Gospel according to Mark 12

¹ He went on to speak to them in parables, ‘A man planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug out a trough for the winepress and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad.

² When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce from the vineyard.

³ But they seized the man, thrashed him and sent him away empty-handed.

⁴ Next he sent another servant to them; him they beat about the head and treated shamefully.

⁵ And he sent another and him they killed; then a number of others, and they thrashed some and killed the rest.

⁶ He had still someone left: his beloved son. He sent him to them last of all. “They will respect my son” he said.

⁷ But those tenants said to each other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”

⁸ So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹ Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end of the tenants and give the vineyard to others.

¹⁰ Have you not read this text of scripture: It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone.

¹¹ This was the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to see?[*a]

¹² And they would have liked to arrest him, because they realised that the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds. So they left him alone and went away.

¹³ Next they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to catch him out in what he said.

¹⁴ These came and said to him, ‘Master, we know you are an honest man, that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you, and that you teach the way of God in all honesty. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay, yes or no?’

¹⁵ Seeing through their hypocrisy he said to them, ‘Why do you set this trap for me? Hand me a denarius and let me see it.’

¹⁶ They handed him one and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose name?’ ‘Caesar’s’ they told him.

¹⁷ Jesus said to them, ‘Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God’. This reply took them completely by surprise.

¹⁸ Then some Sadducees – who deny that there is a resurrection – came to him and they put this question to him,

¹⁹ ‘Master, we have it from Moses in writing, if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother.

²⁰ Now there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and then died leaving no children.

²¹ The second married the widow, and he too died leaving no children; with the third it was the same,

²² and none of the seven left any children. Last of all the woman herself died.

²³ Now at the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?’

²⁴ Jesus said to them, ‘Is not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God?

²⁵ For when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven.

²⁶ Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the Bush, how God spoke to him and said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?[*b]

²⁷ He is God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken.’

²⁸ One of the scribes who had listened to them debating and had observed how well Jesus had answered them, now came up and put a question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’

²⁹ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord,

³⁰ and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.[*c]

³¹ The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself.[*d] There is no commandment greater than these.’

³² The scribe said to him, ‘Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other.

³³ To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.’

³⁴ Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God’. And after that no one dared to question him any more.

³⁵ Later, while teaching in the Temple, Jesus said, ‘How can the scribes maintain that the Christ is the son of David?

³⁶ David himself, moved by the Holy Spirit, said: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand and I will put your enemies under your feet.[*e]

³⁷ David himself calls him Lord, in what way then can he be his son?’ And the great majority of the people heard this with delight.

³⁸ In his teaching he said, ‘Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted obsequiously in the market squares,

³⁹ to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets;

⁴⁰ these are the men who swallow the property of widows, while making a show of lengthy prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.’

⁴¹ He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the treasury, and many of the rich put in a great deal.

⁴² A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny.

⁴³ Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury;

⁴⁴ for they have all put in money they had over, but she from the little she had has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on’.