Books on the Gospel of Matthew

Abstract

During the year 1910io several million Sunday-school boys and girls, ministers, parents, and teachers of America will be studying the Gospel of Matthew, under the direction of the International Lesson Committee's uniform system. There will be those who wish to study this scripture book historically, systematically, and thoroughly. Some of the books suitable for this purpose may be named and characterized. They may be arranged in four groups: I. Commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew.-The latest commentary on Matthew is by the English scholar, Rev. Alfred Plummer, D.D., entitled An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to S. Matthew (Scribner's, New York, 1909, pp. 497, $3). Probably this new book is for general purposes the best large commentary on Matthew in English;, it is full, conservative, devout, scholarly, and useful for the earnest Bible student. One might have supposed that the volume on Matthew in the International Critical Commentary series would be the best commentary on Matthew in English. And so it might have been if Rev. W. C. Allen, the author, had presented us with a general commentary on the Gospel. Instead, when his book appeared, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to S. Matthew (Scribners, New York, 1907, pp. 434, $3) it was seen to be a work upon the literary criticism of the Gospel, with but a small amount of historical and exegetical treatment. Certainly such a study of the First Gospel was needed, and it was admirably done; but a work upon such lines could not serve a large public whose Bible-study is unspecialized. This statement is necessary concerning Allen's commentary because all the other volumes of the series to which it belongs are general and widely useful commentaries. Until these two books appeared within the last two years, the