Matthew: A Shorter Commentary

This work is an abbreviated version of the monumental, three-volume 'Matthew, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary' in the International Critical Commentary series (ICC). Davies and Allison's magisterial work is considered to be the standard work on Matthew and is still a best-selling title. Retaining all the important features of the ICC volumes, this Shorter Commentary includes the new translation of the Gospel as well as a condensed introduction and a summary of the main exegetical points in a non-technical verse-by-verse commentary. For those who lack the linguistic and historical grounding, or the time, to deal with the ICC volume, this shorter volume is an accessible, affordable and practical alternative.

Table of Contents:
Preface; Abbreviations; Introduction; Commentary; Bibliography; Index

About the Author :
W. D. Davies was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Emeritus Professor of Christian Origins, Duke University. Dale C. Allison is Errett M. Grable Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Early Christianity, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Review :
Readers will generally gain a good understanding of the basic issues of interpretation of the individual pericopes as they work through each section.  In this regard, Allison's Shorter Commentary is a welcome edition, particularly for beginning students and busy ministers who will not only benefit from consulting it but can now afford to own a copy of their own.  As they read it, moreover, they can do so with the assurance that its present humble form has as its basis a colussus of demonstrated learning in its three-volume predecessor. Review ~ International Review of Biblical Studies, Vol 51, 2004/05 'It has many fine observations...this is still a commentary worth having.''   Epworth Review 'This is a welcome condensed edition of the classic three-volume International Critical Commentary. Dale Allison has skillfully cut down the longer work in a way that makes it accessible to readers without Greek or the other technical skills that the ICC presupposes.' Peter Oakes   As the title indicates, this work is a shorter version of the three-volume International Critical Commentary (ICC) that has taken its place in Matthean scholarship as perhaps the foremost historical-critical commentary. The shorter version is done by Allison, and its target audience is "readers who find the larger commentary too involved or too difficult." In that light, this work, Allison says, "comments not on the Greek text but on my own English translation." There are no major revisions of the three-volume work, and any subsequent publications of the shorter version will follow revisions in the three-volume commentary, not vice versa. Bibliographies in the shorter version cover basic works only through approximately 2003 but are helpful nonetheless for the novice. The shorter commentary is an excellent tool for students, busy pastors and priests, and laypeople, and it is an excellent entrée into the larger commentary if one wants to pursue a point in more depth. One wishes for at least a subject index, but given the reasonable price, this is a highly recommended book for its intended audience.  Fred W. Burnett Anderson University v 'A very useful and reader-friendly commentary for students, pastors, and teachers. [...] This shorter commentary is a valuable addition to theological libraries.'