Mark 12:1-12

New Catholic Bible

Chapter 12

The Parable of the Tenants.^{[a] 1} Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went off on a journey.

² “When the time arrived, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. ³ But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Again, he sent them another servant, but they beat him over the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵ Then he sent another, and that one they killed. He also sent many others, some of whom they beat, and others of whom they killed.

⁶ “Finally, he had only one other to send—his beloved son. And so he sent him to them, thinking: ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ ⁸ And so they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹ “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and put those tenants to death and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Have you not read this Scripture:

¹² They wanted to arrest him because they realized that this parable was directed at them, but they were afraid of the crowd. Therefore, they left him and went away.