Bible Strands
Matthew 21:35
But the tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses the chief priests and Pharisees as harvest time draws near, narrating a parable about a landowner sending servants to collect fruit from entrusted tenants. The story unfolds in the temple courts during the final week before His crucifixion.
The words — λαβόντες (labontes) means "having taken" or "seized," capturing the tenants' violent seizure of the owner's messengers. γεωργοὶ (geōrgoi) translates literally to "farmers" or "tenants," identifying the group entrusted with working the vineyard.
The thread — The pattern of violent rejection runs through Nehemiah 9:26, where the people killed the prophets, and 2 Chronicles 36:15, which records God's repeated sending of messengers to a rebellious people. It also aligns with the persecution of faithful witnesses detailed in Hebrews 11:36.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that the tenants' brutality toward the servants directly mirrors the religious leaders' impending rejection of the owner's son. It requires the reader to confront the consequence of refusing divinely appointed authority and to respond to the warning before the narrative concludes.
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 the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 36:15 Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place.
- Hebrews 11:36 Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
- Nehemiah 9:26 But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.
- 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.
- Acts 7:52 Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—
- Matthew 23:31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.
- Luke 13:33 Nevertheless, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day, for it is not admissible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem.
- Revelation 6:9 And when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had upheld.
- 1 Kings 18:4 for when Jezebel had slaughtered the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty men per cave, providing them with food and water.)
- 1 Kings 18:13 Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel slaughtered the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred prophets of the LORD, fifty men per cave, and I provided them with food and water.