said it, it was a self-condemnation, similar to that in ch. Mat 27:25 : the last form, as Nitzsch finely remarks (cited by Stier, ib.), of the divine warnings to men, when they themselves speak of the deeds which they are about to do, and pronounce judgment upon them. So striking, even up to the last moment, is the mysterious union of human free-will with divine foresight (see Act 2:23; Gen 1:20), that after all other warnings frustrated, the conscience of the sinner himself interposes to save him from his sin.
The expression . is one of the purest Greek:- , Aristoph. Plut. 65, and indeed passim in the best writers.
] of a kind, who: would identify, classifies. They do not specify who, but only of what sort, the new tenants will be. The clause is peculiar to Matthew. We may observe that our Lord here makes coincide with the destruction of Jerusalem, which is incontestably the overthrow of the wicked husbandmen. This passage forms therefore an important key to our Lords prophecies, and a decisive justification for those who, like myself, firmly hold that the coming of the Lord is in many places to be identified, primarily, with that overthrow.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
what: Mar 12:9, Luk 20:15, Luk 20:16, Heb 10:29
Reciprocal: Isa 5:3 – judge Mat 22:7 – he was Joh 11:48 – and the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
0-41
Jesus asked the hearers for their opinion of the case. Still thinking of some literal case of earthly relationship, they answered correctly as to what would happen to such husband men.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 21:40. When therefore the lord, etc. The question is asked, that they may be warned and condemned out of their own mouth. Matthew is fuller here than Mark and Luke.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, At the first mentioning of the parable, the Pharisees express a bitter indignation against such wicked servants, not considering what a dreadful sentence they passed upon themselves and their own nation. Little did they think, that thereby they condemned their temple to be burnt, their city to be destroyed, their country to be ruined; but in these words they vindicate God, they condemn themselves, and own the justice of God, in inflicting the severest punishments on them.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 21:40-41. When the Lord cometh Armed with a power which they will be utterly unable to resist, What will he do unto these husbandmen Who had been so treacherous and cruel? With a view to their stronger conviction, he refers it to themselves to judge in this case. For Gods proceedings are so unexceptionable, there needs only an appeal to sinners themselves concerning the equity of them. They say, (for how could they with any decency say otherwise?) He will miserably destroy these wicked men , he will put those wretches to a wretched death: (So Campbell:) and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen. Thus, before they were aware, they condemned themselves, and signified that their privileges and blessings would be taken from them, the governors of their church and commonwealth destroyed, and the Gentiles taken to be Gods people in their stead: an interpretation of the parable which our Lord immediately confirmed, Luk 20:16; when they replied with apparent seriousness, God forbid.