Mark 11:27-12:17
New American Standard Bible
Jesus’ Authority Questioned
27 And they *came again to Jerusalem. (A)And as He was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders *came to Him, 28 and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?” 29 But Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” 31 And they began considering the implications among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 32 But should we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of the [a]people, for they all considered John to have been a real prophet. 33 Answering Jesus, they *said, “We do not know.” And Jesus *said to them, “Neither am I telling you by what authority I do these things.”
Parable of the Vine-growers
12 (B)And He began to speak to them in parables: “(C)A man (D)planted a vineyard and put a [b]fence around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and leased it to [c]vine-growers and went on a journey. 2 And at the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive his share of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. 3 And they took him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 4 And again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. 6 He had one more man to send, a beloved son; he sent him to them last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ 8 And they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the [d]owner of the vineyard do? He will come and put the vine-growers to death, and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not even read this Scripture:
‘(E)A stone which the builders rejected,
This has become the [e]chief cornerstone;
11 (F)This came about from the Lord,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 (G)And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the [f]people, for they understood that He told the parable against them. And so (H)they left Him and went away.
Jesus Answers the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes
13 (I)Then they *sent some of the Pharisees and (J)Herodians to Him in order to (K)trap Him in a statement. 14 They came and *said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and [g]do not care what anyone thinks; for You [h]are not partial to anyone, but You teach the way of God in truth. Is it [i]permissible to pay a [j]poll-tax to Caesar, or not? 15 Are we to pay, or not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a [k]denarius to look at.” 16 And they brought one. And He *said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.” 17 And Jesus said to them, “(L)Pay to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at Him.
Footnotes
- Mark 11:32 Lit crowd
- Mark 12:1 Or hedge
- Mark 12:1 Or tenant farmers, also vv 2, 7, 9
- Mark 12:9 Lit lord
- Mark 12:10 Lit head of the corner
- Mark 12:12 Lit crowd
- Mark 12:14 Lit it is not a concern to You about anyone
- Mark 12:14 Lit do not look at the face of people
- Mark 12:14 I.e., by Jewish law and tradition
- Mark 12:14 I.e., a tax on each person in the census
- Mark 12:15 The denarius was a day’s wages for a laborer
Mark 11:27-12:17
New Living Translation
The Authority of Jesus Challenged
27 Again they entered Jerusalem. As Jesus was walking through the Temple area, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders came up to him. 28 They demanded, “By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right to do them?”
29 “I’ll tell you by what authority I do these things if you answer one question,” Jesus replied. 30 “Did John’s authority to baptize come from heaven, or was it merely human? Answer me!”
31 They talked it over among themselves. “If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn’t believe John. 32 But do we dare say it was merely human?” For they were afraid of what the people would do, because everyone believed that John was a prophet. 33 So they finally replied, “We don’t know.”
And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Parable of the Evil Farmers
12 Then Jesus began teaching them with stories: “A man planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. 2 At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. 3 But the farmers grabbed the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed. 4 The owner then sent another servant, but they insulted him and beat him over the head. 5 The next servant he sent was killed. Others he sent were either beaten or killed, 6 until there was only one left—his son whom he loved dearly. The owner finally sent him, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’
7 “But the tenant farmers said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ 8 So they grabbed him and murdered him and threw his body out of the vineyard.
9 “What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do?” Jesus asked. “I’ll tell you—he will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others. 10 Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.
11 This is the Lord’s doing,
and it is wonderful to see.’[a]”
12 The religious leaders[b] wanted to arrest Jesus because they realized he was telling the story against them—they were the wicked farmers. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.
Taxes for Caesar
13 Later the leaders sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. 14 “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay them, or shouldn’t we?”
Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin,[c] and I’ll tell you.” 16 When they handed it to him, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
17 “Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”
His reply completely amazed them.
Footnotes
- 12:10-11 Ps 118:22-23.
- 12:12 Greek They.
- 12:15 Greek a denarius.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
