-It is a special pleasure to introduce R T (Dick) France's commentary to the pastoral and scholarly community, who should find it a truly exceptional - and helpful - volume.- So says Gordon Fee in his preface to this work. France's masterful commentary on Matthew focuses on exegesis of Matthew's text as it stands rather than on the prehistory of the material or details of Synoptic comparison. It is concerned throughout with what Matthew himself meant to convey about Jesus and how he set about doing so within the cultural and historical context of first-century Palestine. Amid the wide array...

Some sought his death. Others left everything to follow him. Who was this Jesus, this son of a carpenter turned wandering teacher? Why did he provoke such extreme reactions? And why does he still do so today, more than two thousand years after his death? Jesus the Radical highlights the impact of Jesus against the backdrop of life in first-century Judea, with its customs, its Messianic hopes, its multi-faceted Judaism and its Roman overlords. Here are many fascinating insights into the story you thought you knew. "Sensitive and compelling . it confronts the reader with Jesus and lets him...

R.T. France believes that much of today's popular use of "kingdom" language runs the risk of distorting Jesus' words, and trivializing the depth and richness of his teaching. This book will help many Christians avoid that risk, while also providing helpful and persuasive answers to a range of questions thrown up by modern scholarship. What would "the Kingdom of God" have meant to Mark's first readers? Is "kingdom" the best translation? What did Jesus mean when he said the kingdom would come "with power"? And what are we to make of those passages which seem to predict the coming of the "Son of...

The visit of the Magi, the Sermon on the Mount, the Great Commission: these are only a few of the well-known passages in Matthew's Gospel. Yet it begins with a list of unknown names and apparently irrelevant 'begettings'. The early church may have placed Matthew first in the New Testament because it provides a Christian perspective on the relation between the church and the Jews, an issue that is still important today. R. T. France tackles this and other key issues in the Gospel with clarity, reliability and relevance. The original, unrevised text of this volume has been completely retypeset...

Modern critical essays discuss each book of the Old and New Testament.