Mark 12:1

Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Jesus addresses his listeners by initiating a parable about a landowner who prepares a vineyard, rents it to tenants, and departs on a journey.

The words — ἤρξατο (ērxato) translates literally to "He began," and παραβολαῖς (parabolais) means "parables," signaling the start of figurative instruction.

The thread — The vineyard imagery appears in Isaiah 5:1, the departing owner motif runs through Mark 13:34, and the leasing arrangement parallels Song of Solomon 8:11.

Why it lands — The text records a landowner’s preparation of a vineyard, his transfer of its care to tenants, and his departure, establishing a sequence of events that the reader must track.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.

Cross-references

Isaiah 5:1 I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
Mark 13:34 It is like a man going on a journey who left his house, put each servant in charge of his own task, and instructed the doorkeeper to keep watch.
Song of Solomon 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon. He leased it to the tenants. For its fruit, each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver.
Matthew 25:14 For it is just like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them with his possessions.
Mark 4:2 And He taught them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said,
Psalms 80:8 You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and transplanted it.
Mark 4:33 With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them, to the extent that they could understand.
Romans 11:17 Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root,
Acts 7:38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.
Acts 7:46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.