1 One day while Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the gospel, the chief priests and the Torah-experts, together with the elders, came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us: By what authority is it that ˢyou are doing these things? Who is the one who gave you this authority?”

3 “I, too, will ask ᵖyou a question,” Jesus replied to them. “Tell me: 4 The baptism performed by John—was it God who authorized it, or mere men?”

5 They discussed the matter among themselves, saying, “If we answer, ‘God,’ he will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe John?’ 6 On the other hand, if we answer, ‘mere men,’ the people, all of them, will stone us to death, because they are firmly convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So finally they told him that they didn’t know who it was that authorized it.

8 “Then neither will I myself tell you by what authority it is that I am doing these things,” Jesus said to them.

9 Then Jesus began telling the people this parable: A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and then went abroad for a considerable amount of time. 10 At the time of the grape harvest, the man sent to the tenant farmers a slave, so that they would give him this: His portion of the fruit from the vineyard. The tenant farmers, however, beat the slave and sent him back with nothing. 11 The man sent yet another slave. Giving a beating, too, to that slave, however, and treating him shamefully, the tenants sent him back with nothing. 12 The man went on to send a third slave, but they injured and threw out this one, too.

13 “What should I do?” the owner of the vineyard asked himself. “I know. I will send my son, my dearly loved son. Surely they’ll respect him.”

14 When the tenant farmers saw his son, however, they talked the matter over with one another, saying, “This is the heir! Let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours!” 15 So throwing him outside the vineyard, they killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and put these tenant farmers to death and entrust the vineyard to others.”

When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”

17 Jesus looked straight at them and said, “What then is the meaning of that which is written:

20 Watching carefully for their opportunity, they sent some spies who acted as if they were truly sincere and upright, so that they could trap Jesus in his own words, and, as a result, hand him over to the power and the authority of the governor. 21 “Teacher,” they said, “we know that your message and teaching are completely accurate, and that you don’t compromise truth or justice for anyone, no matter how important they seem to be, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth and only in accordance with the truth. 22 Does the Torah permit us to pay taxes, or not, to the Roman Emperor?”

23 Seeing through their trickery, Jesus said to them, 24 “Show me the silver coin used for the tax. Whose image and title are on it?”

“The Emperor’s,” they replied.

25 “Well then,” Jesus said to them, “give the things that are the Emperor’s back to the Emperor, and the things that are God’s back to God.” 26 And so they were unable to trap him in his own words in the presence of the people. Amazed at his answer, they fell silent.

27 Now some who belonged to the religious party called the Sadducees (whose adherents claim that the dead will not be resurrected) came up to Jesus and posed a question to him. 28 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves behind a wife but no children, that man must marry the widow and father children for his brother.+ 29 Now then, once there were seven brothers. The first one married and then died without children. 30 The second brother, too, 31 and then the third, themselves married the widow. Eventually, all seven brothers ended up marrying her, but none of them left behind any children when they died. 32 Finally, the woman herself died, too. 33 The woman, therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife will she be, given that all seven had at one point been married to her?”

34 “It is the people of this age who marry and are given in marriage,” replied Jesus. 35 “Those who are considered worthy of taking part in the coming age, however, and the resurrection from the dead, aren’t going to marry or be given in marriage; 36 in fact, they will no longer even be able to die. They will be, you see, in these respects, just like the angels, and will be people who belong to God himself, because they will be this: People of the resurrection. 37 Now, that the dead are in fact going to be raised to life, Moses, too, indicated in the passage about the burning bush, when he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’+ 38 He is the God not of the dead, but of the living! They are in him all certain to live again, you see.”

39 In response some of the Torah-experts said, “Well said, Teacher!” 40 Indeed, they no longer dared to ask him any more questions.

41 Then Jesus said to them, “Why do they say that the Messiah is the son of David? 42 David himself, you see, says in the scroll containing the Psalms,

45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46 “Be on your guard against the Torah-experts, who like to walk around in long robes and love elaborate greetings in the market areas and the seats of honor in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47 who rob widows of their livelihood and pray on and on and on just for show. These will receive a more severe punishment.”