Luke 20:14

But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:9-19 Christ spake this parable against those who resolved not to own his authority, though the evidence of it was so full. How many resemble the Jews who murdered the prophets and crucified Christ, in their enmity to God, and aversion to his service, desiring to live according to their lusts, without control! Let all who are favoured with God's word, look to it that they make proper use of their advantages. Awful will be the doom, both of those who reject the Son, and of those who profess to reverence Him, yet render not the fruits in due season. Though they could not but own that for such a sin, such a punishment was just, yet they could not bear to hear of it. It is the folly of sinners, that they persevere in sinful ways, though they dread the destruction at the end of those ways.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this parable explained in the notes at Matthew 21:33-45.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. reasoned among themselves—(Compare Ge 37:18-20; Joh 11:47-53).

the heir—sublime expression of the great truth, that God's inheritance was destined for, and in due time to come into the possession of, His Son in our nature (Heb 1:2).

inheritance … ours—and so from mere servants we may become lords; the deep aim of the depraved heart, and literally "the root of all evil."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 20:9"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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.

Geneva Study Bible

But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. that the inheritance may be ours] “His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,” Hebrews 1:2. Comp. John 11:47-53. “They killed that they might possess, and because they killed they lost.” Aug.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 20:14. Λέγοντες, saying) The Scripture in weighty and true language expresses (portrays) the actual and real mind of men, which they themselves often do not think to be so bad as it is. Comp. Luke 20:16 [They said, “God forbid”]. God, who estimates things by the truth, and men, who habitually flatter themselves, weigh sins in very different scales.—ἀποκτείνωμεν, let us kill) Ch. Luke 19:47.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - But when the husbandmen saw him; they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. The husbandmen are represented as knowing the son and heir. Nor can we resist the conclusion that some at least of those grave learned men who sat in the Sanhedrim as priests or scribes well knew who the Speaker of the awful words claimed to be, and, in resisting him and seeking his destruction, were deliberately sinning against the voice of their own hearts. Luke 20:14