Matthew
21:33-46
- Reading the Text:
- NRSV (with link to Anglicized NRSV) at Oremus Bible Browser.
- Greek Interlinear Bible, ScrTR, ScrTR t, Strong, Parsing, CGTS, CGES id, AV.
- The Bible Gateway: NIV, NASB, CEV, The Message, KJV, etc.
- The Blue Letter Bible. KJV, alternate versions, Greek text with concordance, commentaries.
- The World Wide Study Bible includes commentary & sermons.
- Historical References, Commentary and
Comparative Texts:
- The Five Gospels Parallels, John W. Marshall, University of Toronto.
- Comparative texts about Pharisees & Sadducees from Josephus, Tosefta, Mishnah & Babylonian Talmud. At (Rutgers University Dept of Religion) Mahlon H. Smith's Into His Own: Perspective on the World of Jesus companion to the historical study of Christian texts.
- XXXIII.40, 42, 46-47, 50, 52-60; Tatian's Diatessaron (c. 150-160).
- IV.XXXVI.1, Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus of Lyons. (c. 180)
- Chapter XXXII, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, Tertullian (c. 211)
- Chapter XXVI, Against Praxeas, Tertullian (c. 213)
- I.23, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Origen. (c.228)
- X.16, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Philocalia [anthology of Origen prepared by St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen], Origen. (c.230)
- IV.XLII, Against Celsus, Origen. (c.246)
- X.6, X.23, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Origen. (c.247)
- Homily LXVIII - Matthew 21:33-44, Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew, St. Chrysostom (c. 380)
- From the Catena Aurea, Patristic Commentary by St Thomas Aquinas.
- From the
Geneva Notes.
- "Those men are often the cruellest enemies of the Church, to whose faithfulness it is committed: But the vocation of God is neither tied to time, place, nor person."
- From
Matthew
Henry's Commentary.
- "The unbelief of sinners will be their ruin. But God has many ways of restraining the remainders of wrath, as he has of making that which breaks out redound to his praise."
- From
Wesley's
Notes.
- "Stumblers at Christ shall even then receive much hurt. He is said to fall on this stone, who hears the Gospel and does not believe."
- From the
Commentary on the Whole Bible
(Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).
- "These details are taken, as is the basis of the parable itself, from that beautiful parable of Isa 5:1-7, in order to fix down the application and sustain it by Old Testament authority."
- From
The People's
New Testament, B.W. Johnson, 1891.
- "The "corner-stone" joined two walls. Alford thinks this is a reference to the union of Jews and Gentiles in the church."
- Contemporary Commentary, Studies, and Exegesis:
- Commentary, Matthew 21:33-46, Sharon H. Ringe, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.
- "This parable does not use the story to set forth the surprising nature and qualities of God's reign, as do so many others in the Gospels. Its focus is rather on the futility of debates about, and maintenance programs for, the institutions of this age."
- Parable of the Wicket Tenants, audio telling, story in episodes, graphic, audio and written commentaries. Go Tell Communications, Biblical Storytelling for the Global Village, 2011.
- "Crazy Love (a.k.a. Preaching Matthew against Matthew)," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2011.
- "Martin Luther once said that sometimes you have to squeeze a biblical passage until it leaks the gospel. This is one of those weeks, I think, when with equal measures of patience and faithful pressure we can give witness to the God made most clear to us in Jesus."
- Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 21:33-46, David Ewart, 2011.
- "Who, ACTUALLY, is producing the fruit of the Kingdom? It could be the religious leaders. Nay. It SHOULD be the religious leaders. But are they? Are we?"
- "It Never Quits," Fr. Rick Morley, a garden path, 2011.
- Who Are the Wicked Tenants? Alyce M. McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, Patheos, 2011.
- "Roman Catholic teacher of preaching Ken Unterer says that's like going into a haunted house without a flashlight. And, he says, "don't make a habit of following a moving story with an explanation. Many times, it is more effective to just sit down and let listeners apply it to themselves."
- Preaching Matthew 21:33-46, Susan Sparks, Lectionary Homiletics sample.
- Commentary, Matthew 21:33-46, Ira Brent Driggers, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.
- Comments (commentary) and Clippings (technical notes for in-depth study), Chris Haslam, Anglican Diocese of Montreal.
- Exegetical
Notes by Brian P. Stoffregen at CrossMarks.
- "A question I've heard asked, but not answered fully is: "How could the tenants possibly inherit the vineyard?" It would seem quite presumptuous to think that by killing the owner's son that they owner would give them the vineyard. Perhaps they assumed that the owner was dead when they saw his son. It's not that long ago that "God is dead" was a popular slogan. Whether these tenants thought that or not, they acted as if God/landowner were dead."
- "First
Thoughts on Year A Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 16,
William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.
- "Loving is a challenge we often savage or sabotage, whether at a personal or a community level."
-
"The Wicked Servants," Gospel Analysis, Sermons from
Seattle,
Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle,
Washington. Detailed background and exegesis.
- "The tree looks healthy but it is not. A religious life looks healthy but it is not. A Christian can use all the right buzz words, read the Bible, attend church and do all the churchy things but lives a lie and does not demonstrate the love of Christ in daily actions."
-
"Dinner Reservations," Roger Lovette, The Christian Century,
2005.
- "The world is still asking these questions. Can we come? And how much will this supper cost? The way we answer these questions will determine the kind of tenants we are."
- "Missing the Point," Gracia Grindal, The Christian Century, 2002.
-
"Matthew 21:33-46: 'World Communion' for Sunday, October 2, 2005."
Reflections by Todd Weir, bloomingcactus.
- "I challenge everyone to have one major concern about the world. Read about it, become an expert in one thing, let it become a passion for you, find some way to make a connection, to somehow join God's work on that issue. Let us be fervent in prayer and action to live out World Communion with our lives."
-
Dylan's Lectionary Blog,
Proper 22. Biblical Scholar
Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary
of the Episcopal Church.
- "Jesus? parables aren't there to make complicated truths simple, but to complicate what seems to us to be simply true."
- "Matthew 21:33-43, Pentecost 20 (Reformation Sunday)," Perspectives on the Parables -- Glimpses on the Kingdom of God, Robert H. Albers, Word & World: Theology for Christian Ministry, Luther Northwestern Theological School, 1984.
- Matthew in the Margins, by Brian McGowan, Anglican priest in Western Australia.
- Wellspring of the Gospel, Ordinary 27A, Catherine McElhinney and Kathryn Turner, Weekly Wellsprings.
-
"Intimidation,
Violence, Retribution,"
Larry Broding's
Word-Sunday.Com: A
Catholic Resource for This Sunday's Gospel. Adult Study, Children's
Story, Family Activity, Support Materials.
- "When is the use of violence justified?"
-
"When
the Harvest Time Approached,"
Jerry Goebel, One
Family Outreach. "Focus on scripture from a justice perspective." Exegesis, study, and teen study
and activities.
- "Their leadership no longer focused on enhancing the state of God?s people but on enhancing their own fortunes."
-
"Intimations
of the Year of Jubilee in the Parables of The Wicked Tenants and the Workers in the
Vineyard," by Herman C. Waetjen.
- "Jesus' parables violated the ordered system of land tenure and economic exchange in the world of his day. The rule of God, which his stories metaphorically disclosed, will undermine the ruling elite's self-serving systemic structures and institutions."
- "The Parable of the Cruel Vinedressers," George Lyons, Wesley Center for Applied Theology, Northwest Nazarene University.
- "The Tenants in the Vineyard," Rev. Bryan Findlayson, Lectionary Bible Studies and Sermons, Pumpkin Cottage Ministry Resources. Includes detailed textual notes.
- Articles & Background:
- "The Wicked Husbandmen," wikipedia.
-
"The
Pharisaic Jesus and His Gospel Parables," Philip Culbertson, The
Christian Century, 1985.
- "Because Jesus? listeners would have been familiar with the vineyard as a symbol for the people Israel, not for creation, they would have given an altogether different meaning to the story than the one traditionally preached by Christians."
- "Jesus,
Apocalyptic, and World Transformation," David B. Batstone. Theology
Today, 1993.
- "It is often overlooked how ideologically explosive the notion of the kingdom of God was within Jesus' own social milieu. In first-century Palestine, it did not have the same metaphorical and strictly religious connotation that makes the term so safe within our own theological world. In fact, it evoked the memory and visionary impulse of Yahweh who acts to deliver Yahweh's 'chosen ones' from occupation and oppression at the hands of alien nations. Intrinsic to that symbolic universe is the conviction that the chosen suffer and the unjust prosper in the present day only because history stands at the brink of a great reversal."
- "Search for Jesus: The 'Subversive' Parables," Marcus Borg, Catholic New Times, 2004.
- Weren, W.J.C.,
"The
Use of Isaiah 5,1-7 in the Parable of the Tenants (Mark 12,1-12; Matthew 21,33-46),"
Biblica Vol. 79(1998) 1-26. Abstract
- "...the colourful gamut of interpretations that sprang from the Hebrew text of Isa 5,1-7 not only influenced the genesis of Mark 12,1-12 but also the way in which the parable was adapted by Matthew at a later phase of the tradition."
-
"'O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem,' The Holy City," Peter Walker, Sojourners,
September/October 2000.
- "Belief in the city's holiness has sometimes been used to legitimate unholy action."
- Recommended articles
from ATLAS, an online collection of religion and theology journals, are
linked below.
ATLAS Access options are available for academic institutions, alumni of
selected theological schools, and clergy/church offices.
- Albers, Robert H., "Perspectives on
the Parables - Glimpses of the Kingdom of God," Word & World,
1984. (Section on this text begins on page 448.)
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Bridges, Linda McKinnish, "Preaching
the Parables in Matthew's Gospel in Ordinary Time: The Extraordinary
Tales of God's World," Review & Expositor, 2007. (Section on this
text begins on p.350, but is best read in context of entire article.)
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Crossan, John Dominic, "The Parable
of the Wicked Husbandsmen," Journal of Biblical Literature, 1971.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Culbertson, Philip L., "Reclaiming
the Matthean Vineyard Parables," Encounter, 1988.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Grindal, Gracia, "Missing the Point,"
The Christian Century, 2002.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Kingsbury, Jack Dean, "The Parable of
the Wicked Husbandsmen and the Secret of Jesus' Divine Sonship in
Matthew: Some Literary-Critical Observations," Journal of Biblical
Literature, 1986.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Lovette, Roger, "Dinner
Reservations," The Christian Century, 2005.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Newell, Jane E., and Raymond R.
Newell, "Parable of the Wicked Tenants," Novum Testamentum, 1972.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Reid, Barbara E., O.P.,
"Violent Endings in Matthew's Parables and Christian Nonviolence,"
The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2004.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Smillie, Gene R., "Jesus' Response to the Question of His Authority in Matthew 21,"
Bibliotheca Sacra, 2005.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Turner, David L.,
"Matthew 21:43 and the Future of Israel,"
Bibliotheca Sacra,
2002.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
- Albers, Robert H., "Perspectives on
the Parables - Glimpses of the Kingdom of God," Word & World,
1984. (Section on this text begins on page 448.)
- Reviews:
- Review: Steven M. Bryan, Jesus and Israel's Traditions of Judgement and Restoration. Cambridge University Press, 2002. Review by Steven L. Bridge, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2003.
- Review: Wesley G. Olmstead, Matthew's Trilogy of Parables: The Nation, the Nations and the Reader in Matthew 21:28-22:14. Cambridge University Press, 2004. Review by Garwood Anderson in SBL's Review of Biblical Literature.
- Wilson, Alistair I., When Will These Things Happen?: A Study of Jesus as Judge in Matthew 21-25. PaterNoster Press, 2005. Review by Samuel Subramanian, Review of Biblical Literature, 2006.
- Sermons:
- Why Doesn't God Do Something? Marilyn Saure Breckenridge, SermonStudio
- "The Rental Fruits of God's Vineyard," 20 Pentecost - 2 October 2005, Hubert Beck, Göttinger Predigten im Internet: Every Sunday Sermons based on the RCL by a team of Lutheran theologians/ pastors.
- "The Wicked Servants," Sermons from Seattle, Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.
- "Anatomy of a Spiritual Disaster - Stealing from God," John Jewell, 1999.
- Father Andrew M. Greeley, "Priest, Author, Sociologist," Commentary and Homily
- With Children:
- Worshiping with Children, Proper 22 (World Communion Sunday), Including children in the congregation's worship, using the Revised Common Lectionary, Carolyn C. Brown, 2011.
- "Children's Literature: A Resource for Ministry," October 2, 2011 (World Communion Sunday), Union Presbyterian Seminary. Connections: Matthew 21:33-46 and Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor.
- "Last of All, He Sent His Son," Charles Kirkpatrick, Sermons4kids.com.
- "Wicked Tenants Steal from the Owner," Sunday School Lessons: Family Bible Study, art projects, music, stories, etc.
- "The Parable of the Evil Vinedressers," children's study, puzzles, coloring sheet, etc. Higher Praise Christian Center.
- Drama:
- "The Vineyard of the Lord," from A Certain Jesus by Jose Ignacio and Maria Lopez Vigil. Ideal for catechetical and liturgical dramatization of today's gospel. Claretian Publications.
- Graphics & Bulletin Materials:
- Clip Art, Matthew 21:42, Fr. Richard Lonsdale, Resources for Catholic Educators.
- Clip Art Images: Matthew 21:33-43, Misioneros Del Sagrado Corazón en el Perú.
- Matthew 21:33-43, Liturgical Drawing, Maria d.c. Zamora, Claretian Resources, Philippines. ("Download and use these for free.")
- Matthew 21:33-43, at Cerezo Barredo's weekly gospel illustration. Liberation emphasis.
- Matthew 21:33-46, Scripture Pics - graphics relating to RCL texts, Matt Baker, Germantown UMC, Ohio.
- Hymns and Music:
- Contemporary/Praise Song suggestions, Together to Celebrate, David MacGregor.
- Hymns with Scripture Allusions: Matthew 21:41. The Cyber Hymnal.
- Fine Arts Images Linked at The Text This Week's Art Index:
- Movies scenes with the following themes, listed at The Text This Week's Movie Concordance:
- Study Links and Resources for the Book of Matthew
