112 - A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew. Volume I.

A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to
Saint Matthew. Volume I.
International Critical Commentary.
By W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison Jr.
Edinburgh, T&T Clark, 1988. 788 pp. $59.95.

For decades, English-language Matthean studies have languished without a recent, thoroughly scientific commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. That gaping lacuna now seems likely to be filled by the collaboration of the doyen of English-language Matthean studies, W. D. Davies, and the younger but already well-known scholar Dale C. Allison. This first volume of a three-volume work runs for 731 pages (introduction plus commentary on chaps. 1-7), while the original ICC commentary by W. C. Allen (1907) was complete in 352! By sheer mass alone, this commentary promises to be a basic reference tool well into the next century.

But mass is not the only strength of this work. The substantial introduction (148 pages) delves into questions of style, vocabulary, structure, and sources with a fine eye to detail. The commentary on the individual verses is painstakingly thorough and cognizant of the recent literature. This is the Matthew commentary to buy for both school and personal libraries.

John P. Meier
The Catholic University of America
Washington, D. C.