A provocative new commentary that emphasizes the roles of marginality and empire in the Gospel of Matthew. Verse by verse, the author presents this Gospel as a counter-narrative shaping the followers of Jesus as an alternative community, resisting the authorities of both synagogue and state. Shows how the Gospel anticipates the time when Jesus' return will establish God's reign over all--including the imperial powers of Rome.

This detailed commentary presents the gospel of matthew as a counter-narrative, showing that it is a work of resistance written from and for a minority community of disciples committed to Jesus, the agent of God's saving presence. It was written and functions to shape the identity and lifestyle of the early community of jesus' followers as an alternative community that can resist the dominant authorities both in rome and in the synagogue. The Gospel anticpates the time when Jesus will return and establish God's reign over all, including the powers in Rome.

"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. Carter makes the claim for reading Matthew this way against the almost exclusive emphasis on the relationship with the synagogue that has long characterized Matthean scholarship. He established Matthew's imperial context by examining Roman imperial ideology and material presence in Anitoch, the traditional provenance for Matthew. Carter argues that Matthean Christology, which presents Jesus as God's agent, is shaped by claims - and protests against those claims - that the emperor and the empire are God's agents. He 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 encourage fresh perspectives in Matthean scholarship."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This study of the Matthean narrative uses the interpretive lens of food exchange to explore the Matthean community's relationship with the wider world. While many studies depict this community as withdrawing from or in conflict with the larger society, James P. Grimshaw's focus on the daily need for food reveals a community that, while distinct, progressively integrates itself into the larger Jewish and Gentile society and the natural world. In addition, this view of community corresponds to the view of a God who actively provides for and relates to all creation. Grimshaw's alternative portrayal of the Matthean community, whose interactions with its surrounding environment are more complex and sustained than often imagined, is a compelling interpretation for today's stratified and disconnected world.

For ten years, the well-received first edition of this introduction offered readers a way to look at scriptural texts that combines historical, narrative, and contemporary interests. Carter explores Matthew by approaching it from the perspective of the "authorial audience"--by identifying with and reading along with the audience imagined by the author. Now an updated second edition is available as part of a series focusing on each of the gospel writers as storyteller, interpreter, and evangelist. This edition preserves the essential identity of the original material, while adding new insights from Carter's more recent readings of Matthew's gospel in relation to the Roman Imperial world. Four of the seventeen chapters have been significantly revised, and most have had minor changes. There are also new endnotes directing readers to Carter's more recent published work on Matthew. Scholars and pastors will use the full bibliography and appendix on redaction and narrative approaches, while lay readers will appreciate the clear and straightforward text.

Think about personal, hand-written notes in the margin of a Bible and you'll get the gist of this work. Every verse from all 28 chapters of Matthew's gospel is accompanied with a brief thought, observation, insightful question, or application. God really does have something to say about every verse!

The Gospel of Matthew says some things about Jesus, and attributes words to Jesus, that are unique to this Gospel. If we pay careful attention to these passages, we may find Matthew both challenging some of our most treasured assumptions and providing new, exciting possibilities for the life of the church. Jesus as the teacher and embodiment of Divine Wisdom, calling to us to learn gentleness and humility from him, leads us into a path of discipleship that has profound implications for Christians’ relationship with the world—but especially with Jews and Muslims.

The Gospel of Matthew opens with a patrilineal genealogy of Jesus that intriguingly includes five women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, "she of Uriah," and Mary. In a gospel that has a strongly Jewish and male-orientated outlook, why are women incorporated? In particular, why include these four Old Testament women alongside Mary? Rejecting traditional as well as feminist views, Anne Clements undertakes a close literary reading of the narratives to discern how each woman is characterized and presented. All are significant scriptural figures on the margins of Israelite society. From this intertextual world established by Matthew, Clements explores why Matthew may have named these women in the opening genealogy and what implications their inclusion may have for the ongoing gospel narrative. Mothers on the Margin? argues that Matthew's Gospel contains a counter narrative focused on women. The presence of the five women in the genealogy indicates that the birth of the Messiah will bring about a crisis in Israel's identity in terms of ethnicity, marginality, and gender. The women signal that Matthew's Gospel is concerned with the construal of a new identity for the people of God.

One of the most beloved books of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew speaks with eloquence and power. Among the Gospels, Matthew paints a fuller picture of the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus. Anna Case-Winters's incisive commentary reveals that Matthew is clearly a theological book. It is about God's saving work in Jesus Christ. Moreover, it is presented in a way that easily lends itself to the task of teaching and preaching. Case-Winters highlights five themes that shape the distinctive portrait of Jesus this Gospel offers. Here we see Jesus facing up to conflict and controversy, ministering at the margins, overturning presuppositions about insiders and outsiders, privileging the powerless, demonstrating the authority of ethical leadership, challenging allegiance to empire, and pointing the way to a wider divine embrace than many dared imagine. Case-Winters captures the core of Matthew's unique Gospel, which speaks powerfully to the life of Christian faith today in the midst of our own issues and struggles.