إن علم التفسير من أشرف العلوم لتعلقه بکتاب الله – عز وجل – فهو منبع کل العلوم الشرعية وأساسها, ولهذا قيض الله تعالى له رجالاً قاموا على جمع تفسير کتابه – تعالى – من أقوال النبي – صلى الله عليه وسلم– والصحابة والتابعين وتابعيهم, وکان من هؤلاء الرجال الذين سخرهم لخدمة کتابه الإمام ابن جرير الطبري في کتابه: " جامع البيان عن تأويل أي القران " وکان له الحظ الأوفر في الکتابة والجمع, ولم يکتف بالنقل والجمع بل إنه قارن ووازن بين الاقوال ورجح ما رأه صوابًا على وفق قواعد الترجيح التي استنبطها في هذا الکتاب, والتي اعتمدها المفسرون الذين جاؤا من بعده.
The science of Qur᾿ānic interpretation is highly respected because it is related to the Book of Allah, Glory be to Him, being the source and foundation of all the other religious sciences. With the help of Allah, Exalted be He, some scholars collected its exegeses as told by the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), his companions, their successors, and those who followed them. One of the scholars who served the Book of Allah is Imam Ibn Jarīr Aṭ-Ṭabariy who wrote his book Jami‛u l-Bayān ‛an Ta᾿wīli ᾿Āyi l-Qur᾿ān (A Rhetorical Collection on Interpreting the Qur᾿ān). He collected and quoted most of the writings in this field. However, he did not only collect and quote, but he also compared texts and selected some as the correct ones according to rules of selections laid in his book. The commentators who followed him adopted these rules.