This volume engages the Gospel of Matthew in full awareness of its inherently political character. Weaver situates Matthew's version of the ""good news of the kingdom"" squarely within the ""real world"" of first-century Palestine and its occupying power, the Roman Empire. The essays here focus prominently and collectively on the issues of power and violence that not only pervade the historically occupied Jewish community of first-century Palestine, but also are clearly visible throughout Matthew's narrative account. A ""lower-level"" reading of the Matthean text offers a bleak portrait of...