Matthew: A Commentary on His Handbook for a Mixed Church under Persecution

Heralded as "an epoch-making book" by F. F. Bruce when it first appeared, Robert H. Gundry's commentary on the Gospel of Matthew stands as a benchmark in biblical scholarship to modern methodology. No commentary in recent history has sparked such passionate discussion among evangelical scholars, and scholars of other persuasions have also paid considerable attention to this work.

In response to the plethora of evaluations afforded his text since its publication in 1982, Gundry has issues this second edition. Included are an extensive new preface taking up criticisms that reviewers and other readers lodged against the first edition, a new appendix, and 225 new endnotes that expand the commentary and provide fresh reflections on the text.

This bold, well-informed study retains the redaction-critical methodology of Gundry's original work and the host of provocative interpretations that result. Elucidated afresh are Gundry's conviction that Matthew relied on the Gospel of Mark and the document "Q" and Gundry's arguments for a combination of historical data and theological embellishments in passages such as those that present the birth of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, and Peter's walking on the water. The new preface offers expanded evidence that Jewish literary tradition was concerned more with theological development than with historical exactitude.

Gundry's Matthew now provides not only truly engrossing biblical scholarship but also an excellent example of constructive professional dialogue between academicians. Students, pastors, and theologians will find here a wealth of scrupulous hermeneutical research and thought-provoking answers to many open questions in textual studies.

Scholar-in-Residence at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.