Luke 20:1-47
20 On one of the days while he was teaching the people in the temple and declaring the good news, the chief priests and the scribes with the older men came near,+
2 and they spoke up, saying to him: “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.”+
3 In reply he said to them: “I will also ask YOU a question, and YOU tell me:+
4 Was the baptism* of John from heaven or from men?”+
5 Then among themselves they drew conclusions, saying: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why is it YOU did not believe him?’+
6 But if we say, ‘From men,’ the people one and all will stone us,+ for they are persuaded that John+ was a prophet.”+
7 So they replied that they did not know its source.
8 And Jesus said to them: “Neither am I telling YOU by what authority I do these things.”+
9 Then he started to tell the people this illustration: “A man planted a vineyard+ and let it out to cultivators, and he traveled abroad for considerable time.+
10 But in due season he sent out a slave+ to the cultivators,+ that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.+ The cultivators, however, sent him away empty,+ after beating him up.
11 But he repeated and sent them a different slave. That one also they beat up and dishonored and sent away empty.+
12 Yet again he sent a third;+ this one also they wounded and threw out.
13 At this the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son the beloved.+ Likely they will respect this one.’
14 When the cultivators caught sight of him they went reasoning with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may become ours.’+
15 With that they threw him outside+ the vineyard and killed+ him. What, therefore, will the owner of the vineyard do to them?+
16 He will come and destroy these cultivators and will give the vineyard to others.”+
On hearing [this] they said: “Never may that happen!”
17 But he looked upon them and said: “What, then, does this that is written mean, ‘The stone which the builders rejected,+ this has become the chief cornerstone’?+
18 Everyone falling upon that stone will be shattered.+ As for anyone upon whom it falls,+ it will pulverize him.”+
19 The scribes and the chief priests now sought to get their hands on him in that very hour, but they feared the people; for they perceived that he spoke this illustration with them in mind.+
20 And, after observing him closely, they sent out men secretly hired to pretend that they were righteous, in order that they might catch+ him in speech, so as to turn him over to the government and to the authority of the governor.+
21 And they questioned him, saying: “Teacher, we know you speak and teach correctly and show no partiality, but you teach the way of God in line with truth:+
22 Is it lawful for us to pay tax to Caesar* or not?”+
23 But he detected their cunning and said to them:+
24 “Show me a de·narʹi·us.* Whose image and inscription does it have?” They said: “Caesar’s.”+
25 He said to them: “By all means, then, pay back Caesar’s things to Caesar,+ but God’s things to God.”+
26 Well, they were not able to catch him in this saying before the people, but, in amazement at his answer, they said nothing.+
27 However, some of the Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came up+ and questioned him,
28 saying: “Teacher, Moses+ wrote us, ‘If a man’s brother dies having a wife, but this one remained childless, his brother+ should take the wife and raise up offspring from her for his brother.’+
29 Accordingly there were seven brothers; and the first took a wife and died childless.+
30 So the second,
31 and the third took her. Likewise even the seven: they did not leave children behind, but died off.+
32 Lastly, the woman also died.+
33 Consequently, in the resurrection,* of which one of them does she become [the] wife? For the seven got her as wife.”+
34 Jesus said to them: “The children of this system of things* marry+ and are given in marriage,
35 but those who have been counted worthy+ of gaining that system of things+ and the resurrection from the dead+ neither marry nor are given in marriage.
36 In fact, neither can they die+ anymore, for they are like the angels, and they are God’s children* by being children of the resurrection.+
37 But that the dead are raised up even Moses disclosed, in the account about the thornbush,+ when he calls Jehovah* ‘the God of Abraham* and God of Isaac and God of Jacob.’+
38 He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living, for they are all living to him.”*+
39 In response some of the scribes said: “Teacher, you spoke well.”
40 For no longer did they have the courage to ask him a single question.
41 In turn he said to them: “How is it they say that the Christ is David’s son?+
42 For David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘Jehovah* said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand
43 until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet.’+
44 David, therefore, calls him ‘Lord’; so how is he his son?”
45 Then, while all the people were listening he said to the disciples:+
46 “Look out for the scribes who desire to walk around in robes and like greetings in the marketplaces* and front seats in the synagogues and most prominent places at evening meals,+
47 and who devour the houses of the widows+ and for a pretext make long prayers. These will receive a heavier judgment.”+
Footnotes
^ Or, “immersion; dipping.” Gr., baʹpti·sma.
^ Or, “to the emperor.” Gr., Kaiʹsa·ri; Lat., Caeʹsa·ri.
^ A Roman silver coin that weighed 3.85 g (0.124 oz t).
^ “Resurrection.” Gr., a·na·staʹsei, “raising up; standing up” (from a·naʹ, “up,” and staʹsis, “standing”); Lat., re·sur·rec·ti·oʹne.
^ Or, “order of things.” Gr., ai·oʹnos; Lat., saeʹcu·li; J17,18,22(Heb.), ha·ʽoh·lamʹ, “the order of things.”
^ “Children.” Or, “sons.”
^ See App 1D.
^ Or, “when he says: ‘Jehovah the God of Abraham.’ ”
^ Or, “living from his standpoint.”
^ See App 1D.
