For too long students have had to resort to nineteenth-century works for scholarly, evangelical studies of Jesus' parables. At last they can turn to a contemporary analysis of the parables by an acknowledged New Testament scholar.

While the exposition is in nontechnical language, the footnotes are laden with references to scholarly monographs and discussions of technical matters. Each of the forty parables and parabolic sayings analyzed here is quoted in full from the New International Version. An introduction deals with the forms, composition, purpose, interpretation, and classification of parables. A select bibliography and an index are included.