Review of Commentaries

Craig Blomberg, Matthew: The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992).

• Blomberg’s focuses on history in this commentary, and he gives a well-reasoned historical defense of the text.

D.A. Carson, Matthew: The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984).

• Carson gives various interpretations of the text before offering his own. If you are looking for a commentary that gives a wide range of views, Carson is excellent. Even when you disagree with Carson’s interpretation, he at least explains alternative views well before giving his own. This commentary is also far more technical than others in the Expositor’s series. One word of caution is that Carson routinely criticizes John Walvoord’s commentary on Matthew. Indeed, Walvoord is Carson’s punching bag in his commentary. The reader will need to determine for himself or herself whether his criticisms are valid.

Craig Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009).

• Keener’s historical insight into the Greco-Roman and Jewish literature is in a league of its own. The footnotes alone are worth the price of the book. He also engages modern interpreters well, and argues for the historicity of the text at various points. This commentary is long and technical, but very well done.

R.T. France, Matthew: Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985).

• France has chosen to specialize in the gospel according to Matthew, and he has a later commentary listed below that is more technical (2007). This earlier commentary is quite readable, and it has a good balance of history and theology.

David L. Turner, Matthew: Baker Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008).

• We were honestly disappointed with Turner’s commentary. The Baker Exegetical Commentary series is designed to go deep into the text. However, Turner routinely would “punt” to other commentaries (e.g. Carson, Blomberg, France, etc.) for the reader to get an explanation. But why did we buy Turner’s $50 commentary if he was simply going to point us to others who actually give the research? That said, Turner did give some quality insights into the text, which we included in our work below. However, in our estimation, his work was overall underwhelming.

Steve W. Lemke, The Academic Use of Gospel Harmonies (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2007).

• This is an excellent academic resource for harmonizing the Gospel accounts, and well worth the money.