Matthew for Everyone: Chapters 1-15 [Paperback]

Tom Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004 | Series: For Everyone

N.T. Wright has undertaken a tremendous task: to provide guides to all the books of the New Testament, and to include in them his own translation of the entire text. Each short passage is followed by a highly readable discussion, with background information, useful explanations and suggestions, and thoughts as to how the text can be relevant to our lives today. A glossary is included at the back of the book. The series is suitable for group study, personal study, or daily devotions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In this series [Wright] excels as a communicator, making this the most exciting study guide since Barclay's Daily Study Bible. -- Expository Times
In this series [Wright] excels as a communicator, making this the most exciting study guide since Barclay's Daily Study Bible. -- Expository Times
If you wish to meet the Jesus who broke into people's lives while on earth, I heartily recommend these guides. -- The Christian Herald
Pastors, evangelists, and Sunday school teachers will love this ... -- CBA Marketplace, March 2004
Wright writes well and with an easy style. The short commentaries tackle New Testament books without being weighed down ... --Publishers Weekly --Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

"A rare event: a commentary that is learned without being stuffy, accessible without being reductionist. Tom Wright joins us in our homes and workplaces, our sanctuaries and classrooms, in genial, prayerful conversation over this text that forms our lives, the New Testament scriptures." Eugene Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, and author of The Message

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664227864
• ISBN-13: 978-0664227869
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

N.T. Wright is Bishop of Durham and was formerly Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey and dean of Lichfield Cathedral. He taught New Testament studies for twenty years at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities. Wright's full-scale works The New Testament and the People of God, Jesus and the Victory of God, and The Resurrection of the Son of God are part of a projected six-volume series entitled Christian Origins and the Question of God. Among his many other published works are The Original Jesus, What Saint Paul Really Said and The Climax of the Covenant. He is also coauthor with Marcus Borg of The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions and the volume on Colossians and Philemon in The Tyndale New Testament Commentary series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem in Anyone's Home or Office Library, April 18, 2003

By 

Aaron M. (Danvers, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Matthew for Everyone, Part 1 (Paperback)

Tom Wright is a brilliant scholar, and a true student of the Word, as well as the "words." And while there are a number of books authored by him that require intense mental powers to grasp in one sitting (though two or three sittings of any of his works is simple pleasure, resulting in many rich insights), this series, true to it's title, is "For Everyone."

Each volume focuses on either one New Testament book, or splits that book into two different volumes (Matthew, John), or gathers a few Pauline letters into the same size volume. With the fresh, "everyman" translation of Scripture, the Word itself enjoys new-found reach and depth that other translations on the market currently lack due to cultural and linguistic changes. And if the Scripture isn't enough for you, Tom Wright's incredible ability to take any portion of God's Word and bring it to bear on today's world is given full reign as he breaks each book into 50 or so sections, similar to devotional writings. And at 2 pages per section, they are just enough to get you thinking, teach you a valuable new lesson, and still leave time to pray before heading out the door.

This is a book that can be used as a sermon resource (and what a resource it is!), a daily devotional guide, or simply a new, exciting path through the New Testament. Regardless of the availability wait or the lack of preview information on this web-site, this is an order to place today!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Popular Wisdom from a World-Class Scholar, April 25, 2004

By 

Mark D. Roberts "markdroberts-dot-com" (Boerne, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Matthew for Everyone: Chapters 1-15 (Paperback)

Tom Wright is one of the finest biblical scholars in the world (though he writes his scholarly tomes under the name N.T. Wright). Whether one agrees with all his ideas or not, one must acknowledge his phenomenal insight and his encyclopedic grasp of the data. But what makes Wright unique among scholars is his ability to take his academic insights and make them truly readable for lay people.

Recently I recommended this commentary to a couple of friends (a woman who is a marriage and family counselor and a man who works in a parachurch ministry). Both of these friends have raved about this book. They have learned much about Matthew, but also about how to relate Matthew's insights to contemporary issues and personal faith.

If you're looking for an academic commentary, this is not for you. But if you're looking for an academically grounded, biblically faithful, and wisely popular commentary on Matthew, you need look no further. This is the Wright commentary for you! (Sorry. I couldnt' resist the pun.)

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple and Profound, March 7, 2006

By 

DarrenGJohnson "DarrenGJohnson" (Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Matthew for Everyone: Chapters 1-15 (Paperback)

Tom Wright (aka N T Wright) has written a commentary that is very scholarly in that it takes interpretation very seriously, but has put that at a level that everyone can read and understand. Wright has put his translation in this little book, then and illustration that brings out the meaning of the test and then he goes into interpreting the text which he always does an excellent job, and he also asks few modern day application questions at the end of each section. Wright is a great interpreter of Jesus (Paul too for that matter) and he does not let down in this popular commentary. Even if you have or have not read his mammoth work Jesus and the Victory of God you will still benefit from this commentary. He makes sense of Matthew and stays consistent with his interpretations. The grid he uses over and over again is that exile has ended, YHWH is returning to Israel and being installed as King, the promises to Abraham, David and the prophets are being fulfilled, the new exodus is happening and it is coming about in Jesus. This more or less is always Wright's grid and I think that it is arguably the best grid around.

I found only two weaknesses that I would like to point out and these are not major. I point them out, not so much in disagreement as to, in a humble manner, enhance Wright's position and not weaken it. First, he does not always deal with every passage in a clear way. This most likely being due to the fact that he is writing for a popular audience and these books can only take so much space and I understand that fact, but I was a little disappointed when I got to the passage "the kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force" and there was really no comment on the meaning. I am still uncertain whom he thinks the violent are in that passage.
The second problem I found was with his treatment of the genealogies in Matthew. On page 4 he says about the women that appear in the genealogies that "If God can work through these bizarre ways, he seems to be saying, watch what he's going to do now." Actually, this is not what Matthew is saying at all. The point of the women being mentioned is that they are all foreigners. Tamar (Genesis 38) and Rahab are both Canaanites, Ruth a Moabite, and Bathsheba (who is actually not mentioned by name) was a Hittite. The point being that the vocation of Israel was to be the light to the world and bring others in like the women mentioned who did get into the promise and move of God. This point is illustrated several times throughout the book of Matthew with the Magi (foreigners getting in), the Centurion (a Roman soldier), and the Syro-Phoenician woman in Matthew 15 who had the daughter that was vexed of the Devil all got in on the promise even though they were outsiders or not ethnic Israel.
This, however, is an excellent commentary and I am looking forward to reading Part Two, which cover chapters 16-28. Get this book and it will help you understand Matthew better.

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