Methods for Matthew

Methods for Matthew offers a primer on six exegetical approaches that have proved to be especially useful and popular.

Mark Allan Powell (Edited by)

9780521888080, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 July 2009

278 pages, 1 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.49 kg

'Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how modern critical methods work with biblical texts, this volume covers the issue in a comprehensive and compulsively readable way, from the traditional historical-critical method through to the recent entrant, postcolonial criticism. It is written by scholars who are internationally acknowledged as leading practitioners, who have given new shape, style, and direction to the enterprise. What is unique about this volume is that it not only provides the history and the theoretical presuppositions that undergird these critical methods but – more pertinently – supplies suitable practical examples of how they actually illuminate the text, in this case Matthew's gospel. This is a thorough, balanced, persuasive, and engaging work.' R. S. Sugirtharajah, Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics, University of Birmingham

Today's biblical scholars study the Gospel of Matthew with a wide variety of methods that yield diverse and exciting insights. Methods for Matthew offers a primer on six exegetical approaches that have proved to be especially useful and popular. In each case, a prominent scholar describes the principles and procedures of a particular approach and then demonstrates how that approach works in practice, applying it to a well-known text from Matthew's Gospel. As an added bonus, each of the chosen texts is treated to three different interpretations so that the reader can easily compare the results obtained through one approach to those obtained through other approaches. The reader will learn a great deal about two stories from Matthew ('the healing of a centurion's servant' and 'the resurrection of Jesus') and the reader will also learn enough about each of these six approaches to understand their function in biblical studies today.

Introduction Mark Allan Powell
1. The historical critical method and the Gospel of Matthew Donald A. Hagner and Stephen E. Young
2. Literary approaches and the Gospel of Matthew Mark Allan Powell
3. Feminist criticism and the Gospel of Matthew Elaine M. Wainwright
4. Historical Jesus studies and the Gospel of Matthew Craig Evans
5. Social-scientific approaches and the Gospel of Matthew Bruce Malina
6. Postcolonial criticism and the Gospel of Matthew Fernando F. Segovia.

Subject Areas: New Testaments [HRCF2], Bibles [HRCF], Christianity [HRC], Literary theory [DSA]