Montgomery - Luke - 20

20:1  On one of the days while he was teaching the people in the Temple and preaching the gospel, there came up the priest and the Scribes with the elders.

20:2  They spoke to him saying. "Tell us by what authority you are doing these things? Who is it that gave you this authority?"

20:3  "I will also ask you a question," he replied.

20:4  "Was John’s baptism from heaven or from man?"

20:5  So they reasoned among themselves. "If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask us, ‘Why did you not believe in him?’

20:6  "And if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us, for they were persuaded that Johnwas a prophet."

20:7  So they answered that they did not know whence it was.

20:8  "Nor will I tell you," Jesus answered, "by whose authority I do these things."

20:9  Then he began to tell the people this parable. "There was a man who planted a vineyard, and let it out to vine-dressers, and went to another country for a long time.

20:10  "At harvest-time he sent a slave to the vine-dressers, to ask them to give him a share of the crop; but the vine-dresser beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

20:11  "Then he sent another slave; and him also they flogged and handled shamefully and sent him away empty-handed.

20:12  "Then he sent yet a third, and him to they wounded and threw him out.

20:13  "Then the master of the vineyard said. "‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved Son; it may be that they will reverence him.’

20:14  "But when the vine-dressers saw him, they reasoned together, saying. ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.’

20:15  "So they turned him out of the vineyard and killed him. "What will the master of the vineyard do to them?

20:16  "He will come and destroy those vine-dressers, and will give the vineyard to others."

20:17  He looked at them and said. "Then what does this scripture mean. "The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner?

20:18  "Every one who falls on that stone will be broken in pieces; but whoever it falls upon will be scattered as dust."

20:19  At this the Scribes and the high priests were seeking to arrest him; only they were afraid of the people. For they perceived that he had referred to them in this parable.

20:20  So they watched him, and sent spies who pretended to be honest men, in order to seize on his speech, and to deliver him up to authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

20:21  So they put a question to him saying. "Rabbi, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not regard any man’s person, but teach the way of God honestly.

20:22  "Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar or not?"

20:23  But he perceived their knavery and answered.

20:24  "Show me a shilling. Whose image and superscription does it bear?" "Caesar’s," they replied.

20:25  "Then give to Caesar what belongs to him," he said, "to God give what is God’s."

20:26  So they could not lay hold of his sayings before the people; and marveling at his answer, they held their peace.

20:27  Next came some of the Sadducees who deny that there is resurrection, and they asked him.

20:28  "Teacher, Moses wrote a law for us that if a man’s brother should die, but leave no children, his brother should take up his wife and raise up his children for his brother.

20:29  "Now there were seven brothers. the first took a wife and died childless,

20:30  "and the second and third took her,

20:31  "and likewise all the seven, but left no children when they died.

20:32  "Last of all the woman died too.

20:33  "In the resurrection whose wife shall she be? For they all seven had her as wife."

20:34  "People in this world marry and are given in marriage," said Jesus,

20:35  "but those who are counted worthy to reach that world and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage.

20:36  "For indeed they cannot die any more; they are equal to the angels, and through being sons of the resurrection are sons of God.

20:37  "But that the dead are raised, even Moses clearly implied in the passage about the Bush, when he calls the Lord. "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

20:38  "Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for to him all are alive.’

20:39  Then some of the Scribes said, "Teacher, that was nobly said,"

20:40  for they no longer dared to ask him any questions.

20:41  "How is it," he asked them, "that they say that Christ is David’s son?

20:42  "for David himself say’s in the book of the Psalms, "The Lord said to my Lord. Sit at my right hand,

20:43  Until I make thy enemies the footstool at thy feet.

20:44  "David therefore himself calls him ‘Lord,’ and how can he be his son?"

20:45  Then, in the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples.

20:46  "Beware of the Scribes who like to walk about in long robes, and dote on salutations in the marketplaces, and on securing the front seats in the synagogues and the best places at banquets;

20:47  "but they devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. These shall receive severer condemnation."