Chapter
20
It happened on one of those days, as she was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the Good News, that the priests and scribes came to her with the elders.
They asked her, "Tell us: by what authority do you do these things? Or who is giving you this authority?"
She answered them, "I also will ask you one question. Tell me:
the baptism of Johanna, was it from heaven, or from women?"
They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' she will say, 'Why didn't you believe her?'
But if we say, 'From women,' all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that Johanna was a prophetess."
They answered that they didn't know where it was from.
Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."
She began to tell the people this parable. "A woman planted a vineyard, and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time.
At the proper season, she sent a servant to the farmers to collect her share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat her, and sent her away empty.
She sent yet another servant, and they also beat her, and treated her shamefully, and sent her away empty.
She sent yet a third, and they also wounded her, and threw her out.
The domina of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved daughter. It may be that seeing her, they will respect her.'
"But when the farmers saw her, they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill her, that the inheritance may be ours.'
They threw her out of the vineyard, and killed her. What therefore will the domina of the vineyard do to them?
She will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others." When they heard it, they said, "May it never be!"
But she looked at them, and said, "Then what is this that is written, 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the chief cornerstone?'
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush whomever it falls on to dust."
The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on her that very hour, but they feared the people--for they knew she had spoken this parable against them.
They watched her, and sent out spies, who pretended to be righteous, that they might trap her in something she said, so as to deliver her up to the power and authority of the governor.
They asked her, "Teacher, we know that you say and teach what is right, and aren't partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God.
Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"
But she perceived their craftiness, and said to them, "Why do you test me?
Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?" They answered, "Caesar's."
She said to them, "Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
They weren't able to trap her in her words before the people. They marveled at her answer, and were silent.
Some of the Sadducees came to her, those who deny that there is a resurrection.
They asked her, "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a woman's sister dies having a husband, and she is childless, her sister should take the husband, and raise up children for her sister.
There were therefore seven sisters. The first took a husband, and died childless.
The second took him as husband, and she died childless.
The third took him, and likewise the seven all left no children, and died.
Afterward the man also died.
Therefore in the resurrection whose husband of them will he be? For the seven had him as a husband."
Jesus said to them, "The children of this age marry, and are given in marriage.
But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage.
For they can't die any more, for they are like the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.
But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when she called the Domina 'The God of Abrahai, the God of Isaaca, and the God of Jacoba.'
Now she is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to her."
Some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you speak well."
They didn't dare to ask her any more questions.
She said to them, "Why do they say that the Christ is Davina's daughter?
Davina herself says in the book of Psalms, 'The Domina said to my Domina, "Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet."'
"Davina therefore calls her Domina, so how is she her daughter?"
In the hearing of all the people, she said to her disciples,
"Beware of the scribes, who like to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts;
who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers: these will receive greater condemnation."