Matthew

Although New Testament scholars have examined Paul's writings and their relationship to the Roman empire and its imperial policies and writings, they have focused little attention on ways in which the Gospels were influenced by that imperialism. In Matthew and Empire, Warren Carter argues that Matthew's Gospel protests Roman imperialism by asserting that God's purposes and will are performed not by the empire and emperor but by Jesus and his community of disciples. Matthew and Empire makes the claim for reading Matthew in this way against the almost exclusive emphasis on the relationship with the synagogue that has long been a staple of Matthean criticism. Carter establishes Matthew's imperial context by examining Roman imperial ideology and material presence in Antioch, the traditional provenance for Matthew. He argues that Matthean Christology, which presents Jesus as God's agent, is shaped by claims—and protests against those claims—that the emperor and empire are agents of God. In successive chapters Carter pays particular attention to the Gospel's central irony, namely that in depicting God's ways and purposes, the Gospel employs the very imperial framework that it resists. Matthew and Empire challenges traditional readings of Matthew and Empire encourages fresh perspectives in Matthean scholarship. Warren Carter is Pherigo Professor of New Testament at Saint Paul School of Theology and author of Matthew and the Margins: A Socio-Political and Religious Reading.

Matthew...was absolutely convinced that Jesus was the One sent by God to establish the Reign of God in the final days as promised by the prophets of ancient Israel. The Evangelist then presented Jesus as the fulfillment of his people's expectations.... But Matthew believed that Jesus was something more. He was also a reinterpreter of those traditions....Matthew believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of ancient Israel's hopes, but he fulfilled those hopes in a way that went beyond all expectations. --From Getting to Know Our Director.

In this seven-day retreat, Going Beyond the Law, your director is Matthew the Evangelist, author of the first Gospel. His words will help you to understand how Jesus fulfilled his role as Messiah and brought about the age foreseen by the prophets and longed for by the pious. Matthew does not disregard the traditions of ancient Israel, but casts them in a new light--the Light of the World.

To the unstudied eye, Matthew's gospel can seem a terse narrative, almost a historical document and not the tremendously spiritual (and doctrinal) storehouse that it is. Erasmo Leiva here acts as our guide, showing Matthew's prose to be not terse so much as economical--astoundingly so given its depth. The lay reader can derive great profit from reading this. Each short meditation comments on a verse or two, pointing to some facet of the text not immediately apparent.

Leiva's work is scholarly but eminently approachable by the non-technical reader. The tone is very much gustate et videte, quoniam suavis est Dominus [taste and see how good the Lord is]-as it is friend, come up higher. The goal of the book is to help the reader experience the heat of the divine heart/the light of the divine Word.

Leiva points to Matthew's gospel as being deeply ecclesial because it is first Christological. He comments on the Greek text, demonstrating to the reader nuances in the text that defy translation into English without serious revision of the text. Leiva uses linguistic analysis to aid the non-Greek reader with the literal meaning of the text; numerous quotes from the Fathers and the liturgy of the church demonstrate the way the Tradition has lived and read the Word of God. His theological reflection vivifies doctrine by seeking its roots in the words and actions of Jesus.

Biblical texts create worlds of meaning and invite readers to enter them. When readers enter such textual worlds, which are often strange and complex, they are confronted with theological claims. With this in mind, the purpose of the Interpreting Biblical Texts series is to help dedicated students in their experience of reading and interpreting by providing guides for their journeys into textual worlds. The controlling perspective is expressed in the operative word of the title: interpreting. The primary focus of the series is not so much on the world behind the texts or out of which the texts have arisen as on the worlds created by the texts in their engagement with readers.

In this volume, Donald Senior provides an up-to-date introduction to the Gospel of Matthew. The seven chapters of Part One focus on modern biblical scholarship and the interpretation of Matthew, discussing the sources and structure of the Gospel, its use of the Old Testament, its understanding of Jewish Law, its setting as a part of the mission of Christianity to the Gentiles, its Christology, its understanding of the nature of discipleship, and the community from which the Gospel originated. The six chapters of Part Two provide a structured guide to reading and interpreting Matthew's Gospel.