Bible Strands
Mark 12:5
He sent still another, and this one they killed. He sent many others; some they beat and others they killed.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses the chief priests, scribes, and elders in the temple courts while advancing his vineyard parable. The statement follows his account of a previously sent servant who was struck and treated shamefully.
The words — The Greek ἀπέστειλεν (apesteilen) literally means "He sent," and ἀπέκτειναν (apekteinan) translates directly to "they killed." The text records these actions as sequential events in the parable before any theological application is drawn.
The thread — The repeated sending of messengers who face opposition aligns with Nehemiah 9:30 and Jeremiah 7:25, which describe God's long history of sending prophets. Matthew 5:12 records the same historical reality that the listeners' ancestors persecuted those prophets.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge the documented pattern of rejecting divine messengers. It presents the factual sequence of escalating violence so the listener can assess their own response to the final messenger.
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 again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some.
Cross-references
- Nehemiah 9:30 You were patient with them for many years, and Your Spirit admonished them through Your prophets. Yet they would not listen, so You gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples.
- Jeremiah 7:25 From the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets again and again.
- Matthew 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.
- Matthew 21:35 But the tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.
- Matthew 22:6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.
- Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!
- Mark 9:13 But I tell you that Elijah has indeed come, and they have done to him whatever they wished, just as it is written about him.”
- Luke 6:22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.
- Luke 6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.