Book Notes

The Vision of Matthew: Christ, Church, and Morality in the First Gospel

John P. Meier (Crossroad, 1991)

It is a curse of the tax laws that publishers must frequently allow good books to go out of print (because they must continually pay taxes on their inventories). Fortunately, Crossroad has ameliorated this curse in the case of John Meier’s. very helpful 1979 book on Matthew, originally published by Paulist Press. The Vision of Matthew has already found an important place on the bookshelves of scholars, students and pastors and will now be available to a wider readership. In some ways a revision of the author’s more technical Law and History in Matthew’s Gospel (Biblical Institute Press, 1976), The Vision of Matthew offers in nontechnical and theologically sensitive ways what has become a very significant perspective on Matthean Christology (Matthew’s understanding of the person and work of Christ), ecclesiology (Matthew’s understanding of the nature of the Church) and ethics. Meier has been challenged for over a decade on individual points of his thesis—for example, the view that Matthew’s Jesus abrogates the Law of the Old Testament—but few have been able to discuss the First Gospel without reference to his work.

The Scrolls and the New Testament

ed. Krister Stendahl (Crossroad, 1992)