Our Lord reviews the history of the theocracy. He recounts the long roll of God's servants who had been persecuted and misused from the first to the last, including Himself. In doing so, He openly implied that He was the Son of God and made the Pharisees realize how clearly He foresaw the fate which they were preparing for Him. They were accustomed to apply Psalms 118:22 to the Messiah, and recognized at once what Jesus meant, when He claimed it as an emblem of His own rejection.
How admirably our Lord defined the relations of His Kingdom to the civil power! If we accept Caesar's protection and ordered government we are bound to maintain it by money payment and such other service as conscience permits. This indeed is part of our duty to God; and with equal care we must give Him the dues of the spiritual world.
Jesus silenced the Sadducees by a quotation from the Pentateuch, whose authority they admitted. God could not be the God of persons not in existence. Therefore since He used the present tense of His relationship with the patriarchs in speaking to Moses three hundred years after their death, they must have been still in existence. [source]
Chapter Summary: Mark 12
1Jesus tells the parable of the tenants 13He avoids the snare of the Pharisees and Herodians about paying tribute to Caesar; 18convicts the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection; 28resolves the scribe, who questioned of the first commandment; 35refutes the opinion that the scribes held of the Christ; 38bidding the people to beware of their ambition and hypocrisy; 41and commends the poor widow for her two mites, above all
Greek Commentary for Mark 12:11
This [αυτη] Feminine in lxx may refer to τουτο kephalē (head) or may be due to the Hebrew original zōth (this thing) which would be neuter touto in a Greek original, a translation Hebraism. [source]
The Lord's doing [παρὰ κυρίου] Lit., from the Lord.sa40 [source]
What do the individual words in Mark 12:11 mean?
from [the]Lordwasthisandit ismarvelousin[the] eyesof us
Greek Commentary for Mark 12:11
Feminine in lxx may refer to τουτο kephalē (head) or may be due to the Hebrew original zōth (this thing) which would be neuter touto in a Greek original, a translation Hebraism. [source]
Lit., from the Lord.sa40 [source]