“... Luke has always been difficult for interpreters because it generally follows Mark but is somewhat less allegorical: (1) it omits the Isaianic description of the vineyard; (2) only three servants are sent, none of them is killed, and Luke has no reference to stoning or beating on the head; and (3) Luke softens the owner’s decision to send his son by saying ‘perhaps they will respect him.’ On the other hand, Luke adds (1) that the owner went to another country “for a long time”; (2) the owner’s interior monologue with its question, “What shall I do?” that echoes Isaiah 5:4, 5; and (3) that the tenants threw the son out of the vineyard before they killed him (as in Matthew, but contrary to Mark). The similarities between Luke and Thomas (and their differences from Matthew and Mark) form a crux for interpreters: (1) Luke and Thomas lack the description of the preparation of the vineyard that echoes Isaiah 5. (2) The owner sent a servant so that the tenants “might give him” the produce of the vineyard. (3) No servants are killed before the sending of the son. (4) The owner says, “Perhaps they will respect him.” ... The allusion to Isaiah 5, while present in Luke and Thomas, is heightened in Mark and Matthew. ...”