On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision

by William Lane Craig

(Mark 12:1–9) Even skeptical scholars recognize the authenticity of this parable, since it’s also found in one of their favorite sources, the Gospel of Thomas (65), and so is by their reckoning independently confirmed. Moreover, the parable not only reflects the actual experience of absentee landowners in the ancient world but also employs typical images and themes found in Jewish parables: Israel as a vineyard, God as the owner, unworthy rebellious tenants, the figure of a son, and so on, so that it fits well within a Jewish context. The parable also contains interpretative nuances rooted in the Aramaic paraphrases of Isaiah 5, which were in use in Jesus’ day. There are, furthermore, aspects of the parable that make it unlikely that the parable originated later in the Christian church. For example, the concern in the parable over who should possess the vineyard after it’s taken away from the present tenants was a nonissue for the early Christians, since Rome destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. And the absence of the resurrection of the slain son in the parable doesn’t fit well with the early Christians’ belief in Jesus’ resurrection.