Luke 19:45-20:18

New American Standard Bible

Traders Driven from the Temple

^45 (A)And Jesus entered the temple grounds and began to drive out those who were selling, ⁴⁶ saying to them, “It is written: ‘^(B)And My house will be a house of prayer,’ ^(C)but you have made it a den of robbers.”

⁴⁷ And ^(D)He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people ^(E)were trying to put Him to death, ⁴⁸ and yet they could not find ^[a]anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to ^[b]every word He said.

Jesus’ Authority Questioned

20 ^(F)On one of the days while ^(G)He was teaching the people in the temple and ^(H)preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders ^(I)confronted Him, ² and they declared, saying to Him, “Tell us by what authority You are doing these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?” ³ But He replied to them, “I will also ask you a ^[c]question, and you tell Me: ⁴ Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” ⁵ They discussed among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us to death, since they are convinced that John was a ^(J)prophet.” ⁷ And so they answered that they did not know where it came from. ⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Neither am I telling you by what authority I do these things.”

Parable of the Vine-growers

^9 (K)But He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and leased it to ^[d]vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. ¹⁰ At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him his share of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ And he proceeded to send another slave; but they beat him also and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. ¹² And he proceeded to send a third; but this one too they wounded and threw out. ¹³ Now the ^[e]owner of the vineyard said, ‘What am I to do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will ^(L)respect him.’ ¹⁴ But when the vine-growers saw him, they discussed with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let’s kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ ¹⁵ And so they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the ^[f]owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶ He will come and ^(M)put these vine-growers to death, and will give the vineyard to others.” However, when they heard this, they said, “^(N)May it never happen!” ¹⁷ But ^[g]Jesus looked at them and said, “Then what is this statement that has been written:

^18 (Q)Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will crush him.”