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OET (OET-LV) He_will_be_coming and will_be_destroying the these tenant_farmers, and will_be_giving the vineyard to_others.
And having_heard they_said:
Never might_it_become.
OET (OET-RV) He’ll go to the vineyard and destroy those tenant farmers, and will lease the vineyard out to others.”
¶ The people listening looked at Yeshua and said, “Surely that could never happen.”
In 20:1–8 the Jewish religious leaders asked Jesus two questions about his authority. In this section Jesus used a parable to answer those questions in an indirect way. The Jewish leaders showed that they understood this parable by their response in 20:19.
The parable was a story about a man who owned a vineyard. A vineyard is a farm where people grow vines that produce a fruit called “grapes.” Many Jewish people had grape farms. They used the grape juice to make wine, which was important in their culture. They also sold the grapes to make money.
In this story, the owner of the grape farm hired men to farm it for him and to give him a share of the profit. Three times the owner sent servants to the men to collect his share. But the men refused to give the owner his share, and they mistreated each of his servants who came to collect it. When he sent his own son, they killed him. Consider how you would tell a similar story in your language.
Jesus used the people in the parable to represent the Jewish religious leaders and their actions toward God and toward himself, God’s Son. The grape farm represents the people of Israel, and the owner represents God. The grape farmers represent the leaders of Israel. The servants represent the prophets, and the owner’s son represents Jesus.
Examples of headings for this section are:
The Parable of the Tenants (NIV)
A story of evil farmers
A parable about bad renters of a vineyard
Parallel passages for this section are in Matthew 21:33–46 and Mark 12:1–12.
In this paragraph the owner decided to send his son. The grape farmers/tenants rejected him and killed him. This figuratively represents the people rejecting Jesus, God’s Son, and killing him.
He will come and kill those tenants,
He will come and kill/execute those tenant farmers.
He will go to the grape field/farm and punish them with death.
He will come and have them put to death.
and will give the vineyard to others.”
Then he will lease the grape farm to other farmers.”
Then he will choose different people to care for his grape field/farm.”
He will come: The phrase He will come implies that the owner would come to his grape farm where the tenants were. In some languages it may be more natural to say, “He will go.” It may also be necessary in some languages to specify a location. For example:
He will go to his grape farm
and kill those tenants: The parable probably implies that the owner would go to the vineyard with other men or servants. He would order those men to execute the tenant farmers. Here the word kill refers to a legal punishment. The owner would punish them with death because they had murdered an innocent person. Other ways to translate this are:
and have those tenants put to death
and execute those tenants
and will give the vineyard to others: The phrase give the vineyard to others indicates that the owner would choose different people to take care of his grape farm for him. It does not indicate that the owner would give the farm away. He would lease the farm to people who would be more faithful to him. Other ways to translate this are:
and lease the vineyard to others (NLT)
and turn the vineyard over to other tenants (GNT)
And when the people heard this, they said, “May such a thing never happen!”
¶ When the people heard Jesus say this, they said, “This must/should never happen!”
¶ When Jesus said this, the people were horrified/appalled. They said, “May God never let this happen!”
And when the people heard this: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as when the people heard this is more literally “hearing this.” The BSB supplies the subject the people to refer back to the people whom Jesus was speaking to in 20:9. If you need to supply a subject here, refer back to these people in a natural way in your language.
May such a thing never happen!: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as May such a thing never happen! expresses a strong desire or prayer that something would not happen. Some ways to translate it are:
May God never let this happen!
This must never happen! (CEV)
May this never happen! (NET)
That’s unthinkable! (GW)
The text does not specify exactly what the people did not want to happen. However, they probably understood that the grape farmers represented their leaders, and the owner and his son represented God and his son Jesus. The people were horrified that the leaders might become guilty of killing God’s son. They were also horrified that God would have to punish the leaders and get other people to take care of his work.The people may have thought that the parable implied that God would take his kingdom away from the Jews and give it to the Gentiles. They would also strongly disagree with that.
If you must make some information explicit here, you can refer to the events in 20:16a–b. You can refer to them in either a specific or a general way. For example:
It should not happen that the farmers do such terrible things and are killed and replaced!
May these terrible things never happen!
τοὺς γεωργοὺς τούτους
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ἐλεύσεται καί ἀπολέσει τούς γεωργούς τούτους καί δώσει τόν ἀμπελῶνα ἄλλοις ἀκούσαντες Δέ εἶπαν Μή γένοιτο)
See how you translated the term farmers in [20:9](../20/09.md). Your language might say “those” instead of these in a context like this. Alternate translation: [those vine growers] or [those grape farmers]
Note 1 topic: translate-unknown
δώσει τὸν ἀμπελῶνα ἄλλοις
˓will_be˒_giving (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ἐλεύσεται καί ἀπολέσει τούς γεωργούς τούτους καί δώσει τόν ἀμπελῶνα ἄλλοις ἀκούσαντες Δέ εἶπαν Μή γένοιτο)
See how you translated the similar expression in [20:9](../20/09.md). Alternate translation: [allow different grape farmers to use it in exchange for a share of the crop]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / exclamations
μὴ γένοιτο
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ἐλεύσεται καί ἀπολέσει τούς γεωργούς τούτους καί δώσει τόν ἀμπελῶνα ἄλλοις ἀκούσαντες Δέ εἶπαν Μή γένοιτο)
This is an exclamation. Alternate translation: [May nothing like that ever happen]
20:1-47 In this series of controversies between Jesus and the religious leaders of Jerusalem, they repeatedly questioned and challenged him, and he repeatedly outmatched them with his spiritual wisdom, insight, and authority.
OET (OET-LV) He_will_be_coming and will_be_destroying the these tenant_farmers, and will_be_giving the vineyard to_others.
And having_heard they_said:
Never might_it_become.
OET (OET-RV) He’ll go to the vineyard and destroy those tenant farmers, and will lease the vineyard out to others.”
¶ The people listening looked at Yeshua and said, “Surely that could never happen.”
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.
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