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1When they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,[#Mk 11:1–11; Lk 19:28–38; Jn 12:12–15.; #: a village that can no longer be certainly identified. Mark mentions it before Bethany (Mk 11:1), which suggests that it lay to the east of the latter. : the hill east of Jerusalem that is spoken of in Zec 14:4 as the place where the Lord will come to rescue Jerusalem from the enemy nations.]
2saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tethered, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them here to me.[#: instead of the one animal of Mk 11:2, Matthew has two, as demanded by his understanding of Zec 9:9.]
3And if anyone should say anything to you, reply, ‘The master has need of them.’ Then he will send them at once.”
4This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled:[#: this fulfillment citation is actually composed of two distinct Old Testament texts, Is 62:11 ( ) and Zec 9:9. The and the are the same animal in the prophecy, mentioned twice in different ways, the common Hebrew literary device of poetic parallelism. That Matthew takes them as two is one of the reasons why some scholars think that he was a Gentile rather than a Jewish Christian who would presumably not make that mistake (see Introduction).]
5“Say to daughter Zion,[#Is 62:11; Zec 9:9.]
‘Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
6The disciples went and did as Jesus had ordered them.
7They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them, and he sat upon them.[#: upon the two animals; an awkward picture resulting from Matthew’s misunderstanding of the prophecy.]
8The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road.[#: cf. 2 Kgs 9:13. There is a similarity between the cutting and strewing of the branches and the festivities of Tabernacles (Lv 23:39–40); see also 2 Mc 10:5–8 where the celebration of the rededication of the temple is compared to that of Tabernacles.; #2 Kgs 9:13.]
9The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying:[#Ps 118:25–26.]
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest.”
10And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?”[#: in the gospels this verb is peculiar to Matthew where it is used also of the earthquake at the time of the crucifixion (Mt 27:51) and of the terror of the guards of Jesus’ tomb at the appearance of the angel (Mt 28:4). For Matthew’s use of the cognate noun, see note on Mt 8:24.]
11And the crowds replied, “This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.”[#: see Mt 16:14 (“one of the prophets”) and 21:46.]
The Cleansing of the Temple.
12Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.[#Mk 11:15–19; Lk 19:45–48; Jn 2:14–22.; #These activities were carried on in the court of the Gentiles, the outermost court of . Animals for sacrifice were sold; the were for those who could not afford a more expensive offering; see Lv 5:7. : only the coinage of Tyre could be used for the purchases; other money had to be exchanged for that.; #Lv 5:7.]
13And he said to them, “It is written:[#Is 56:7; Jer 7:11.]
‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’
but you are making it a den of thieves.”
14The blind and the lame approached him in the temple area, and he cured them.[#2 Sm 5:8 LXX.; #: according to 2 Sm 5:8 LXX were forbidden to enter “the house of the Lord,” the temple. These are the last of Jesus’ healings in Matthew.]
15When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wondrous things he was doing, and the children crying out in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant[#: the healings.]
16and said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; and have you never read the text, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nurslings you have brought forth praise’?”[#: cf. Ps 8:3 LXX.; #Ps 8:2 LXX; Wis 10:21.]
17And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany, and there he spent the night.
The Cursing of the Fig Tree.
18When he was going back to the city in the morning, he was hungry.[#Mk 11:12–14, 20–24.]
19Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went over to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again.” And immediately the fig tree withered.[#Jer 8:13; Lk 13:6–9.]
20When the disciples saw this, they were amazed and said, “How was it that the fig tree withered immediately?”
21Jesus said to them in reply, “Amen, I say to you, if you have faith and do not waver, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done.[#See Mt 17:20.; #17:20; Lk 17:6.]
22Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.”[#7:7; 1 Jn 3:22.]
The Authority of Jesus Questioned.
23When he had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?”[#Mk 11:27–33; Lk 20:1–8.; #: probably his entry into the city, his cleansing of the temple, and his healings there.; #Jn 2:18.]
24Jesus said to them in reply, “I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things.[#To reply by counterquestion was common in rabbinical debate.]
25Where was John’s baptism from? Was it of heavenly or of human origin?” They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’
26But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet.”[#: cf. Mt 14:5.; #14:5.]
27So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” He himself said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.[#Since through embarrassment on the one hand and fear on the other the religious authorities claim ignorance of the origin of John’s baptism, they show themselves incapable of speaking with authority; hence Jesus refuses to discuss with them the grounds of his authority.]
The Parable of the Two Sons.
28“What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’
29He said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he changed his mind and went.
30The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go.
31Which of the two did his father’s will?” They answered, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.[#: this probably means “they enter; you do not.”]
32When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.[#Cf. Lk 7:29–30. Although the thought is similar to that of the Lucan text, the formulation is so different that it is improbable that the saying comes from Q. : several meanings are possible: that John himself was righteous, that he taught righteousness to others, or that he had an important place in God’s plan of salvation. For the last, see note on Mt 3:14–15.; #Lk 7:29–30.]
The Parable of the Tenants.
33“Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.[#Mk 12:1–12; Lk 20:9–19.; #: cf. Is 5:1–2. The is defined in Is 5:7 as “the house of Israel.”; #Is 5:1–2, 7.]
34When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.[#: Matthew has two sendings of as against Mark’s three sendings of a single servant (Mk 12:2–5a) followed by a statement about the sending of “many others” (Mk 12:2, 5b). That these servants stand for the prophets sent by God to Israel is clearly implied but not made explicit here, but see Mt 23:37. : cf. Mk 12:2 “some of the produce.” The is the good works demanded by God, and his claim to them is total.]
35But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.
36Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way.
37Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’
38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’[#: if a Jewish proselyte died without heir, the tenants of his land would have final claim on it.]
39They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.[#: the change in the Marcan order where the son is killed and his corpse then thrown out (Mk 12:8) was probably made because of the tradition that Jesus died outside the city of Jerusalem; see Jn 19:17; Heb 13:12.; #Heb 13:12.]
40What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”
41They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”[#: in Mk 12:9 the question is answered by Jesus himself; here the leaders answer and so condemn themselves; cf. Mt 21:31. Matthew adds that the new to whom the vineyard will be transferred the owner .]
42Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the scriptures:[#Cf. Ps 118:22–23. The psalm was used in the early church as a prophecy of Jesus’ resurrection; see Acts 4:11; 1 Pt 2:7. If, as some think, the original parable ended at Mt 21:39 it was thought necessary to complete it by a reference to Jesus’ vindication by God.; #Ps 118:22–23; Is 28:16; Acts 4:11; 1 Pt 2:7.]
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes’?
43Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.[#Peculiar to Matthew. : see note on Mt 19:23–24. Its presence here instead of Matthew’s usual “kingdom of heaven” may indicate that the saying came from Matthew’s own traditional material. : believing Israelites and Gentiles, the church of Jesus.]
44[ The one who falls on this stone will be dashed to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.]”[#The majority of textual witnesses omit this verse. It is probably an early addition to Matthew from Lk 20:18 with which it is practically identical.]
45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them.[#: Matthew inserts into the group of Jewish leaders (Mt 21:23) those who represented the Judaism of his own time.]
46And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.