Intertextuality Pair

Luke 20:9-19 → Isaiah 5:1

Allusion

Later text

Luke 20:9-19BSB

Then He proceeded to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to some tenants, and went away for a long time. At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. So he sent another servant, but they beat him and treated him shamefully, sending him away empty-handed. Then he sent a third, but they wounded him and threw him out. ‘What shall I do?’ asked the owner of the vineyard. ‘I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others.” And when the people heard this, they said, “May such a thing never happen!” But Jesus looked directly at them and said, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” When the scribes and chief priests realized that Jesus had spoken this parable against them, they sought to arrest Him that very hour. But they were afraid of the people.

Earlier text

Isaiah 5:1BSB

I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
+ 3 more earlier texts

Earlier text

Amos 3:7BSB

Surely the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.

Earlier text

1 Kings 14:18BSB

And they buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word that the LORD had spoken through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

Earlier text

Amos 3:1BSB

Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

Significance

"A man planted a vineyard (ἄνθρωπός τις ἐφύτευσεν ἀμπελῶνα), rented it out to some tenants, and went away for a long time" (Luke 20:9). Luke's opening clause is Isaiah's opening clause. The Song of the Vineyard begins ἀμπελὼν ἐγενήθη τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ - "my Beloved had a vineyard" - and continues "I planted (ἐφύτευσα) a choice vine," with the hedge, the tower, the winepress, and the sour fruit (Isaiah 5:1-2). Isaiah then removes all doubt about the referent: "the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel" (5:7). Jesus' hearers catch it instantly - "when the scribes and chief priests realized that Jesus had spoken this parable against them, they sought to arrest Him that very hour" (20:19). And Luke preserves a second link easy to miss: Isaiah calls the vineyard's owner ὁ ἠγαπημένος / ὁ ἀγαπητός, "my Beloved," while in Jesus' parable the owner says, "I will send my beloved son (τὸν υἱόν μου τὸν ἀγαπητόν)" (20:13) - the same word, moved from the owner to the son, and the same word the voice from heaven used at the baptism and on the mountain (Luke 3:22; 9:35). This is allusion at close range, near the level of citation. Its method, however, is not typology: the vineyard means the same thing in both texts - Israel - so there is no type and antitype, no figure escalated into a greater figure. What Jesus does is take up Isaiah's own parable and run it one stage further. Isaiah's owner asks, "What more could I have done for My vineyard?" and answers by tearing down the hedge (5:4-5). Jesus' owner has one thing left to do, and does it: "I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him." That is redemptive-historical progression riding the canon-wide vine-and-vineyard theme, and the escalation is on the owner's side rather than the vineyard's - the story advances because God's patience does. (Of the remaining sources, Amos 3:7 - "the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets" - together with 1 Kings 14:18 and Ezra 9:11 supplies the standing "His servants the prophets" formula behind the owner's repeated sending, though none is alluded to verbally; Amos 3:1 has no bearing on the passage.) Isaiah ends in a wasteland of thorns and briers; Luke ends with the rejected stone becoming the cornerstone (20:17), which means the murdered Son is not the vineyard's end but the new building's foundation. The astonishing thing is not the judgment on the tenants - any reader of Isaiah 5 could have predicted that. It is that the owner, knowing exactly what had happened to every servant he sent, still said "perhaps they will respect him" and sent the one he loved.

Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Redemptive-Historical Progression + Longitudinal Theme

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