a clear new commentary that will be part of my writing on 300wordsaday.com

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Product Description

New Testament scholar and professor David L. Turner offers a substantive yet highly accessible commentary on Matthew in this latest addition to the BECNT series. With extensive research and thoughtful chapter-by-chapter exegesis, Turner leads readers through all aspects of the Gospel of Matthew--sociological, historical, and theological--to help them better understand and explain this key New Testament book. He also includes important insights into the Jewish background of this Gospel. As with all BECNT volumes, Matthew features the author's detailed interaction with the Greek text. This commentary admirably achieves the dual aims of the series--academic sophistication with pastoral sensitivity and accessibility--making it a useful tool for students, professors, and pastors. The user-friendly design includes shaded-text chapter introductions summarizing the key themes of each thought unit.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60588 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 848 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780801026843
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Back Cover
New Testament scholar David Turner offers a substantive yet highly accessible commentary on Matthew in this addition to the acclaimed BECNT series. With extensive research and thoughtful chapter-by-chapter exegesis, Turner leads readers through all aspects of the Gospel of Matthew--sociological, historical, and theological--to help them better understand and explain this key New Testament book.

As the first Gospel in the canon, Matthew has received a great deal of attention through the centuries from both scholars and preachers. Turner attempts to stand between the two groups and offer a commentary that is fresh, accessible, and insightful. He emphasizes Matthew as a literary work in its own right (rather than in relation to Mark and Luke) and includes important insights into the Jewish background of this Gospel, explaining Matthew in the context of Second Temple Judaism as a book for Christian Jews living among non-believing Jews.

As with all BECNT volumes, Matthew features the author's own translation of, and detailed interaction with, the original Greek text. The user-friendly interior design includes shaded-text chapter introductions summarizing the key themes of each thought unit and their connection to what precedes and follows. This commentary admirably achieves the dual aims of the series--academic sophistication with pastoral sensitivity and accessibility--making it a useful tool for students, professors, and pastors.

About the Author
David L. Turner (PhD, Hebrew Union College) is professor of New Testament and systematic theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. He is the author of the Matthew commentary in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary.

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Customer Reviews

Solid well done and balanced semi-technical commentary.
David Turner's commentary on Matthew is a gem. Although as of the writing of this review, I have not read the entire work, I have gone through enough of it already to see that it is a very fine work on Matthew's gospel. This commentary is semi-technical in that the technical aspects that are in it are enough for the more technically inclined interpreters, while still the commentary is well within the reach of the informed layperson, or even just someone willing to put in some effort. Turner's commentary is a well balanced work in so many respects: not too lengthy, not too short, not too technical, not to simplistic. His commentary does a good job of aiming to expound Matthew's gospel from the relevant milieu of its time. (as best as can be known anyhow) Turner also does touch on later issues raised by the text as well in places. As Turner used much of not only the Hebrew scriptures, but also 2 nd temple Judaism in order to shed light on many aspects of Matthew's gospel in part and as a whole. Turner also does a good job of explaining the smaller details, while never loosing the forest for the trees. One will find commentary on smaller units, such as at the sentence (verse) level, as well as at the larger level of paragraph/unit/pericope level. Turner keeps the whole in mind as he delves into the parts. A fine blending of exegetical, theological and applicatory explication of what Jesus meant in and by Matthew's gospel account. At just under 700 pages of commentary in actually decent sized print, (thanks Baker books!), Turner is conservative and well informed. Just a fine fine job of grammatical historical exegesis/exposition, with some good redemptive historical/biblical theological notes sounded as well. For serious and well informed studies on Matthews gospel, I do believe this to be a keeper.

Brevity yet Comprehensive
The size (692 pages; the bibliography and the indexes are not included) tells us about the terseness of the commentary but not the lack of clarity. Every paragraph is straight to the point without diffusion. Every discussion has significance, not only serving the purpose of delivering information. I enjoyed much of reading this form of presentation: terse yet unambiguous.

This is also not a commentary of commentaries, hence the brevity. However, he does well in quoting others, such that the commentary is neither mostly a pile of arguments about others' opinion nor only a gathering of others' view. The way he summarizes other's argument is well balanced. He is really writing a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. This work is brief yet comprehensive.

The other concern in writing a commentary of the Gospels is that we have to treat each Gospel in its own right, which means that we are not supposed to do a synoptic comparison in order to gain the whole picture. I believe that the author has done it well. But sometimes such comparison is justified, because the differences will show us the uniqueness of each Gospel. In this point, I found out that the author tends to do only the first part, but offers no explanation of the differences so as to highlight its distinctiveness. (see, for instance, p. 108 about the difference of Matthew 3:3, compared with the other Gospels, in quoting the OT; others like pp.124, 129 etc.)

When commenting on a verb, the author emphasizes the implication of the Greek tense, which makes me a little uneasy about it. (Surprisingly, this is rarely found at the second half or even the last two third of the commentary) For instance, in commenting on 3:5-6 (p. 109) he writes, "The imperfect verbs exeporeueto (were going out) and ebaptizonto (were being baptized) indicate that this response was widespread and regular." (I omit the Greek words) I am wondering, does "imperfect" indicate the widespread and regularity of the verbs or is it the context that requires so? In another sense, I will agree with some of the conclusions, but not the reason. I may have such an understanding due to the fact that I am more influenced by the Aspect Theory rather than traditional grammatical analysis. But for sure, the latter approach is still a common practice. This, however, won't affect me in appreciating this commentary due to many other strengths.