Luke 20:13-14

Luke cast the owner’s thought in the form of a soliloquy, which he liked to do (cf. Luke 16:3-4; Luke 18:4-5). This literary device adds pathos to the story. The term "beloved" (Gr. agepeton) son identifies the owner’s son as unique from his viewpoint, but it also identified him as God’s Son to perceptive listeners and to Luke’s readers (cf. Luke 3:22). Evidently the tenants believed they could conceal the murder, and the owner would turn the vineyard over to them having no other heir. This was very bad stewardship of what belonged to the owner.

"Tenants were known to claim possession of land they had worked for absentee landlords (Talmud, Baba Bathra 35b, 40b). In a day when title was sometimes uncertain, anyone who had had the use of land for three years was presumed to own it in the absence of an alternative claim (Mishnah, Baba Bathra Luke 3:1)." [Note: Morris, p. 285.]