Reading Matthew

by David E. Garland

Publisher:

Smyth & Helwys

, 2001

Overview

David Garland’s commentary provides thorough guidance through Matthew’s story of Jesus, revealing the movement of the story’s plot while highlighting Matthew’s theology. The gospel writer’s intent, besides telling the story of Jesus, is to bolster faith, convince and refute, explain present historical circumstances, to exhort, and to arm for mission. This commentary concentrates on Jesus as the Messiah, His ministry to Israel, and His passion and resurrection.

Contents

Top Highlights

“The righteous person, however, is not one who simply conforms to conventional expectations but one who is obedient to God’s revelation no matter how scandalous it might appear to others.” (Page 23)

“Repentance is not simply remorse and a desire to turn over a new leaf. It is the readiness to heed Jesus’ call ‘immediately’ and to leave everything to follow him (4:20, 22; see 19:27; 8:21–22). It requires a total reordering of priorities in life and unreserved commitment to Jesus.” (Page 49)

“‘The genealogy is an impressive witness to Matthew’s conviction that the birth of Jesus was no unpremeditated accident but occurred in the fullness of time and in the providence of God, who overruled the generations to this end, to inaugurate in Jesus a new order, the time of fulfillment’ (Setting, 73). The genealogy is not the record of one birth after another. It discloses that God has been working within history to achieve foreordained purposes and that Jesus, the last person of the last epoch, is the fulfillment of God’s plan for Israel and the beginning of a new messianic age.” (Page 20)

“Jesus has been proclaimed son of God by a voice from heaven at his baptism; he is then sent into the wilderness to probe his fidelity and filial obedience (cf. Deut 13:3). Jesus recapitulates the history of God’s covenant son, Israel; but he proves true at the very points where Israel failed: hunger (Exod 16), testing God’s faithfulness (Exod 17), and idolatry (Exod 32). Matthew’s interpretation of Hosea 11:1 in 2:15 makes it clear that for him, Jesus is Israel, God’s son, who is called out of Egypt (see Exod 4:22–23; Deut 1:31; Jer 31:9).” (Page 39)

Praise for the Print Edition

Garland's Reading Matthew is, as of the moment, probably the first commentary I would recommend to a serious undergraduate student or seminarian interested in learning what modern scholarship now does with Matthew.

—Interpretation, Dale C. Allison, Jr., Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Garland’s commentary is a thorough, reliable, and eminently readable guide to Matthew’s Gospel. . . presented with exceptional clarity and frequently spiced with lively turns of phrase.

—Catholic Biblical Quarterly, F. Scott Spencer, Wingate College

Product Details

• Title: Reading Matthew
• Author: David E. Garland
• Series: Reading the New Testament Commentary Series
• Publisher: Smyth & Helwys
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: 273

About David E. Garland

Dr. David E. Garland, became Truett Seminary’s fourth dean on June 1, 2007. He also served as interim president of Baylor University from August 2008 until May 2010. He served on the Southern faculty for 21 years, was chairman of the Biblical Division from 1992–1997, and was the Ernest and Mildred Hogan Professor of New Testament Interpretation from 1993–1997.

He has authored, coauthored, and edited 20 books, including The Intention of Matthew 23 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1979); Reading Matthew: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the First Gospel (Macon: Smyth and Helwys: 2000), Mark, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) and translated into Spanish, Colossians / Philemon, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998) and translated into Spanish, 2 Corinthians (New American Commentary; Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1999); “Gospel of Mark” in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2002), and 1 Corinthians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), and he has published more than fifty articles.