Methods for Matthew

Mark Allan Powell

Jul 2009 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

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.

About the author

Mark Allan Powell is a Professor of New Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary and an internationally recognized theologian and Bible scholar. The author of more than 25 books and 100 articles, Dr Powell has served as a Visiting Professor at universities such as the University of California, Berkeley, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Chicago, as well as at schools in Estonia, Tanzania, and Russia. He is best known for his work in literary criticism, Matthean studies, and historical Jesus studies.