vrijdag 8 februari 2013

Review of: Ulrich Luz, Matthew 8-20: A Commentary (Hermeneia), Fortress, 2001; in: Interpretation

Ulrich Luz, Matthew 8-20: A Commentary (Hermeneia), Fortress, 2001

Review in: Interpretation 2003 57: 86
Review door: Dorothy Jean Weaver
Gevonden op: http://int.sagepub.com/content/57/1/86.2.full.pdf+html

Matthew 8-20: A Commentary
by Ulrich Luz
Translated by James E Crouch Hermeneia Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001
607 pp $69 00 (cloth) ISBN 0-8006-6034-X

Luz's COMMENTARY IS A masterful and comprehensive treatment of the central section of Matthew's gospel. Luz draws on an extensive bibliography of both ancient and modern sources (pp. xin-xxxvi) and lists the relevant bibliographical citations at the beginning of each section. Luz provides his own translation of Matthew (retranslated from German to English for the Hermeneia volume). He offers painstaking and detailed historical-critical commentary on the text under the rubrics of "structure," "sources," "tradition history and origin," "interpretation," and "history of interpretation." And he concludes each section with a summary reflection focused on the theological significance of the text for the present day church. Within the current field of Matthean commentaries, Luz's work is a historical-critical tour deforce.

The most prominent strength of this massive volume lies in the character and candor of Luz's theological reflections on the message of Matthew's gospel. Throughout the commentary, Luz wrestles deeply and honestly with the "big questions" Matthew places before the present day church: the meaning of "miracle" (pp. 52-58), the character of the "church" and its "mission" (pp. 124-28), the significance of "the kingdom of heaven" (pp 295-98), the nature of Christian "community" (pp 478-83)

Fundamental to Luz's reflections is the central Matthean motif of "discipleship," which Luz defines as "lived and suffered obedience on the way with Jesus" (p 125) In Luz's view, it is just such radical "discipleship" that not only represents "the 'essence' of the church" (p 125) for Matthew but also provides the hermeneutical key to the understanding of Matthew's gospel as a whole

DOROTHY JEAN WEAVER
EASTERN MENNONITE SEMINARY
HARRISONBURG VIRGINIA



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