Mark 12

¹Then he began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went abroad. ²At the harvest time, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect his share of the vineyard’s fruit from them. ³But they grabbed him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴Again, he sent another slave to them; that one they struck on the head and treated shamefully. ⁵He sent another, and that one they killed—and so it went with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. ⁶He had one person left, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But those tenant farmers said to one another, ‘This is the heir! Come on, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸So they grabbed him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this very stone has become the cornerstone; ¹¹this came from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

¹²They were looking for a way to arrest him because they realized he had aimed the parable at them, but they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and went away.

¹³Then they sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to him to trap him in his speech. ¹⁴They came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and are not swayed by anyone’s opinion; for you do not look at a person's status, but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay, or should we not pay?” ¹⁵But he, knowing their theatrical performance, said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius so I can look at it.” ¹⁶They brought one. And he said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” ¹⁷Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, and give to God the things that belong to God.” And they were utterly amazed at him.

¹⁸Then Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and questioned him, saying, ¹⁹“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife behind but leaves no child, his brother should take the woman and raise up a biological lineage for his brother. ²⁰There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and when he died, he left no offspring. ²¹The second took her and died, leaving no offspring; and the third likewise. ²²None of the seven left any offspring. Last of all, the woman died too. ²³In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”

²⁴Jesus said to them, “Is this not why you are misled—because you understand neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? ²⁵For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in the heavens. ²⁶But regarding the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken.”

²⁸One of the scribes came up and heard them debating. Seeing that Jesus had answered them well, he questioned him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” ²⁹Jesus answered, “The first is: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart, from your whole soul, from your whole mind, and from your whole strength.’ ³¹The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³²The scribe said to him, “Well said, Teacher! You have spoken truthfully that He is one, and there is no other besides Him. ³³And to love Him from the whole heart, from the whole understanding, and from the whole strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴When Jesus saw that he had answered with such insight, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question him any longer.

³⁵While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Anointed One is the son of David? ³⁶David himself, by the Holy Spirit, said: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”’

³⁷David himself calls him ‘Lord’; so how can he be his son?” And the large crowd listened to him with delight.

³⁸In his teaching he said, “Watch out for the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and receive greetings in the marketplaces, ³⁹and take the seats of honor in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁰These are the ones who devour the estates of widows and offer long prayers as a pretense. These will receive a more severe judgment.”

⁴¹He sat down opposite the treasury and watched how the crowd put copper coins into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. ⁴²A poor widow came and put in two lepta, which amounts to a quadrans. ⁴³Calling his disciples to him, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those putting money into the treasury. ⁴⁴For they all put in from their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had—her whole livelihood.”