Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §16.2
and sequence. And it would be surprising if a Jewish audience did not hear an allusion
to Israel as God's vineyard 68 and to the prophets as God's rejected messengers,
even in the shorter version. 69 Moreover, the basic parable accords well
with central thrusts in Jesus' preaching elsewhere, particularly the evocation of
the well-established theme of prophet rejection and the expectation of judgment
on Israel (§12.4c-e).
The point of immediate interest is that the sending of the owner's son is the
climax of the parable. Indeed, if anything forms the core of the parable it is the
father's 'sending' of his son in the hope that the tenants 'will respect' him (Mark
12.6 pars.). This feature cannot simply be dismissed as christological colouring 70
since the contrast between servants and son is integral to the dramatic climax of
the parable. 71 By the same token, however, one should not read too much
christological weight into Jesus' possible use of the motif. Even so, it cannot but
be significant that Jesus was remembered as likening his mission to that of a son,
and both in continuity with and in distinction from the earlier missions of the
prophets as servants. The same sense of eschatological climax is evident, and its
expression in son imagery is consistent with our findings thus far. 72 The impor-
Parable of the Wicked Tenants (WUNT 27; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1983) 3-11; Hultgren,
Parables 361 n. 30, 365 n. 44. Hultgren's own discussion of the relation of the different versions
assumes that only literary dependence is at issue (365-66). Lüdemann, Jesus 81-82, pays
too little attention to Thomas's version and its relevance for evaluating the parable's
performance-/tradition-history. It is much more plausible that the sequel to the parable, the
'stone' testimony from Ps. 118.22-23 (Mark 12.10-12 pars., including GTh 66), was an addition
to the parable as its christological potential became clear in the light of Jesus' crucifixion (see
e.g., Hultgren 363-64, with further bibliography n. 34; otherwise Wright, Jesus 497-501,
stretching the interpretative thread to near breaking point [501]).
68. 'A Jew could not tell a story about a vineyard without embarking upon allegory (cf.
Isa. 5.7)' (Barrett, Jesus 27). See further G. J. Brooke, '4Q500 1 and the Use of Scripture in the
Parable of the Vineyard', DSD 2 (1995) 268-94; J. C. de Moor, The Targumic Background of
Mark 12:1-12: The Parable of the Wicked Tenants', 757 29 (1998) 63-80; W. J. C. Weren, 'The
Use of Isaiah 5,1-7 in the Parable of the Tenants (Mark 12,1-12; Matthew 21,33-46)', Biblica
79 (1998) 1-26.
69. As many have observed, the parable may also reflect the harsh realities of absentee
landlords and dissatisfied tenant-farmers of Jesus' own time (e.g., Dodd, Parables 125-26;
Charlesworth, Jesus 145-47; Funk, Five Gospels 101); see also M. Hengel, 'Das Gleichnis von
den Weingartnern: Me 12:1-12 im Licht der Zenonpapyri und der rabbinischen Gleichnisse',
ZNW 59 (1968) 1-39; C. A. Evans, 'Jesus' Parable of the Tenant Farmers in Light of Lease
Agreements in Antiquity', JSP 14 (1996) 65-83.
70. But the description of the son as 'beloved' may well have been added by Mark (followed
by Luke) to enhance the christological reference (cf. Mark 1.11; 9.7).
71. 'It is the logic of the story, and not any theological motive, that has introduced this
figure' (Dodd, Parables 130); see also those cited by Bayer, Jesus' Predictions 94 n. 24.
72. Earlier discussion in Jesus and the Spirit 35-36; see also Charlesworth, Jesus 147-53.
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