While New Testament scholars generally agree that the concept of righteousness occupies an important place in the Gospel of Matthew, there is no scholarly consensus as to the meaning and function of this concept. The author of this study contends that this lack of agreement is largely due to the fact that the wrong background literature (i.e. the Old Testament and the letters of Paul) has been posited as governing Matthaean usage. It is only when Matthaean usage is viewed in terms of the world of thought reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Tannaitic literature that it becomes...