But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
Christ had formerly in parables showed how he designed to set up the gospel church; now he begins in parables to show how he would lay aside the Jewish church, which it might have been grafted into the stock of, but was built upon the ruins of. This parable we had just as we have it here, Mat 21:33. We may observe here, I.
Commenting on Mark 12:1-12
But those husbandmen said among themselves,.... This, in the Persic version, is introduced thus, "when the vine dressers saw the son of the lord of the vineyard": agreeably to Mat 21:38. The Ethiopic version renders it, "and the servants said"; not the servants that had been sent, but the workmen in the vineyard: this is the heir; that is, "of the vineyard", as the Persic...
This is the heir - So they appear to have acknowledged in their consciences that this was the Messiah, the heir of all things. The inheritance shall be ours - By slaying him we shall maintain our authority, and keep possession of our revenues.