Mark 12:12

12 They set about to arrest him, for they recognized that he had told the parable with reference to themselves. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

Mark 12:12 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 12:12

They sought to lay held on him
That is, the chief priests, Scribes, and elders, after they had heard the parables he spake to them, were greatly irritated, and provoked, and had a good will to have seized him, and carried him away, and have had him before their court, and condemn him:

but feared the people;
lest they should rise up in his defence, and fall on them; for many of them liked; and were attached to his ministry; and others had received favours of one kind or another from him through his miracles:

for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them:
and that they were the husbandmen designed, who had not brought the fruit of the vineyard to their lord, but had ill treated his servants, and would his son.

And they left him;
in the temple, not daring to do any thing to him:

and went their way;
to their council chamber, perhaps to consult what measures to take, and how to destroy him.

Mark 12:12 In-Context

10 Haven't you read the passage in the Tanakh that says, `The very rock which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone!

11 This has come from ADONAI, and in our eyes it is amazing'?"

12 They set about to arrest him, for they recognized that he had told the parable with reference to themselves. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

13 Next they sent some P'rushim and some members of Herod's party to him in order to trap him with a sh'eilah.

14 They came and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you tell the truth and are not concerned with what people think about you, since you pay no attention to a person's status but really teach what God's way is. Does Torah say that taxes are to be paid to the Roman Emperor, or not?"