Chapter Twelve
And he began to speak to them in parables,
“A man planted a vineyard and put a fence round it and dug a wine vat and built a tower and let it out to farmers and left the country.
“And at the season he sent a servant to the farmers so that he might receive from the fruit of the vineyard from the farmers. But they, having taken him, beat him and sent him away empty. And again he sent another servant to them, and having stoned him they hit him on the head, and sent him away after insulting him. And again he sent another and they killed him, and many others, beating some and killing others. Therefore having yet one son, his beloved, he sent him also to them last, saying, ‘They will have respect for my son.’
“But those farmers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir, come let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours!’
“And having taken him they killed him and threw him outside the vineyard.
“What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He’ll come and destroy the farmers and will give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you even read this scripture? ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become at the head of the corner, this was from the Lord, and it’s wonderful in our eyes.’”
And they sought to lay hold of him, and they were afraid of the crowd, for they knew that he is telling the parable against them. And leaving him they went away.
And they send to him some of the Pharisees and of the Herodians so that they might catch him out in his words. And having come they say to him,
“Teacher, we know that you are true, and care for no one, for you don’t look on the surface of men but you teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Should we give or shouldn’t we give?”
But he, seeing their hypocrisy said to them,
“Why are you tempting me? Bring me a penny so that I may see.”
And they brought. And he says to them,
“Whose is this image and the inscription?”
And they said to him,
“Caesar’s!”
And answering, Jesus said to them,
“Pay to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s!”
And they were amazed at him.
And there come to him Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection. And they questioned him saying,
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if someone’s brother dies and leaves behind a wife, and doesn’t leave children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up seed for his brother. There were seven brothers, and the first took a wife and, dying, left no seed, and the second took her and he died, and he didn’t leave seed either, and similarly the third. And the seven took her and left no seed. Last of all the woman died too. So, in the resurrection, when they rise, of them whose wife will she be? Because the seven had her as a wife.”
And answering, Jesus said to them,
“Aren’t you misled because you don’t know the scriptures, nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven.
“But about the dead, that they rise, haven’t you read in the book of Moses, how God spoke to him in the bush saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He isn’t the God of the dead, but the God of the living! So you are greatly mistaken.”
And having come up, one of the scribes, having heard them debating, seeing that he answered them well, questioned him,
“Which is the first commandment of all?”
And Jesus answered him,
“The first of all the commandments: ‘Hear Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength!’ This commandment is first. And the second is similar, this: ‘You shall love your neighbour like yourself!’ There is not another commandment greater than these.”
And the scribe said to him,
“Teacher, you’ve said well according to truth: that God is one and there is no other except him, and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love the neighbour like oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And Jesus, seeing that he answered judiciously, said to him,
“You are not far from the kingdom of God!”
And no one dared question him any more.
And teaching in the temple Jesus said, answering,
“How do the scribes say that Christ is the Son of David? For David himself said in the Holy Spirit - The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand till I place your enemies a footstool for your feet’ - David himself therefore calls him Lord, and how is he his son?”
And the large crowd listened to him happily.
And he said to them in his teaching,
“Watch out for the scribes who like walking about in robes, and greetings in the market-places, and the most important seats in the synagogues and the best places at the dinners, who consume widows’ houses and for appearances pray at great length. These will receive greater condemnation.”
And Jesus, having sat down opposite the treasury, saw how the crowd threw money into the treasury, and many rich people were putting in a lot. And having come, one poor widow threw in two lepta which is a quarter of a penny . And having called to his disciples he says to them,
“Truly I’m telling you that this poor widow has put in more than all of those casting into the treasury. For all cast in out of their abundance, but she, out of her destitution put in all that she had: her whole livelihood.”
