Biblical Exegesis

Introduction

Exegesis of the Bible is the attempt of people inclusive of scholars and students trying to figure out what the scripture says by reading it carefully and analyzing the content and context in a way that honors it as the Word of God yet it is critical to find the meaning or what the writer meant by the verse. The process of exegesis starts with the identity of the passage which is Mark 12:1-12, then goes through exploration of meaning, context, content and lastly conclusion or integration of the points from the entire process.

Mark 12:1-12

The genre of the passage is a parable of the type double indirect parable with hidden link between image and reality (Snodgrass, 2008 p 276). It is to be examined in what way an owner would act in the same way as the one in this parable. God is patient with mankind. In Early Jewish writings a righteous man is said to call himself (paida kyriou) a child of the Lord (Snodgrass, 2008 p 277).

Mark 12:1-12 narrates the story of Jesus telling a parable to the Chief Priest and the teachers of the law (Mark 12:12), where it is a continuation of the general questions that they were asking Jesus and He was responding and lastly He decided to speak to them through this parable (of Tenants). The parable tells about a man who planted a vineyard and rented it out to tenant farmers. The man the best to ensure that the garden is secure and well served with water supply and for these provisions he was sure the farmers will have a good harvest because of good water supply and the grapes would not be lost to thieves who seek to reap where they had not sown. It is an expression of a landlord who cares to ensure that the farmers are well. When he sends servants to collect some fruits from the farmers which would be in probably in part of rent the farmers mistreat them and even kill them in order to him that they are not in any position to honor what he did before by preparing the land and winepress, that the garden was his and they only but tenants (Snodgrass, 2008 p 680). By killing his son they showed they left no other hope of honoring his orders since the man believed that his son is the last he can send whom they also killed.

The parable ends with the question and answer of what would the man do but to kill all those tenants and give the vineyard to others. The question that one would ask is how he would have managed to kill those tenants who had killed his servants and his son. But who can look on that side that he had managed to build a wall, dig a well and he also had servants. The farmers might have been able to defy the servants because they came single-handedly. But as Jesus narrated without doubt about what the owner would do “He will come and kill those tenants.” That would be the action taken by the owner of the vineyard to the tenants who failed to pay and also killed the messengers which is a sign of dishonoring the person who sends them. This could be in part to the previous question in Mark 11 where He asks the teachers of the law whom they thought John the Baptist had came from. That if they honored him then they honored Him who had sent John the Baptist. But they did not honor John the Baptist even though he was popularly known to be from God.

The meaning

The meaning of the passage can be derived from the verses 10-12 where Jesus told them about the Scripture and the rejected stone which became the cornerstone which usually is used to start up the laying of blocks in normal building and construction. Again the chief priest and the teachers of the law wanted to arrest Him because He the parable spoke about them. If the parable spoke about the chief priest and the teachers of the law then they become the tenants in the parable. Their place of work becomes the vineyard, which is the temple. The next task is to identify what the well would be since the wall can easily be identified with the built temple. The well could possibly be the scripture which they use to nourish the beliefs of the people as water from the well helps to keep fresh the vines in season and out of season. According to scholar (Williamson, 1983 p 214), the owner of the Vineyard is God, vineyard is Israel, Tenants are the religious leaders, servants are the prophets and son is Jesus.The fruits could be the people since the teachers taught about the laws that were given to Moses to present to the Israelites. The servants sent could include the prophets whom the teachers of the law and the chief priest despised, neglected, mistreated or killed so that they would be the owners of the temple and people would not find the message of God but be owned by beliefs the teachers wanted them to possess. When Jesus quoted to them Psalms 118:22, 23, they knew He talked as if to mock them (of a prophecy they knew but understood not) since as we can read from verse 12, Jesus was popular which kept the scribes away from arresting. He was telling them of what they had begun to witness; Him that they rejected was then increasingly being appreciated by the people.

Context of the passage

Previously Jesus had been received joyously into Jerusalem when he rode on a donkey (Mark 11) and he had returned back to the city towards the temple where the teachers of the law were asking him questions. Jesus had asked them about John the Baptist after they asked through whose authority he had performed the miracles. He followed by asking them whom they thought sent John the Baptist and they too read the mind of Jesus because He would have asked them if John was a servant of God why hadn’t they listened to him. Thus the servants Jesus was particularly talking about John the Baptist whom was still alive and they despised and Himself whom they had rejected.

According to scholars (Regt, Waard & Fokkelman, 1996 p 44), the verses of mark 12:1 were taken from the Scripture of Isaiah 5:2 which talks of a man that did all the good work for his vineyard but it yielded only bad fruit and only the sequence had been changed and also the believe that the parable was derived from the Jewish cultural beliefs. The entire context should be linked to tradition (McKnight, 2005 p 149)

In Jewish tradition is it recognized that the items that Jesus used were already known to the people in the Jewish society who were had a clear understanding of symbols. The fence was known to the law which is the wall round the vineyard; the tower was the temple from where the whole nation came to worship, the pit or winepress as the altar (Williamson, 1983 p 214).

Conclusion

The significance of the tenants killing the son in order to gain ownership of the vineyard can be looked from the perspective of the scribes killing Jesus to get control of Israel for indeed they had great power during those times seeing that Jesus was first arrest by their servants and presented before them before being taken to Pilate. It follows that Jesus was already aware of the scheme to kill Him (McKnight, 2005 p 150), he thought of His death like those of ancient prophets who were killed by Kings .The parable is a warning to all positions of authority in the church that should they forget the owner of the “vineyard “by trying to make it their own they shall be punished and the owner shall get other tenants (Williamson, 1983 p 216). It is recorded that throughout the history of Israel, their leaders oppressed or even killed the servants of God so that they could exercise their own authority without correction or criticism (Williamson, 1983 p 214).

References

McKnight S., (2005). Jesus and His death: historiography, the Historical Jesus, and Atonement Theory. Texas: Baylor University Press.

Regt J.L., Waard J., & Fokkelman P.J., (1996). Literary structure and rhetorical strategies in the Hebrew Bible. Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum & Comp.

Snodgrass K., (2008). Stories with intent: A comprehensive guide to the parables of Jesus. Michigan:Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Williamson L., (1983). Mark: interpretation, a bible commentary for Teaching and preaching. Georgia, Atlanta: John Knox Press.