Customer Reviews

Matthew: A Commentary. Volume 1: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12

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I've been using Dale Bruner's Matthew commentary for almost 20 years now, and was utterly dismayed that it was out of print for over a decade. My first copies (Red vol.1, Blue vol.2) are just about falling apart, pages are taped to the cracked through bindings, they're covered with red ink from underlining the rich, deeply evangelical things Bruner has to say. After a couple of years with this commentary, I brought it to a gathering of preacher friends & told them, "Not to be extreme, but in my opinion, as far as preaching & teaching in the church go, this is the BEST commentary EVER written on a biblical book, IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH!" They all smiled, but several of them got a copy for themselves & when our group met the next year every one of them who'd gotten it said, "We agree with what you said about Bruner's Matthew & if anything, you didn't praise it highly enough!"

What's so helpful is that Bruner does what every Bible teacher wishes THEY could do, he goes through the entire history of the church's readings & interpretations of each passage, what the great teachers of the church (very broadly & ecumenically understood - Bruner earned his doctorate in Hamburg, Germany; he began his teaching career as a missionary in the Philippines before a long & productive career at Whitworth College in Washington) have said & thought about a passage. As he makes clear in his introduction, he has been teaching Matthew to undergraduates but just as crucially to adult Bible study groups for over 30 years & that has kept him gloriously grounded in the relevance of Matthew's gospel to living, breathing, growing Christian disciples. He is involved in every bit of current academic scholarship on Matthew, but he always pushes the discussion on from academic issues to issues of, "What does this say to us as Christians, as disciples?" He will have you loving the Gospel of Matthew, especially the seemingly inscrutable things like Matthew's genealogy, which Bruner makes come alive: relevant, indispensable, teachable & yes, exciting! He will also (as one reviewer noted) have you checking back here when you are teaching parallel passages in Mark or Luke, because he always has an insightful comment on the differences between them & the differences they make in telling a story one way or another.

The only two problems with this commentary are two other ways of saying how great it is: (1) when you read it, there is so much great stuff on every page & covering every passage that you will have to fight yourself to retain your own dignity as a teacher & resist the urge to just take it to your lectern, your pulpit & just read it line for line to your group. (2) when I read this commentary, it makes me sit & look with no small frustration at all the other commentaries on my shelves & think of all the fruitless hours I've spent poring over their pages, vainly hoping to distill just one tiny little tidbit of spiritual food I could pass along to growing disciples. I find myself saying to the rest of my wall of commentaries, "What are you all doing?! You could be FEEDING the people of God like Bruner & instead you're all spinning your wheels on things that make no difference to living Christians. You're wasting our time!" This commentary is what a commentary should be & it shames a great many of the other residents of 'commentary world' for being so self-referential.

Dale Bruner is the Presbyterian Church's gift to Christendom. As with Eugene Peterson, my daily prayer is that both of these men will live to a great old age so they can finish the projects God has given them to do. (Bruner is rumored to be writing on John) I can't praise this commentary highly enough. Get it! Read it! Teach it! It will make you a better person, a better teacher/preacher, a better Christian.

I purchased this commentary in frustration, after having read so many commentaries on Matthew and been thoroughly disappointed. The user's reviews were what attracted me to Bruner's commentary for which I am grateful to both them and Amazon. Bruner provides an excellent balance between looking at the issues raised by the text and stimulating fruitful reflection on the passage concerned. His own devotion to Jesus Christ is clearly evident and his love for the gospel of Matthew shines out. I suspect no one can really understand a book of the Bible unless they truly love it, and that may be one key to the quality of this commentary - that and dwelling on the text over a good many years while also seeking to live it out in one's own life. It certainly leads to a great wealth of of insight in the case of these volumes.
I have been using this commentary for over 2 years both for preaching and my own edification and it still remains my favourite New Testament commentary. I can truly say it has enhanced my ministry and grown my own love for Matthew's gospel.
I look forward with great anticipation to Bruner's commentary on the gospel of John.

For over 4 years have never ceased to use Dale's MATTHEW. A very deep well.
Panoramic in vision and true, not PC , tolerance and charity to all mark every section.
The second edition adds much, eg on baptism, intrigueing. outreaching.
ALWAYS central is the Redeeming Atoning Cross-bound and Resurrected Savior, our Lord.
Buy it , beg it, or.........pray for a JESUS CHRISTmas gift from your best friend.

Les Archer,Corpus Christi, Texas

I haven't made it far into this commentary, but it's been great so far. It's not too heady, anyone can read it and grow so much. I'd recommend it for anyone willing to chew through Matthew. Thanks Dale.

Bruner's M. C. is more than insightful, he examines each phrase of scripture using countless lenses including other scripture, commentaries, or brilliantly interjected writings that he has found along the way in his full life of ministry. Bruner has described himself in speaking engagements as a teacher who spends and extraordinary amount of time in librarys. His gifted ability to work in this way is a blessing for all of us who attempt to humbly bring the word of God to others. His writing is very honest and he's not afraid to look at ALL angles of scripture, including the angles that challenge scriptures integrity or historicity. Then beautifully, with logic/reason and sound doctrine, he leads us to Truth, that is (I appreciate) laiden with thought for the evengelical and inspiring with it's freshness and thuroughness. I can't wait for John.