1 Then he proceeded to address them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, fenced it round, dug a trough for the winepress, and built a tower; then he leased it to vinedressers and went abroad.
2 When the season came round he sent a servant to the vine dressers to collect from the vine dressers some of the produce of the vineyard,
3 but they took and flogged him and sent him off with nothing.
4 Once more he sent them another servant; him they knocked on the head and insulted.
5 He sent another, but they killed him. And so they treated many others; some they flogged and some they killed.
6 He had still one left, a beloved son; he sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
7 But these vinedressers said to themselves, 'Here is the heir; come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be our own.'
8 So they took and killed him, and threw him outside the vineyard.
9 Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and he will give the vineyard to others.
10 Have you not even read this scripture? ??The stone that the builders rejected is the chief stone now of the corner:
11 this is the doing of the Lord, and a wonder to our eyes."
12 Then they tried to get hold of him, but they were afraid of the multitude. They knew he had meant the parable for them. So they left him and went away.
13 But they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to him for the purpose of catching him with a question.
14 They came up and said to him, "Teacher, we know you are sincere and fearless; you do not court human favour, you teach the Way of God honestly. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
15 Are we to pay, or are we not to pay?" But he saw their trick and said to them, "Why tempt me? Bring me a shilling. Let me see it."
16 So they brought one. He said, "Whose likeness, whose inscription is this?" "Caesar's," they said.
17 Jesus said to them, "Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to God." He astonished them.
18 Sadducees, men who hold there is no resurrection, also came up and put a question to him.
19 "Teacher," they said, "Moses has written this law for us, that if a man's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother is to take the woman and raise offspring for his brother.
20 Now there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and died leaving no offspring:
21 the second took her and died without leaving any offspring: so did the third:
22 none of the seven left any offspring. Last of all the woman died too.
23 At the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? She was wife to the seven of them."
24 Jesus said to them, "Is this not where you go wrong? ??you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God.
25 When people rise from the dead they neither marry nor are married, they are like the angels in heaven.
26 As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, at the passage on the Bush, how God said to him, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?
27 He is not the God of dead people but of living. You are far wrong."
28 Then a scribe came up, who had listened to the discussion. Knowing Jesus had given them an apt answer, he put this question to him, "What is the chief of all the commands?"
29 Jesus replied, "The chief one is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,
30 and you must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole mind, and with your whole strength.
31 The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other command greater than these."
32 The scribe said to him, "Right, teacher! You have truly said, He is One, and there is none else but Him.
33 Also, to love him with the whole heart, with the whole understanding, and with the whole strength, and to love one's neighbour as oneself ??that is far more than all holocausts and sacrifices."
34 Jesus noted his intelligent answer and said to him, "You are not far off the Realm of God." After that no one ventured to put any more questions to him.
35 And as Jesus taught in the temple he asked, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is David's son?
36 David himself said in the holy Spirit, The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'
37 David here calls him Lord. Then how can he be his son?" Now the mass of the people listened with delight to him.
38 And in the course of his teaching he said, "Beware of the scribes! They like to walk about in long robes, to get saluted in the marketplaces,
39 to secure the front seats in the synagogues and the best places at banquets;
40 they prey upon the property of widows and offer long unreal prayers. All the heavier will their sentence be!"
41 Sitting down opposite the treasury, he watched the people putting their money into the treasury. A number of the rich were putting in large sums,
42 but a poor widow came up and put in two little coins amounting to a halfpenny.
43 And he called his disciples and said to them, "I tell you truly, this poor widow has put in more than all who have put their money into the treasury;
44 for they have all put in a contribution out of their surplus, but she has given out of her neediness all she possessed, her whole living."