Matthew 21:37

21:37 Finally: God’s revelation climaxed in Jesus (see 13:16-17; Heb 1:1-2).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 21:37. Ὕστερον, last of all) Cf. Heb 1:1.—ἐνραπήσοιται, they will reverence) i.e. they were in duty bound to do so.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 21:37 . ὕστερον , not afterwards merely, but finally, the last step was now to be taken, the mission of the son and heir; excuses conceivable hitherto: doubt as to credentials, a provoking manner in those sent, etc.; not yet conclusively proved that deliberate defiance is intended. The patient master will make that clear before taking further steps. ἐντραπήσονται (pass. for mid.), they will show respect to. It is assumed that they will have no difficulty in knowing him.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son--In Mark (Mar 12:6) this is most touchingly expressed: "Having yet therefore one son, His well-beloved, He sent Him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence My Son." Luke's version of it too (Luk 20:13) is striking: "Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send My beloved Son: it may be they will reverence Him when they see Him." Who does not see that our Lord here severs Himself, by the sharpest line of demarcation, from all merely human messengers, and claims for Himself Sonship in its loftiest sense? (Compare Heb 3:3-6). The expression, "It may be they will reverence My Son," is designed to teach the almost unimaginable guilt of not reverentially welcoming God's Son.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 37. Last of all he sent - his son] This requires no comment. Our Lord plainly means himself.

They will reverence] εντραπησονται, they will reflect upon their conduct and blush for shame because of it, when they see my son. So the Syric and Persic.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(37) Last of all.—The variations in the other Gospels are noticeable as more vivid and dramatic. “He had yet one son, his beloved” (Mar_12:6). “He said, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son, it may be they will reverence him” (Luk_20:13). The language of deliberation and doubt is evidently inapplicable, except by a bold anthropomorphism, to divine acts, but it sets forth (1) the gradually ascending scale of those who were sent, culminating in a difference not of degree only, but of kind, like the contrast between the prophets and the Son in Heb_1:1-2; and (2) the employment by God, in His long-suffering pity, of all possible means to lead His people to repentance.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But last of all,.... In the last times, in the last days, in the end of the world, the Jewish world, at the close of their ecclesiastic and civil state; after all the prophets had been sent, and finished their course, came the greatest prophet of all, to seal up the vision and prophecy:

he sent unto them son; not a servant as before, but a son; his own son, his only begotten son, the son of his love, his dearly beloved one; him he sent to these husbandmen the Jews. The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, was sent only to the house of Israel: he was the minister of the circumcision; he was the great prophet raised up among them, and was sent to bless them, by turning them from their iniquities; he came to them, to his own, to them of his own nation, but they received him not:

saying, they will reverence my son. The Son of God is to be reverenced equally as his Father, since he is in nature and glory equal to him; and it is the will of his Father he should be so reverenced, as he is by the angels in heaven, and by the saints, both in heaven and in earth; but did these husbandmen reverence him? no; they despised and rejected him; they reproached and traduced him, as the vilest of men, and used him in the most cruel and barbarous manner. And did not his Father know this? yes; this is certain from his omniscience, which reaches to all future events, the most minute and contingent; and from the predictions of the usage of these persons of him, delivered long before it came to pass. Luke says, "it may be they will reverence him": so that it was not a positive affirmation, that they would do it, and which also is to be understood after the manner of men: that humanly speaking, it might be expected that they would give him reverence, in consideration of the dignity of his person, his character, and relation to God, which was his due and their duty; but he had a very different treatment from them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.

Ver. 37. They will reverence my son] They will look another way for shame (so the word εντραπησονται imports): they will never be able to look him in the face, they will be so abashed of their former villanies. But it happened far otherwise, for these frontless fellows, past grace, as we say, had faces hatched all over with impudence, and that could blush no more than a sackbut. Sin had woaded shamelessness in their foreheads, and they were as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as ever their fathers were.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They will reverence, &c. This is not said, as if God were ignorant what the Jews would do to his only begotten Son, since in this very place he declares that they would condemn him to death; but, to shew what they ought to have done, and what he had a right to expect from them. (Nicholas de Lyra.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Mark saith he had but one son, his well beloved, Mar 12:6. Luke saith, Luk 20:13, Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him. God is here brought in acting after the manner of men, using all probable means to get their rent: we must not fancy that God did not know what men would do. God, after all his prophets, sent his only Son to the Jews and to their priests, his well beloved Son; he said, Perhaps they will reverence my Son. These words must be understood, not as expressing what they would do, or what appeared to God probable that they would do, but as expressive of what they ought to do, and what God might reasonably expect from them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

37. Last of all… his son — Let it be remembered that this parable is uttered on occasion of their demanding by what authority he did these things, (Mat_21:23.) Jesus first confounds them by asking a question they could not answer, (24-27.) He then propounds a parable, (28-32,) portraying their spirit in asking the question. In the present parable he is obliging them to perceive the answer he could give to their demand for his authority. The same authority that sent God’s messengers of old to your fathers, has in these last days sent to you his Son. They will reverence my son — These words represent God’s rightful expectation; that is, the expectation he has a right to have. If a human householder would have such an expectation, much more God has a reason and a right to expect reverence for his Son.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Last of all; usteron : afterwards, later on. The parable now allegorizes the near present, and future, in such a way as for the moment to conceal its bearing, and to lead the hearers to pronounce their own condemnation: His son. Even Jesus Christ, who was now among them, incarnate, teaching, and demanding of them fruits of righteousness. Here was the authorization which they had required (ver. 23). God sent his Son. They will reverence my Son. God condescends to speak in human language, as hoping for a good result from this last effort for man"s salvation. He, as it were, puts aside his foreknowledge, and gives scope to man"s free will. Though the sad issue is known to him, he often acts towards men as if he had hope that they would still use the occasion profitably. In the present case, whereas the immediate result of the last measure was disastrous, the expectation was ultimately realized in the conversion of many Jews to Christianity, which led to the bringing of all nations to the obedience of the faith.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

v. 37. But last of all he sent unto them. his son, saying, They will relevance my son.

v. 38. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.

v. 39. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

v. 40. When the lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?

v. 41. They say unto Him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

The patience of the master was still not exhausted. He determined upon one last measure to bring those husbandmen to their senses and, incidentally, to obtain the fruits of his garden. He thought they would surely relevance, show the proper respect to, his son, with deep shame for their former conduct and an earnest desire to regain the trust of the master. But the wickedness of these husbandmen, exceeded the ordinary measure. With truly devilish malice they resolved to kill the heir. By removing the heir, they hoped to take the heritage without opposition, to seize it as their own. Having reached the climax of His story, Jesus paused to ask the opinion of His hearers as to the fate of those husbandmen when the lord would return. Without hesitation came the answer that he would most miserably put to death those miserable and wicked servants, and entrust his vineyard to honest husbandmen that would give the stipulated rental at the proper time. In giving this answer, in which Jesus heartily concurred, the members of the Jewish council either put up a bold front in apparent indignation over such outrageous wickedness, though they felt that the parable was meant for them, or they were really too blind to see the connection of the Lord’s words. But in either event their judgment was a sentence of destruction upon themselves and all those of their people that willingly followed them in their wickedness, in their rejection of the Savior.

For the explanation of the parable is evident at a glance. God Himself is the Ruler of the household. The vineyard, as in the Old Testament passages is His. Church, which He had planted in the midst of the people of Israel, His chosen people. He had given to this nation the full measure of His goodness and mercy. He had drawn a hedge about them against the heathen, the ceremonial law, the theocratic form of government. He had given them the strong watch-tower of the kingdom of David and his descendants. He had given them all the external advantages which would enable them to prove themselves a holy nation. But the fruit He expected was not forthcoming. He sent Samuel and other prophets at the time of the judges. He sent more and greater prophets than before with powerful preaching and great signs and wonders. But their abuse of His messengers increased with the passing of time, as in the case of Elijah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, 2Ch 24:20; Mat 23:37; Jer 3:20; Heb 11:36-38; Luk 11:47-51. Last of all He sent His only, His well-beloved Son, hoping that they would recognize Him as His personal representative and give Him the respect and relevance due Him. But they hardened their hearts against His teaching and against His miracles, held councils of hatred against Him, and finally put Him to death, after a formal excommunication. Thus the husbandmen, the prominent members of the Jewish people, and especially their chief priests and elders, the scribes and Pharisees, rejected the counsel of God toward themselves and brought down damnation upon their own heads. And the vineyard with its fruit, the kingdom of God with the riches of His mercy and love, was given to the Gentiles, who accepted it and have since enjoyed its blessings and, in a measure at least, paid the fruits that God demanded, in good works.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. Last of all he sent unto them his son. This was the last and crowning effort of divine mercy; after which, on the one side, all the resources, even of heavenly love, are exhausted; on the other, the measure of sins is perfectly filled up.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

37. ἐντραπήσονται. Non-classical future. ἐντρέπειν, (1) ‘to turn,’ (2) then ‘turn a person,’ cause him to avert his gaze through shame, fear, respect, &c., (3) so ‘to put to shame:’ οὐκ ἐντρέπων ὑμᾶς γράφω ταῦτα, 1Co 4:14. εἰς τοσοῦτον ἐνέτρεψαν τὴν σύγκλητον βουλήν, Ælian, V. H. 3. 17. And in passive, ἵνα ὁ ἐξ ἐναντίας ἐντραπῇ, Tit 2:8, ‘that the adversary be put to shame;’ (4) in middle voice, ‘to let oneself be turned or influenced’ by a person or thing, through some feeling of awe, reverence and the like; (α) with a genitive denoting the source of the action or feeling (Donaldson’s Greek Grammar, 448), τί βαιὸν οὕτως ἐντρέπει τῆς συμμάχου, Soph. Aj. 90; (β) or later with an accusative denoting the object of reverence or concern, as here and Luk 18:2, τὸν θεὸν μὴ φοβούμενος καὶ ἄνθρωπον μὴ ἐντρεπόμενος.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37.] See Luke ver. 13: Mark ver. 6. Our Lord sets forth His heavenly Father in human wise deliberating, τί ποιήσω; (Luke) and ἴσως ἐντρ., to signify His gracious adoption, for man’s sake, of every means which may turn sinners to repentance. The difference here is fully made between the Son and all the other messengers; see Mark; ἔτι ἕνα υἱὸν εἶχεν ἀγαπητόν …: and, as Stier remarks, this is the real and direct answer to the question in ver. 23. The Son appears here, not in his character of Redeemer, but in that of a preacher—a messenger demanding the fruits of the vineyard. (See ch. 4:17.)

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(M) 37. And at last he sent to them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.] Mk. has: “Still one he had, a son beloved. He sent him last to them, saying that they will reverence my son.” See Gould on Mar 12:6-11.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They will reverence [εντραπησονται] . The verb literally means to turn toward; hence to give heed to, pay respect to.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.