Markchapter 12
44 verses · BSBMark book hub →
Speaks with:Luke 20×10Matthew 22×9John 7×3Matthew 23×3Hebrews 1×2Matthew 21×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Parable of the wicked husbandmen: 'the stone which the builders rejected.' Tribute to Caesar. Sadducees on resurrection. The greatest commandment. Love God, love neighbor. David's son question. The widow's mite at the treasury: 'she of her want did cast in all that she had.'
Context
Gospel · Mark — Mark overview
- A. 1–12 The Vineyard and the Rejected Stone
- B. 13–17 Caesar's Image and God's
- C. 18–27 God of the Living, Not of the Dead
- D. 28–34 The First Commandment of All
- E. 35–44 David's Son, Proud Scribes, and a Widow's Two Mites
The outline
A.The Vineyard and the Rejected Stonevv. 1 to 12
Read vv. 1 to 12 →B.Caesar's Image and God'svv. 13 to 17
Read vv. 13 to 17 →C.God of the Living, Not of the Deadvv. 18 to 27
Read vv. 18 to 27 →D.The First Commandment of Allvv. 28 to 34
Read vv. 28 to 34 →E.David's Son, Proud Scribes, and a Widow's Two Mitesvv. 35 to 44
Read vv. 35 to 44 →
The world behind this chapter
Mark 12The history
The vineyard parable describes an ordinary arrangement in that economy. Large estates were owned by absentee landlords and leased to tenant farmers for a share of the crop, collected by agents. Violence against those agents was not unheard of, and a tenant party might gamble that killing the heir would let them claim the land.
The tax question was live and dangerous. The poll tax went directly to Rome, and it had triggered armed revolt in AD 6. The Herodians, a party loyal to Herod's house and the Roman settlement behind it, are paired with Pharisees precisely to catch him whichever way he answered. The denarius he asks for carried the emperor's head and an inscription calling him son of the deified Augustus.
The Sadducees' puzzle rests on the levirate law of Deuteronomy, under which a man married his childless brother's widow to raise an heir in the dead man's name. The Sadducees rejected the resurrection outright, so the riddle was designed to make the doctrine look absurd.
The widow's gift is where Mark's Roman readers get their clearest translation. She puts in two lepta, the smallest coins in circulation in Judea, and Mark adds that together they make a quadrans — a Roman coin his readers handled every day. The offering chests stood in the temple court with trumpet-shaped mouths, so a large gift of metal announced itself audibly.
What it meant to them
For a Gentile church, the answer about Caesar's coin and God's image was the working rule of a whole life. Pay the tax; the man on the coin does not own you.
And the widow at the treasury was the standard the chapter ends on, set directly against scribes who devour widows' houses. To believers who had little and were losing it, Mark says the accounting Jesus used measured not the sum given but what was left afterwards.
Sources cited
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
- Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Mark 12. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 1 · An echo of this verse
SECOND STRAND. The Parable of the Wicked Tenants opens by reworking Isa 5:1-2 LXX (plant, hedge, dig, tower, winepress).
Isaiah 5:7→For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
PD-LXX; H3754; Beale-Carson
v. 29 · Quoted here
Jesus quotes the Shema 'YHWH our God, YHWH is one' as the first commandment - the confession built on the covenant Name. Volume maximal.
Deuteronomy 6:4→Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.
Catholic Resources; text Deut 6:4 / Mark 12:29
v. 36 · Quoted with a formula: 'it is written' · Quoted here
'YHWH said to my Adonai' becomes 'the Lord (Kyrios) said to my Lord (Kyrios)' - the two-Lords text Jesus presses (also Acts 2:34). Kyrios=YHWH bridge.
Psalms 110:1→The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.