The Greek Text for Matt 21:33-46

Greek Study Matthew 21:33-46

v33 οικοδεσποτης (ης ου) "a land manager" – steward/manager

οστις "who"  Matthew favors this indefinite pronoun, so "who", as landowners in general, crop their land, here planted a vineyard.

φραγμον (ος) "[he put] a wall [around]" - likely a "hedge".

πυργον (ος) "watchtower" - for security.

εξεδετο (εκδιδωμι) aor. "rented" - possibly on a sharecropping basis, but also, given that the vineyard would take a few years to come into full production, given care of the vineyard and paid.

εεωργοις (ος) dat. "to some farmers" - Dative of indirect object.

απεδημησεν (αποδημεω) aor. "went away on a journey" - until the vineyard came into production.

  
v34 των καρπων (ος) "the harvest [time]" – literally ‘of fruit’.

γεωργους (ος) "farmers" – experienced people who actually work the land. 

ο καιρος των καρπων "harvest time" - the time of the fruits. "

ηγγισεν (εγγιζω) aor. "approached" - came near/palpable. This is the same word Jesus uses in Mark to announce the coming of the Kingdom.

λαβειν (λαμβανω) inf. "to collect" - infinitive is adverbial, expressing purpose; possibly, "to obtain his share of the grapes".

v35 λαβοντες (λαμβανω) aor. part. "[the tenants] seized" an attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verbs "beat", "killed" and "stoned".

εδειραν (δερω) aor. "they beat" – actually “flayed” but a softer meaning is intended to display ascending acts of violence meaning that the stoning was a lethal stoning.

v36 παλιν adv. "again [he sent]" at the next harvest (the following year!)

των προωτων adj. "[more] than the first" an ablative, of comparison.

ωσαυτως adv. "likewise" - expressing manner.

v37 υστερον comp. adj. "last of all" - finally, - a superlative so expressing the last in a series.

λεγων (λεγω) pres. part. saying. Likekly to himself, so "he thought to himself."

εντραπησονται (εντρεπω) fut. pas. "they will respect" - act respectfully toward ...

v38 ιδοντες (ειδον) aor. part. " [the tenants] having seen temporal "But when they saw..."

ο κληρονομος (ος) "the heir" αποκτεινωμεν (αποκτεινω) aor. subj. "let's kill [him] a hortatory subjunctive.

την κληρονομιαν (α) "[his] inheritance" - "His property", TEV.

v39 λαβοντες (λαμβανω) aor. part. "they took him" – violently seized, 

εξεβαλον (εκβαλλω) aor. "threw him" - opposite to Mark who has killed and then threw out, this is a possible alignment to the order of Jesus' arrest and crucifixion. 

του αϑμπελωνος (ων ωνος) gen. "[out] of the vineyard" Ablative, expressing separation, clarified by the preposition εξω "out ".

v40 του αμπελωνος (ων ωνος) gen. "[the owner] of the vineyard" the language is identical to that in the earlier parable about the unfair pay –from a common written source?

τοις γεωργοις εκεινοις dat. "[what will he do] to those tenants?".

v41 κακους κακως "[he will bring] those wretches to a wretched [end]" - evil badly [he will destroy]. The adjective, κακους, "evil, bad", is used as a noun, and placed beside the adverb, κακως, "fiercely", which modifies the verb απολεσει "will destroy", serves as a play on words; "he will bring those bad men to a bad end", meaning total destruction.

λεγουσιν (λεγω) pres. "they replied" - Historic present.

αλλοις γεωργοις dat. "[he will rent the vineyard] to other tenants".

οιτινες (οστις) rel. ind. pro. "who" - as in v33.

αποδωσουσιν (αποδιδωμι) fut. "will give" - will give back. 

v42 λιθον (ος) acc. "the stone"

απεδοκιμασαν (αποδοκιμαζω) aor. "rejected" - completely as useless.

κεφαλην γωνιας "the capstone / becomes the cornerstone" It is not actually known whether this stone is a capstone, binding the walls together, or the corner/foundation stone. Whatever, the builders rejected it as unsuitable.

v43 δια τουτο. "therefore" causal construction;  on account of the fact.

του θεου (ος) gen. "[the kingdom] of God" - Only on four occasions does Matthew drop his usual "kingdom of heaven", and replace it with “of God”.  Both titles take the same meaning, but the way the kingdom is described as a present reality which αρθησεται, "will be taken away", from "you" seems the point. 

αρθησεται (αιρω) fut. pas. "will be taken away" - this verb, and "given" are passive and may be classed as divine passives; God does the taking away and the giving.

εθνει (ος) dat. "to a people" - "people" remains undefined, but at the least a people under God, a community of disciples, possibly the "church".

ποιουντι (ποιεω) dat. pres. part. "who will produce" - doing = producing.

τους καρπους (ος) "[its] fruit" The word is used to tie in with the parable where the tenants did not provide the fruit from the vineyard to the owner and are cast from the vineyard. It is essential to note that this fruit is not just an initial response to the gospel, but the totality of life in the kingdom. 

v44 ο πεσων (πιπτω) part. "he who falls" - the one falling.

συνθλασθησεται (συνθλαω) fut. pas. "will be broken to pieces" – crushed/shattered.

λικμησει (λικμαω) fut. "will be crushed" – winnowed/ground to dust.

v45 οι αρχιερεις και οιϑ Φαρισαιοι "the chief priests and the Pharisees" Matthew now associates members of the Sadducees with that of the Pharisees, sworn enemies.

v46 ζητουντες (ζητεω) part. "they looked for a way" κρατησαι (κρατεω) aor. inf. "to arrest [him]".

εφοβηθησαν (φοβεω) aor. pas. "they were afraid of" τους οχλους (ος) gen. "the crowd” a direct reference to the intended audience of last week’s parable.