Kata Markon

[JFAlward AT aol.com]

In the parable of the wicked tenants (below), I assume that the vineyard is 
the Lord's inheritance--the "house of Israel" (Isaiah 5:7), and its tenants 
are the temporary custodians (Leviticus 25:23). The servants are ministers 
sent by the Lord to complain about Israel's falling into ruin and sin.

Verse 12:1 obviously comes from Isaiah 5:7, while 12:2 is just an _expression_ 
of the Lord's expectation that his vineyard produce righteous men.  Mark has 
Jesus predicting his death in 12:6-8, of course. Verses 12:7-9 may be based 
on the conspiracy in 1 Kings 21 of Ahab and Jezebel to kill Naboth and seize 
Naboth's vineyard, his inheritance. However, there's a gap in my 
understanding in 12:3-5; I've been unable to find a story about any of God's 
prophets being seized and beaten, or struck on the head and treated 
shamefully, and still others beaten and killed.  One of the men killed can be 
assigned to John the Baptist, I think, but what about the others?  Can anyone 
help?  The parable is below.

Mark 12:1 He then began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a 
vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a 
watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a 
journey. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from 
them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, beat him and 
sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them; they 
struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still 
another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they 
beat, others they killed. 6 "He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. 
He sent him last of all, saying, `They will respect my son.'  7 "But the 
tenants said to one another, `This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the 
inheritance will be ours.'  8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him 
out of the vineyard. 9 "What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will 
come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

Incidentally, the story of the murder of Naboth and the theft of his vineyard 
in 1 Kings 21 seems contain the "answer to the problem within the parable 
that often has stumped interpreters" Dennis MacDonald noted in his book, _The 
Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark_: Why would Mark have the tenants assume 
that they would inherit the vineyard if they murdered the owner, since "no 
society would award property to an heir's murderers." (page 36)  MacDonald 
suggested that Mark borrowed this from the suitors' plot to murder 
Telemachus, Odysseus's son, and steal his property; MacDonald indicates Mark 
may have been so intent on retaining a connection to Homer that he allowed 
the tenants to construct an irrational plan.  However, it seems to me that it 
makes much more sense for Mark to have wanted his readers to know that the 
high priests' coming doom was prefigured by Ahab and Jezebel when they, too, 
illegally sought to become the heirs to a vineyard.  Any comments?


Regards,

Joe Alward