What Does Matthew 21:33 Mean?
Hear another parable. There was a man, master of a house, who planted a vineyard and fenced it round about, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to those who work the soil, and went away to a far country.
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
Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:THE KEY
The tenants receive a ready-made vineyard, but the householder remains its owner.
THE MEANING
Your work begins inside a place already planted, enclosed, and equipped; what is entrusted to you has a source beyond you. The householder’s absence leaves room for real labor, but it does not turn the tenants into owners.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that being given responsibility means the place and its fruit belong to you.
THE ROOT
ἐξέδετο
exedeto
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
to give, grant, or hand over
“let it out” in this verse is exedeto. The verb comes from the word for giving: the vineyard is handed over for use, while its source remains the householder. The same give-root also carries the idea of rendering something back, keeping entrusting and accountability within one word-family.
ALSO GROWS
ekdidōmi: to let out, lease, or give over for use
ἐκδίδωμι
This is the verb used here: the husbandmen receive the vineyard’s use without becoming its source.
apodidōmi: to give back, render, or pay
ἀποδίδωμι
The same give-root can describe rendering something back, illuminating the difference between temporary care and ownership.
φραγμόν
phragmon
GROWS FROM
φράσσω
phrassō
to fence, enclose, or close off
“hedged” in this verse is phragmon. The word-family holds enclosure and separation together: a fence can protect a cultivated place, while a related form can describe a barrier between people. Here the boundary marks the vineyard as prepared for use without erasing the tenants’ distinct role.
ALSO GROWS
phrassō: to fence, enclose, or stop
φράσσω
In Romans 3:19, a form of this verb describes every mouth being stopped; here its related noun names the fence around the vineyard.
phragmos: a fence, hedge, or partition
φραγμός
In Ephesians 2:14, this noun names the middle wall of partition, showing how the same fence-word can mark enclosure or division.
THE PATTERN
The work of tending begins inside provision already given; receiving a place to work does not make its worker the source.
And he dug around it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the red vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and hollowed out a winepress within it. And he waited for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth stinking grapes.You carry a vine out of Egypt; you drive out the nations and plant it.I planted, Apollos gave to drink, but God made it grow.THE THREAD
And he dug around it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the red vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and hollowed out a winepress within it. And he waited for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth stinking grapes.The sequence of vineyard, fence, winepress, and tower makes Isaiah’s cultivated plot the blueprint inside Jesus’ sentence. The tenants’ work begins after the whole working place is already prepared.
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