Select ancient Christian writings on the Gospel of MatthewThe Church’s Bible series brings the rich classical tradition of biblical interpretation to life, illuminating Scripture as it was under
Select ancient Christian writings on the Gospel of Matthew
The Church’s Bible series brings the rich classical tradition of biblical interpretation to life, illuminating Scripture as it was understood during the first millennium of Christian history. Compiled, translated, and edited by leading scholars, these volumes lead contemporary clergy, Bible teachers, and students of Scripture into the inexhaustible spiritual and theological world of the early church.
This volume on Matthew contains select freshly translated excerpts from patristic commentators including John Chrysostom, Irenaeus of Lyons, Origen, Tertullian, and Augustine. Ranging chronologically from the second century to the seventh century, these selections splendidly display a neglected part of the church’s interpretive tradition on Matthew.
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J.
— Catholic University of America
“The Church’s Bible, a new commentary series on books of the Bible composed of quotations from patristic and medieval commentators, bears witness to the long, rich tradition of biblical interpretation within the church catholic. Such a series has always been badly needed. It also provides a welcome corrective to current fringe modes of interpretation that are more interested in rhetoric, style, or sociology than in the substance and content of the written Word of God. Recommended heartily to all pastors, preachers, and professors and students of theology.”
— Religious Studies Review
“This series rescues from the shadows the many penetrating insights of ancient Jewish and Christian interpreters. . . . They can continue to instruct us today with their perception into the perennial foibles of the human condition.”
— First Things
“Serious students of the Bible will want to consider subscribing to the entire series, which holds the promise of powerfully enriching and recasting scriptural study in the twenty-first century.”
J. Patout Burns Jr.
— Vanderbilt Divinity School
“Daniel Williams’s expertise and labor have resulted in an extraordinarily useful volume. The Gospel of Matthew was intensively studied and preached in the early church; it provided guidance for the organization of the church, the pursuit of its mission, and Christian living. Its riches were well elaborated and displayed as early teachers adapted and applied Christ’s guidance to the challenges faced in new cultures. This selection of expositions displays a full range of understandings that subsequently narrowed to meet institutional needs.”
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D. H. Williams is professor of religion in patristics and historical theology at Baylor University and the author of Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church.
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