Mark 11 – 12 1111 they saw the fig tree with ered from the roots . 21 Pe ter re mem bered and said to Jesus , “ Rab bi , look ! The fig tree you cursed has with ered !”
22 “ Have faith in God ,” Jesus an swered .
23 “ Tru ly a I tell you , if any one says to this
moun tain , ‘ Go , throw your self into the sea ,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will hap pen , it will be done for them . 24 There fore I tell you , what ev er you ask for in prayer , be lieve that you have re ceived it , and it will be yours .
25 And when you stand pray ing , if you hold
any thing against any one , for give them , so that your Fa ther in heav en may for give you your sins .” [ 26 ] b
The Authority of Jesus Questioned
27 They ar rived again in Je ru sa lem , and
while Jesus was walk ing in the tem ple courts , the chief priests , the teach ers of the law and the el ders came to him . 28 “ By what au thor i ty are you do ing these things ?” they asked . “ And who gave you au thor i ty to do this ?”
29 Jesus re plied , “ I will ask you one question . An swer me , and I will tell you by what au thor i ty I am do ing these things . 30 John ’ s bap tism — was it from heav en , or of hu man or i gin ? Tell me !”
31 They dis cussed it among them selves
and said , “ If we say , ‘ From heav en ,’ he will ask , ‘ Then why didn ’ t you be lieve him ?’
32 But if we say , ‘ Of hu man or i gin ’ . . .”
( They feared the peo ple , for ev ery one held that John real ly was a proph et .)
33 So they an swered Jesus , “ We don ’ t
know .”
Jesus said , “ Nei ther will I tell you by what au thor i ty I am do ing these things .”
The Parable of the Tenants
12
Jesus then be gan to speak to them in par a bles : “ A man plant ed a vine yard . He put a wall around it , dug a pit for the wine press and built a watch tow er . Then he rent ed the vine yard to some farm ers and moved to an oth er place . 2 At har vest time he sent a ser vant to the ten ants to col lect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard . 3 But they seized him , beat him and sent him away emp ty-hand ed . 4 Then he sent an oth er ser vant to them ; they struck this man on the head and treat ed him shame ful ly . 5 He sent still an oth er , and that one they killed . He sent many oth ers ; some of them they beat , oth ers they killed .
6 “ He had one left to send , a son , whom
he loved . He sent him last of all , say ing , ‘ They will re spect my son .’
7 “ But the ten ants said to one an oth er ,
‘ This is the heir . Come , let ’ s kill him , and the in her i tance will be ours .’ 8 So they took him and killed him , and threw him out of the vine yard .
a 22,23 Some early manuscripts “ If you have faith
in God ,” Jesus answered , 23 “ truly b 26 Some manuscripts include here words similar to Matt . 6:15 .
Clearing the Temple
The great temple in Jerusalem had several courtyards . In the outer court it had become common for people to buy and sell animals to sacrifice . Jesus was angry about this . God ’ s temple was for prayer , not for doing business .