Matthew: 1 (Reformation Commentary on Scripture)

"As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.'"

How should one interpret these words of Jesus?

The sixteenth-century Reformers turned to Scripture to find the truth of God's Word, but that doesn't mean they always agreed on how to interpret it. For example, when approaching this passage from Matthew's gospel, Martin Luther read it literally, for "as he says in his own words, it is his body and his blood," but Thomas Cranmer argued that "there must be some figure or mystery in this speech."

In this Reformation Commentary on Scripture volume, scholars Jason K. Lee and William Marsh guide readers through a wealth of early modern commentary on the book of Matthew. Readers will hear from familiar voices and discover lesser-known figures from a diversity of theological traditions, including Lutherans, Reformed, Radicals, Anglicans and Roman Catholics.

Drawing upon a variety of resources―including commentaries, sermons, treatises, and confessions―much of which appears here for the first time in English, this volume provides resources for contemporary preachers, enables scholars to better understand the depth and breadth of Reformation commentary, and seeks to encourage all those who desire to read the words of Scripture faithfully.

Jason K. Lee (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is professor of theological studies at Cedarville University. He is the author of The Theology of John Smyth: Puritan, Separatist, Baptist, Mennonite and the co-editor of The Seminary as a Textual Community.

William M. Marsh (PhD, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is associate professor of theology and director of the Master of Divinity program at Cedarville University. He is the author of Martin Luther on Reading the Bible as Christian Scripture: The Messiah in Luther's Biblical Hermeneutic and Theology.