Matthew 21:39

39 And they took him, and casted [cast] him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

Matthew 21:39 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 21:39

And they caught him
Seized and laid hold of him, in a rude and violent manner, as they had some of the servants before. This regards their apprehending of Christ in the garden, by a band of soldiers and officers, sent by the chief priests and Pharisees, who with swords and staves took him, bound him, and led him away:

and cast him out of the vineyard;
which is not to be understood of their casting him out of the synagogue, which is never said of them; nor does it so much relate to the leading of him without the gates of Jerusalem, where they crucified him, though this is a sense not to be despised and rejected; but rather, to the delivery of him to those, that were without the vineyard of the Jewish church and nation, to the Gentiles; to be mocked, scourged, and put to death by them:

and slew him:
for though the sentence of death was pronounced on him by Pilate, an Heathen governor, and was executed by the Roman soldiers; yet it was through the instigation and at the pressing importunity of these husbandmen, the Jewish rulers; and who were afterwards frequently charged by the apostles with the murder of him.

Matthew 21:39 In-Context

37 And at the last he sent his son to them, and said [saying], They shall dread my son.

38 But the earth-tillers, seeing the son, said within themselves, This is the heir; come ye, slay we him, and we shall have his heritage.

39 And they took him, and casted [cast] him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

40 Therefore when the lord of the vineyard shall come, what shall he do to those earth-tillers?

41 They say to him, He shall destroy evil the evil men, and he shall set to hire his vineyard to other earth-tillers, which shall yield to him fruit in their times. [+They said to him, He shall lose evil the evil men, and set to hire his vineyard to other earth-tillers, the which shall yield to him fruits in their times.]