Evangelicals Now
<< May 1998 >>

IVP New Testament Commentary Series - Matthew

Matthew (IVP NT Commentary)
By Craig S. Keener
444 pages. £9.99
ISBN 0 85111 682 5

This is a powerful and hard-hitting commentary. Keener has a remarkable grasp of the scholarship relating to Matthew, and is particularly effective in drawing out the Jewishness of Matthew's understanding of the gospel.
But it is not especially in scholarship that the power of the commentary resides. Rather it is the sense that the writer has been mastered by the gospel. He does not make the details fit into neat categories, or explain away difficulties, or use scholarship to support his preconceived notions. At every turn, he lets the words of Scripture test and challenge whatever stands against the gospel, whether in the church or in the world.
Keener gives a brief introduction to the issues in criticism of the Synoptic Gospels in 25 pages, and thereafter keeps these matters (such as the authenticity of the tradition, use of Mark and Q, and grammatical detail) mostly to the footnotes, where his comments illuminate without dominating.
What he gives more attention to is the ancient and Jewish context and background of the material. This is particularly enlightening: the charge of being 'a viper's brood' has overtones of matricide (p.80); the 'Golden Rule' is widespread in both positive and negative forms in the ancient world, and was not an innovation (p.161); when Jesus addresses Peter as Satan and tells him to 'get behind' him, the rebuke is reminding Peter that he is a disciple who should respectfully walk behind his teacher and not presume to correct him (pp.274-275); 'I will repay' was the standard IOU formula in ancient business documents (p.290); Judas sold Jesus for the normal rate paid for a slave (p.367); the tearing of the veil in the temple could symbolise the departure of God's presence that preceded his judgment against the temple' (p.391).
What these observations show is a wide grasp of the evidence, and a freshness of approach. Keener does not shirk questions of application, but brings them the same attentiveness and freshness. He touches on pacifism and militarism, divorce and family life, compromise and critique in mission, legalism and liberalism in interpreting Scripture, and much more. He makes no grandiose claims for his applications, but probes and prods until readers are forced to re-examine their presuppositions.
This commentary combines the best in the 'source and analogue' kind of scholarship from Deissmann to Sanders, with the best in evangelical scholarship which aims at letting Scripture make the fullest impact through facing the implications of living out its teaching in the modern world. For busy ministers, this work will refresh the mind and reinvigorate the preaching.

Paul Cavill