Chapter 20

Lk. 20:1–8. On one of those days, as he was teaching the people in the temple, and preaching the gospel, the priests and the scribes came upon him together with the elders, and spoke to him, saying, Tell us, by what authority do you these things? or who is it that gave you this authority? He answered and said to them, I too will ask you one question; and answer me: Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? And they reasoned among themselves, saying, If we say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did you not believe him? But if we say, From men; all the people will stone us: for they are convinced that John was a prophet. So they answered that they did not know where it was from. And Jesus said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Having entered Jerusalem in glory, the Lord makes a proof of his own authority in cleansing his Father’s house of them that made merchandise—although he had done this also at the beginning of his preaching, as John says; and now again he does it a second time, which tends also to the greater accusation of the Jews, that not even by his former boldness were they brought to soberness, but persisted in their merchandising, and called him an adversary of God who thus honoured the Father and God, even to cleansing his house of them that made merchandise. Wherefore also he brings against them Isaiah as accuser, saying, My house shall be called the house of prayer. But they senselessly ask him, By what authority do you these things? And yet it was open to them to consider that, since he brought forward a prophetic saying witnessing that the house of God is a house of prayer, not a market and a den of thieves—for covetousness and merchandising is a thievish thing—what further need was there to ask him by what authority he does these things? For it was ready to reason that God commands these things through the prophet. But they ask, By what authority do you these things? The law, they say, committed the ordering of the temple to those descended from Levi; you, not being descended from the Levitical tribe, how do you these things, and seize the priestly offices? But remember, O Jews, David saying, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. And Melchizedek is called a priest; yet Melchizedek was not a priest according to the law, nor of the Levitical tribe. For how could he be, who was so much older than Levi? And besides, why do you seek in Christ the order of the law? God is not subject to laws. He commanded, when it was the season, that the priests be of the Levitical tribe; now he transposes this law, and prefers the priesthood of Melchizedek. Wherefore also he casts out them that sold and bought the animals for sacrifice, such as sheep and doves; together with procuring also seemliness and decorum for the temple, and showing further this also, that it is no longer needful to believe that God is propitiated by the sacrifices of animals. It was, then, ready for the Lord to answer them, as has been said, and to say that the prophet—or rather God—enjoins these things; yet, that he might show them that they always resist the Holy Ghost, and that not only to Isaiah the ancient prophet, perhaps fallen into oblivion among them, but even to John who had appeared but yesterday, the contestant who was nearly fleshless, they would not believe—for this cause he asks them in return this admirable question, by which he both stops their mouths, and shows us that, if they believed not John so great a prophet, who seemed greater than himself, and bore witness concerning him, how would they have believed him answering them by what authority he does these things? For whatever he had said, they would surely have been able to slander it and spit upon it, just as they spat also upon the words of John, the more glorious among them.

Lk. 20:9–16. Then he began to tell the people this parable: A certain man planted a vineyard, and leased it out to tenant farmers, and went away for a long time. And at the proper season he sent a servant to the farmers, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard: but the farmers beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent another servant: and they beat that one too, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent a third: and they wounded this one also, and threw him out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: perhaps they will respect him when they see him. But when the farmers saw him, they discussed it among themselves, saying, This is the heir: let us kill him, so that the inheritance may become ours. So they threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these farmers, and give the vineyard to others. Brief indeed is this parable, yet it teaches us many and great things: the providence of God, which he so abundantly bestowed upon—rather, displayed toward—the Hebrews; their murderousness from the beginning; that the God of both the Old and the New is one; that the Gentiles should be brought in; that the Jews should be cast off. The vineyard, then, is this Synagogue of the Jews; the husbandmen are the scribes and Pharisees, the chief men and overseers of the people; or else each one of us is himself both vineyard and husbandman, for each of us tills his own self. This vineyard, then, the lover of mankind let forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country—that is, he left them to walk as self-determining. And he sent various servants, the prophets I mean, that he might have some small gain. For of the fruit, he says, he willed to receive—not all the fruit; for what does God gain from us, save the knowledge of himself? And this too is our own gain; yet he makes our salvation and our gain his own concern. But the wicked husbandmen insulted them that were sent, beating them, together with sending them away empty—that is, they came to such a pitch of folly that they not only turned aside from the good, and gave no good fruit, but also wrought wickedness, which is worthy of greater punishment. The prophets, then, having so suffered the most dreadful things, the Son is sent. For it may be, he says, they will reverence my Son. And this he said, not as ignorant of what should be, and that they would rather treat him worse than the prophets, but saying that which ought to have come to pass; for they ought to have reverenced him. And if they did not so reverence him, but even killed him, this tends to their greater accusation, that even after God had declared that it was good so to come to pass, and to reverence him, they cast the contrary vote. And such an idiom is found in many places of Scripture, as the saying, If so be they will hearken. For neither there, being ignorant of what should be, does he say this, but that none may say that the foreknowledge of God necessarily became the cause of the disobedience; for this cause he so shapes his words. And casting the Son out of the vineyard, they killed him: it is ready, then, to say, outside Jerusalem; for outside the gate Christ suffered. But since above we took the vineyard to be the people, not Jerusalem, perhaps it is more fitting to say that the people killed him, but outside the vineyard—that is, not themselves becoming with their own hand the workers of his death, but having delivered him to Pilate and the Gentiles. Outside the vineyard, therefore, that is, outside the hands of the people, the Lord suffered; for it was not lawful for them to kill any man; yet by soldiers’ hands he died. But some understood the vineyard to be the Scripture; outside the Scriptures, then, the Lord suffered—that is, they that believed not Moses, these killed him. For if they believed Moses, and were searching the Scriptures, they would not have killed the Lord of the Scriptures. Having said these things, he adds also the sentence which he will bring forth against them, that he will let out the vineyard to others—that is, he will give to others this grace, to be called my people. And observe that they who say the Scripture to be the vineyard seem rather to hit the mark, as taking it hence from the Hebrews. And one might say boldly that all things, whether they lay in laws, or in deeds and histories…

Lk. 20:17–19. But when they heard it, they said, God forbid. And he looked at them, and said, What then is this that is written, The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. And the chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him that very hour; but they feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken this parable against them. Luke, as you hear, says that the Lord said the master of the vineyard will destroy the thankless husbandmen, and will let out the vineyard to others; which the Pharisees hearing, said, God forbid. But Matthew tells it otherwise: for he says the Lord asked, What will the lord of the vineyard do to those husbandmen? and the Jews answering said, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out the vineyard to others. Is there then a contradiction? Away with the thought. For it is likely both came to pass: and according to Matthew those very men brought forth the sentence, and then, perceiving where the parable tended, and that it was spoken because of them, again said this which Luke now reports, God forbid. What then does Christ do? He adds also another testimony from David, naming himself a stone, and the builders their teachers—even as Ezekiel says, They build the wall, and daub it with untempered mortar—that is, they that speak the things that please, and conceal the faults of the people, and as it were plaster over superficially the rottenness of the people, as of some wall. And how did they reject this stone? By saying, This man is not of God. And two destructions he here speaks of: one, that of their own souls, which they themselves suffered, being made to stumble—for whoever falls upon this stone shall be broken; and another, that from the captivity which the stone brought upon them, the stone set at nought by them. For on whomever, he says, it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. Thus then were the Jews ground to powder, and scattered, like chaff from one threshing-floor, that of Judæa, into all the world. And observe that first those men fell upon the stone—that is, were made to stumble—and then thus the stone fell upon them and punished them; for my sin goes before, and then thus comes the righteous punishment of God upon me. But the Jews rejected this stone; yet it was so good and choice that it was set for the head of the corner, and joined and knit together two walls, both the old things and the new. And yet they ought to have heard Isaiah saying, Sanctify him as Lord, and he shall be to you a fear, and you shall not meet him as at the stumbling of a stone, nor as at the falling of a rock. But they, even knowing that he spoke the parable because of them, take counsel against him; and had it not been for the fear of the people, they would have laid hands on him. And though the law says, You shall not slay the innocent and righteous, they disregarded it, but the wrath of men they fear, and are restrained from open assault, yet plot against him otherwise.

Lk. 20:20–26. And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him to the power and authority of the governor. And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that you say and teach rightly, neither do you accept the person of any, but teach the way of God truly: Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Cæsar, or no? But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, Why tempt you me? Show me a penny. Whose image and superscription has it? They answered and said, Cæsar’s. And he said to them, Render therefore to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they could not take hold of his words before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace. A snare hard to escape the Pharisees prepared for the Lord, as they thought; but their own foot was caught in it. For see their malice. If he should say, they reason, that tribute must be given to Cæsar, he is to be accused before the people as subjecting the nation to bondage, it being the seed of Abraham, which had served no man; but if he should forbid the giving of tribute, again they would bring him to the governor as a seditious man. But he escapes their nooses like a roe—for so the bride named him in the Song—and teaches that to be subject bodily to him that has authority over our bodies, whether king or tyrant, in no way harms us as to pleasing God, the God of spirits, in a spiritual manner. Render, he says, to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And observe, he said not Give, but Render. It is a debt, he says; render therefore the debt. Your ruler guards you from enemies, makes your life peaceable; you owe him therefore the tribute in return for these things; and besides, that very thing which you offer—that is, the coin—you have from him himself. The king’s coin, therefore, render again to him. And in the meanwhile you have gained by dealing with it, and by using it for the needs of life; even as, of course, the things of God must also be rendered to God. He has given you mind; render it to him by working according to mind. He has given you reason; render it to him, not making yourself like the senseless beasts, but doing all things as a rational being. And simply he has given you soul and body; render all to him, and restore his image to him, walking by faith, by hope, by love. And indeed in another way also one must render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s; for each of us bears either the image of God, or that of the ruler of this world. When, therefore, we make ourselves like Cæsar, becoming sons of the devil, we bear his image, which must be rendered to him and cast away, that he may have his own, and find nothing of his own in us; for thus also the image of God may be kept unmingled in us. Wherefore Paul exhorts, As we have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly. And elsewhere, Putting off the old man. That which here is said to render, this in Paul is to put off; and that which here is the image of Cæsar, this there is the image of the earthy—of the sinner altogether, of Adam and the old man. For the image of the earthy is nothing else than the corruption and the sin which we have, being made like to the apostate, and not to the king. The Pharisees, then, could not take hold of Jesus before the people; for that which was chiefly their study was this, to slander him before the people as enslaving the nation to the Romans, which they could not accomplish because of his exceeding wise answer.

Lk. 20:27–40. Then some of the Sadducees, which deny that there is a resurrection, came to him and questioned him, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us, that if a man’s brother die, having a wife, and he die childless, his brother should take the wife, and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers: and the first took a wife, and died childless. And the second took her to wife, and he died childless. And the third took her; and likewise all seven: and they left no children, and died. Last of all the woman died too. So in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? for all seven had her as wife. And Jesus answered them, The children of this age marry, and are given in marriage: but those who are considered worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: for they can no longer die: since they are like the angels; and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for to him all are alive. And some of the scribes answered and said, Teacher, you have spoken well. And they no longer dared to ask him anything. Having laid a rotten foundation for themselves, the Sadducees disbelieved the words concerning the resurrection. For supposing that there would be a bodily manner of life in the resurrection, fittingly they erred; wherefore also, slandering the doctrine of the resurrection as absurd, they fabricate this senseless tale. The Lord, then, having shaken their foundation, and shown that there is no bodily manner of life, then immediately, together with this rotten foundation and supposition, pulled down their doctrine, saying, You err, not knowing the Scriptures, but misconstruing their meaning. For the children of this world, they that beget and are begotten in this world, marry, and are given in marriage—that is, are bestowed in marriages; but the children of that world have nothing of the kind, for neither can they die any more; wherefore neither are the things of marriage there, but an angelic and divine manner of life. For here, since there is death, therefore there is marriage; and since there is marriage, therefore there is death. But there, death being abolished, what need of marriage? For marriage is a help against mortality, and a filling up of what is lacking; but where nothing is lacking, what need of that which fills up? They are equal to the angels, therefore, and sons of God. Why? Because they are sons of the resurrection. And what he says is of this kind: I called them, he says, sons of God, because nothing bodily is seen in their begetting, but all things divine; for neither does intercourse go before, nor seed, nor womb, nor conception in the resurrection, but it is God who begets our bodies by words which he knows. Since, then, it is God who works in the resurrection, fittingly they that are born again of the resurrection are called sons of God. And he brings to his reasonings also a scriptural testimony. For Moses says that God said to him out of the bush, I am the God of Abraham, and the rest. And if the patriarchs had once for all perished, and did not live with God in the hope of the resurrection, he would not have said, I am, but, I was. For this we are wont to say of things corrupted and vanished: I was the master of such a thing. But now, saying, I am, he showed that he is the Master and God of the living, and not at all of them that are utterly corrupted. For though they be dead, yet by the hope of rising again they live; even as Adam too, though he lived, was nevertheless mortal, and from that very hour in which he ate is said to die. And the Sadducees being thus put to shame, the scribes received Jesus, as the rival of the Sadducees, being pleased at their defeat.

Lk. 20:41–47. And he said to them, How is it that they say Christ is David’s son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. David therefore calls him Lord, how then is he his son? Then, in the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples, Beware of the scribes, who like to walk about in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets; who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers: these will receive greater condemnation. Being about, as it were now, to come to the passion, he proclaims his own Godhead, and not even this openly and boastfully, but very modestly. For he asks them, and, having led them into perplexity, leaves them to reason out the consequence. For David, he says, calls him Lord, and how is he his mere son? For he is indeed David’s son according to the flesh, but is also his God; whereas they thought him only this, the son of David. Wherefore he overturns this opinion of theirs, that he is the mere son of David; and he makes it plain also that he is not set against the Father, but has much concord with him, seeing that the Father subdues his enemies for him. These things, then, to the scribes. But since he sent the disciples as teachers of the world, fittingly he exhorts them not to imitate the vainglorious and ambitious mind of the Pharisees, which is simply worldly and man-pleasing. For to practise greetings in the markets is the part of them that flatter those they meet, and hunt after a reputation of good character, or set this as a pretext for the gathering of money. But also they devour widows’ houses, he says, gorging themselves, and consuming beyond what is needful; and the pretext is one of piety. For making a pretext of prayer and profit to the soul, they teach not fasting, but drunkenness and gluttony, and for this cause they shall receive, he says, greater damnation, because they not only do the evil, but also make a pretext of prayers. And their outward appearance is pious, and they make virtue a pretext for wickedness. Wherefore indeed they are the more to be condemned, as making the good itself to be slandered. For they ought to have mercy on the widows; but they enter into their houses as though to bless them through their long prayers; and the widows are constrained to spend at their coming, and so are consumed.