This is an innovative, encyclopedic, and methodologically comprehensive work. Building upon the work of Adolf Jülicher, C. H. Dodd, and Joachim Jeremias, as well as upon the modern efforts of Robert W. Funk, Dan O. Via, and John Dominic Crossan, Professor Scott attempts to advance and, whenever necessary, to correct this tradition of parable interpretation. He accents the literary, linguistic, and metaphorical elements of the New Testament parables, with an emphasis on the relation of the parables to the mythological vision of the Kingdom of God.

This commentary analyzes each parable of Jesus, even those in the Gospel of Thomas, in the present literary context of each Gospel, in its prior development in the oral tradition, and within the ministry of Jesus himself.

One major result of Scott's research and study is that he is able to reconstruct an originating structure of each parable, which is presented at the beginning of each parable analysis. He deals first with the redaction of the parable (as it stands in the Gospels). Then he analyzes how the originating structure affects meaning. Finally, he examines how the story and the kingdom interact so as to produce the "parabolic effect." In short, Scott seeks "to understand how a text structures meaning and the conditions it sets for its own performance." In so proceeding, Scott pays attention as well to the new influence of the social sciences to highlight the social world of the parables. This influence is reflected in the division of the parables into three major groups based on the social dynamics of first-century peasant culture.

Steeped in the long tradition of parable scholarship, indebted to new literary sensibilities, and equipped with yet newer social scientific tools, Bernard Brandon Scott has produced the first comprehensive English-language commentary on the parables of Jesus.