He proposed another parable.”A certain man, a householder, planted his vineyard.”‘ This is like what the psalmist said, You brought a vine out of Egypt, you drove out the nations and planted it.’ He protected it with a hedge, the law, and prepared a pit in it for the winepresses, the altar, and built a tower there, the temple, and sent his servants to bring him its fruit. The first, the next and the last were not received. Then he sent his Son. He was not the last, for although he appeared at the end, he already existed. John witnessed, A man will come after me, who is before me. He did not do this because he was unaware that the ancestors were incapable of receiving the produce but to remove the detractions of these stubborn ones from their midst. They were saying that he was not able to direct and prepare everything that he wanted to by the law, so therefore he sent his Son to impose silence on them. When they saw his Son coming, they said, “Here is the heir of the vineyard. Come! Let us kill him, and the inheritance of the vineyard will be ours..” They killed him, but their inheritance was taken away from them and given to the Gentiles. It happened just as he had said, For to him who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
Ephrem the Syrian
Commentary On Tatian’s Diatessaron 16.19.14
