Jack Dean Kingsbury, "The Parable of the Wicked Husbandman and the Secret of Jesus' Divine Sonship in Matthew." JBL 105 (1986): 643-655.

The parable of the wicked husbandman plays a critical role in the development of the motif of the secret of Jesus' divine sonship in the Gospel. In terms of the events that precede it, Jesus' narration of this parable is the place where the claim that he is the Son of God is for the first time pointedly advanced in public.