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Matthew
21:33-46
 | Reading the Text:
|
 | Historical References, Commentary and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) |
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X.16,
Commentary on the Gospel of John, Philocalia [anthology of
Origen prepared by St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen],
Origen. (c.230) |
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IV.XLII,
Against Celsus,
Origen. (c.246) |
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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:
 |
Comments
(commentary) and
Clippings
(technical notes for in-depth study), Chris Haslam, Anglican
Diocese of Montreal. |
 |
"First
Thoughts on Year A Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 21,
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." |
|
 |
Preaching the Lesson, Anna Carter Florence, Lectionary Homiletics
sample, 2008.
 | "I wonder if Jesus was reminding
us that What We Would Do…is not What God Would Do. In the realm of
God, judgment will not look like it does in the human realm." |
|
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"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." |
|
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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.
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"Jesus’ parables aren't there to make complicated truths simple, but to
complicate what seems to us to be simply true." |
|
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"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. |
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"Exegetical Considerations,"
20th Sunday after Pentecost, Richard Carlson, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Using Greek
for Sunday Text Preparations.
 | "What is the important text
critical issue involving v. 44?" |
|
 | 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." |
|
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Matthew in the Margins, by
Brian McGowan, Anglican priest in Western Australia. |
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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." |
|
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"The Parable of the Cruel Vinedressers," George Lyons, Wesley Center
for Applied Theology, Northwest Nazarene University. |
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"The
Tenants in the Vineyard," Rev. Bryan Findlayson, Lectionary Bible
Studies and Sermons, Pumpkin Cottage Ministry Resources. Includes detailed
textual notes. |
|
 | Articles & Background:
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"The Wicked
Husbandmen," wikipedia. |
 |
"Ethnicity, Ethnocentrism, and the Matthean
Ethnos," Dennis C. Duling,
Biblical Theology Bulletin, 2005.
 | "After exploring the model
linguistically and conceptually with literature from antiquity, I show how
modern ethnicity studies can offer insights into ethnicity in Matthew and
in particular how priestly voluntary associations called ethne might help
to interpret the special fruit-bearing ethnos of Matthew 21:43 in terms of
an alternative leadership to the priests of Jerusalem." |
|
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"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." |
|
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"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." |
|
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"Naming our
Gods," by David Hilfiker. In The Other
Side online. (Archived.)
 | "Today, pop psychology counsels us that self-interest is the necessary
ground of good relationships. Only by "looking after number one," it argues, can
we relate mutually to each other. I sometimes catch myself defending my work with poor
people by pointing out how much I get out of it. That's true, of course, but why do I need
to claim self-interest? Why is love or justice not an adequate excuse?" |
|
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"'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." |
|
|
 | Articles in
ATLAS Journals. (Direct link when you are
subscribed and logged in to
ATLASerials online collection of Religion and Theology Journals.):
 | Albers, Robert H., "Perspectives on
the Parables - Glimpses of the Kingdom of God," Word & World,
1984. (Section on this text begins on page 448.)
Image Browse -
PDF |
 | 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.)
Image Browse -
PDF |
 | Crossan, John Dominic, "The Parable
of the Wicked Husbandsmen," Journal of Biblical Literature, 1971.
Image Browse -
PDF |
 | Culbertson, Philip L., "Reclaiming
the Matthean Vineyard Parables," Encounter, 1988.
Image Browse -
PDF |
 | Grindal, Gracia, "Missing the Point,"
The Christian Century, 2002.
Image Browse -
PDF |
 | 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.
Image Browse -
PDF |
 | Lovette, Roger, "Dinner
Reservations," The Christian Century, 2005.
Image Browse -
PDF |
 | Newell, Jane E., and Raymond R.
Newell, "Parable of the Wicked Tenants," Novum Testamentum, 1972.
Image Browse -
PDF |
 | Reid, Barbara E., O.P.,
"Violent Endings in Matthew's Parables and Christian Nonviolence,"
The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2004.
Image Browse -
PDF |
 | Smillie, Gene R., "Jesus' Response to the Question of His Authority in Matthew 21,"
Bibliotheca Sacra, 2005.
Image Browse -
PDF |
 | Turner, David L.,
"Matthew 21:43 and the Future of Israel,"
Bibliotheca Sacra,
2002.
Image Browse -
PDF |
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 | 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:
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"The Vineyard and the Farms," Dr. NT Wright,
2001.
 |
"It isn't simply that as a
society we have turned away from God and are reaping the results; we have
and we haven't, and we must avoid simplistic analyses." |
|
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"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. |
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"Anatomy of a
Spiritual Disaster - Stealing from God,"
John Jewell, 1999. |
 |
Father
Andrew M. Greeley, "Priest, Author, Sociologist," Commentary and
Homily
|
|
 | With Children:
 |
"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. |
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"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:
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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. |
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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. |
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 | Hymns and Music:
|
 | 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 |
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