Luke 20:14

14 But [when] the tenant farmers saw him, they began to reason with one another, saying, 'This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance will become ours!'

Luke 20:14 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 20:14

But when the husbandmen saw him
In human nature, heard him preach, and observed the miracles done by him:

they reasoned among themselves;
as the Scribes and Pharisees, and elders of the people often did:

saying, this is the heir;
the heir of God, being his Son; and so the Ethiopic version; "this Son is his heir", or the heir of the vineyard; being, by appointment, heir of all things, and by his descent from David heir to the kingdom of Israel;

come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.
The Arabic and Persic versions render it, "and his inheritance shall be ours": the nation, city, temple, and all the emoluments and benefits thereof. The word "come" is left out in the Alexandrian copy, and in the Gothic and Vulgate Latin versions.

Luke 20:14 In-Context

12 And he proceeded to send a third, but they wounded [and] threw out this one also.

13 So the owner of the vineyard said, 'What should I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.'

14 But [when] the tenant farmers saw him, they began to reason with one another, saying, 'This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance will become ours!'

15 And they threw him out of the vineyard [and] killed [him]. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

16 He will come and destroy those tenant farmers and give the vineyard to others." And [when they] heard [this], they said, "[May this] never happen!"

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("saw") which is understood as temporal
• [b]. *The imperfect tense has been translated as ingressive here ("began to reason")