The Gospel of Matthew (Interpreting Biblical Texts)

By Donald Senior

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0687008484
• ISBN13: 9780687008483
• Release Date: March 1997
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

An excellent resource

Rev. Senior has done a great work in his approach to Matthew. He presents a variety of sources and biblical interpretations and challenge them with a perfect style. Excellent!

Good overall

This book is divided into two sections. The first section sketches the normal introductory issues that current Matthaen scholarship poses. He deals with the sources and structure of the book, opting for Matthew's dependence on Q and Mark. He discusses Matthew's use of the Law and points out that if this book was originally written in Hebrew then why are the quotations of the Old Testament from the Septuagint instead of the Masorectic text. He discusses Matthew's understanding of the Jewish Law, as well as the mission to the Gentiles. He further deals with Christology, discipleship (under which Senior who is Catholic deals with Peter), and community in Matthew. The second section of this book gives an overview of each section in Mathew in which Senior gives the overall contours of each division. This is not a verse by verse treatment, but he looks at each section in broad sweeps. What I found somewhat disappointing is that his conclusions are not well supported and he really does not state them emphatically. This is an overview of Matthew, however, and for that it accomplishes its goal.