“And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled.”
Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully — the second servant receives worse treatment: wounded in the head and treated shamefully. The escalation communicates that the tenants are not merely negligent but actively and increasingly hostile to the owner's claim on the vineyard's fruit.
Church Fathers on Mark 12:4
After the Lord had closed the mouths of His tempters by a wise question, He next shews their wickedness in a parable.
God the Father is called a man by a human conception. The vineyard is the house of Israel; the hedge is the guardianship of Angels; the winefat is the law, the tower is the temple, and the husbandmen, the priests.
Or else, the hedge is the wall of the city, the winefat is the altar, or those winefats, by which three psalms receive their name.
Read all 22 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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