What Does Mark 12:6 Mean?
Having yet therefore one son, his beloved, he sent him last of all to them, saying, They will turn toward my son.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.THE KEY
The owner’s final appeal is not another servant but his beloved son, whose reception reveals whether the tenants recognize the owner.
THE MEANING
You encounter the owner’s claim through the beloved son who comes in his place. He is not one more servant: receiving him means recognizing the authority of the one who sent him. The expected reverence is a turning of regard toward who stands before you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that every messenger can be treated as interchangeable, postponing the owner’s claim without limit. The son is not interchangeable with the servants; his arrival makes that claim personal.
THE ROOT
ἀπέστειλεν
apesteilen
GROWS FROM
στέλλω
stellō
To send or dispatch; the compound verb carries the sense of sending out.
The verb belongs to the same word family as the word for a messenger, one who is sent. The son is dispatched as the owner’s direct representative, marking a change in the authority carried by the messengers who came before him.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: Messenger, envoy; one sent
ἀπόστολος
This branch names a representative by the fact that someone sends them, illuminating the son’s role in the vineyard.
apostolē: Sending, commission
ἀποστολή
This branch names the sending itself, drawing attention to the owner’s deliberate final appeal through his son.
ἐντραπήσονται
entrapēsontai
GROWS FROM
τρέπω
trepō
To turn or turn around; the compound can carry the sense of regard or shame.
“turn toward” in this verse is entrapēsontai. The word translated “reverence” belongs to the turn-word family, where regard and shame meet. The owner’s expectation is a changed posture before the son, whose presence exposes the tenants’ relation to the vineyard’s owner.
ALSO GROWS
entropē: Shame, disgrace
ἐντροπή
In 1 Corinthians 6:5, this word is rendered “to your shame,” showing how this word family can name exposure as well as regard.
tropē: Turning, change
τροπή
James 1:17 uses this word for a “shadow of turning”; it shares the turn-family behind the expectation that the son’s arrival changes the tenants’ posture.
THE PATTERN
How the son is received reveals whether the father’s claim is honored.
A son gives weight to his father, and a servant to his master. If then I am a father, where is my weight? And if I am a master, where is my awe? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who make light of my name. And you say, In what have we made light of your name?But last of all he sent his son to them, saying, They will turn toward my son.That all may give weight to the Son, even as they give it to the Father. Whoever does not give it to the Son does not give it to the Father who sent him.THE THREAD
For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be delivered through him.Mark and John use the same Greek verb, ἀποστέλλω (apostellō), meaning “send out” or “dispatch,” for the son’s arrival. The shared verb makes the sender’s authority part of the son’s presence, while Mark’s parable presses the question of how he is received.
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