Chronological

22 Yeshua again used parables in speaking to them: ² “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son, ³ but when he sent his slaves to summon the invited guests to the wedding, they refused to come. ⁴ So he sent some more slaves, instructing them to tell the guests, ‘Look, I’ve prepared my banquet, I’ve slaughtered my bulls and my fattened cattle, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding!’ ⁵ But they weren’t interested and went off, one to his farm, another to his business; ⁶ and the rest grabbed his slaves, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was furious and sent his soldiers, who killed those murderers and burned down their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his slaves, ‘Well, the wedding feast is ready; but the ones who were invited didn’t deserve it. ⁹ So go out to the street-corners and invite to the banquet as many as you find.’ ¹⁰ The slaves went out into the streets, gathered all the people they could find, the bad along with the good; and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “Now when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who wasn’t dressed for a wedding; so he asked him, ¹² ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. ¹³ Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him outside in the dark!’ In that place people will wail and grind their teeth, ¹⁴ for many are invited, but few are chosen.”

¹⁵ Then the P’rushim went away and put together a plan to trap Yeshua with his own words. ¹⁶ They sent him some of their talmidim and some members of Herod’s party. They said, “Rabbi, we know that you tell the truth and really teach what God’s way is. You aren’t concerned with what other people think about you, since you pay no attention to a person’s status. ¹⁷ So tell us your opinion: does Torah permit paying taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?” ¹⁸ Yeshua, however, knowing their malicious intent, said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Show me the coin used to pay the tax!” They brought him a denarius; ²⁰ and he asked them, “Whose name and picture are these?” ²¹ “The Emperor’s,” they replied. Yeshua said to them, “Nu, give the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor. And give to God what belongs to God!” ²² On hearing this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

²³ That same day, some Tz’dukim came to him. They are the ones who say there is no such thing as resurrection, so they put to him a sh’eilah: ²⁴ “Rabbi, Moshe said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother must marry his widow and have children to preserve the man’s family line.’^{[a] 25} There were seven brothers. The first one married and then died; and since he had no children, he left his widow to his brother. ²⁶ The same thing happened to the second brother, and the third, and finally to all seven. ²⁷ After them all, the woman died. ²⁸ Now in the Resurrection — of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all married her.”

²⁹ Yeshua answered them, “The reason you go astray is that you are ignorant both of the Tanakh and of the power of God. ³⁰ For in the Resurrection, neither men nor women will marry; rather, they will be like angels in heaven. ³¹ And as for whether the dead are resurrected, haven’t you read what God said to you, ³² ‘I am the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov’?^[b] He is God not of the dead but of the living!”

³³ When the crowds heard how he taught, they were astounded; ³⁴ but when the P’rushim learned that he had silenced the Tz’dukim, they got together, ³⁵ and one of them who was a Torah expert asked a sh’eilah to trap him: ³⁶ “Rabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?” ³⁷ He told him, “‘You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’^{[c] 38} This is the greatest and most important mitzvah. ³⁹ And a second is similar to it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[d] 40} All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot.”

⁴¹ Then, turning to the assembled P’rushim, Yeshua put a sh’eilah to them: ⁴² “Tell me your view concerning the Messiah: whose son is he?” They said to him, “David’s.” ⁴³ “Then how is it,” he asked them, “that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord,’ when he says,

⁴⁵ If David thus calls him ‘Lord,’ how is he his son?” ⁴⁶ No one could think of anything to say in reply; and from that day on, no one dared put to him another sh’eilah.

12 Yeshua began speaking to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower; then he rented it to tenant-farmers and left. ² When harvest-time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the crop from the vineyard. ³ But they took him, beat him up and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ So he sent another servant; this one they punched in the head and insulted. ⁵ He sent another one, and him they killed; and so with many others — some they beat up, others they killed. ⁶ He had still one person left, a son whom he loved; in the end, he sent him to them, saying, ‘My son they will respect.’ ⁷ But the tenants said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ ⁸ So they seized him, killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others! ¹⁰ Haven’t you read the passage in the Tanakh that says,

¹² They set about to arrest him, for they recognized that he had told the parable with reference to themselves. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

¹³ Next they sent some P’rushim and some members of Herod’s party to him in order to trap him with a sh’eilah. ¹⁴ They came and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you tell the truth and are not concerned with what people think about you, since you pay no attention to a person’s status but really teach what God’s way is. Does Torah say that taxes are to be paid to the Roman Emperor, or not?” ¹⁵ But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you trying to trap me? Bring me a denarius so I can look at it.” ¹⁶ They brought one; and he asked them, “Whose name and picture are these?” “The Emperor’s,” they replied. ¹⁷ Yeshua said, “Give the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor. And give to God what belongs to God!” And they were amazed at him.

¹⁸ Then some Tz’dukim came to him. They are the ones who say there is no such thing as resurrection, so they put to him a sh’eilah: ¹⁹ “Rabbi, Moshe wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and have children to preserve the man’s family line.^{[b] 20} There were seven brothers. The first one took a wife, and when he died, he left no children. ²¹ Then the second one took her and died without leaving children, and the third likewise, ²² and none of the seven left children. Last of all, the woman also died. ²³ In the Resurrection, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife.”

²⁴ Yeshua said to them, “Isn’t this the reason that you go astray? because you are ignorant both of the Tanakh and of the power of God? ²⁵ For when people rise from the dead, neither men nor women marry — they are like angels in heaven. ²⁶ And as for the dead being raised, haven’t you read in the book of Moshe, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov’?^{[c] 27} He is God not of the dead, but of the living! You are going far astray!”

²⁸ One of the Torah-teachers came up and heard them engaged in this discussion. Seeing that Yeshua answered them well, he asked him, “Which is the most important mitzvah of them all?” ²⁹ Yeshua answered, “The most important is,

³¹ The second is this:

There is no other mitzvah greater than these.” ³² The Torah-teacher said to him, “Well said, Rabbi; you speak the truth when you say that he is one, and that there is no other besides him; ³³ and that loving him with all one’s heart, understanding and strength, and loving one’s neighbor as oneself, mean more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ When Yeshua saw that he responded sensibly, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared put to him another sh’eilah.

³⁵ As Yeshua was teaching in the Temple, he asked, “How is it that the Torah-teachers say the Messiah is the Son of David? ³⁶ David himself, inspired by the Ruach HaKodesh, said,

³⁷ David himself calls him ‘Lord’; so how is he his son?”

The great crowd listened eagerly to him. ³⁸ As he taught them, he said, “Watch out for the kind of Torah-teachers who like to walk around in robes and be greeted deferentially in the marketplaces, ³⁹ who like to have the best seats in the synagogues and take the places of honor at banquets, ⁴⁰ who like to swallow up widows’ houses while making a show of davvening at great length. Their punishment will be all the worse!”

⁴¹ Then Yeshua sat down opposite the Temple treasury and watched the crowd as they put money into the offering-boxes. Many rich people put in large sums, ⁴² but a poor widow came and put in two small coins. ⁴³ He called his talmidim to him and said to them, “Yes! I tell you, this poor widow has put more in the offering-box than all the others making donations. ⁴⁴ For all of them, out of their wealth, have contributed money they can easily spare; but she, out of her poverty, has given everything she had to live on.”