The Controversy Stories in the Gospel of Matthew: Their Redaction, Form and Relevance for the Relationship between the Matthean Community and Formative Judaism, by Boris Repschinski. FRLANT 189. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000. Pp. 373. euro64.00 (cloth). Of late it has been recognized increasingly that Matthew's relationship with Judaism is a fundamental key to establishing the social context and theological perspective of his Gospel. It is particularly welcome, therefore, to encounter a work that promises to advance the question. Repschinski's book offers the first comprehensive literary analysis of the controversy stories in Matthew. Because of the centrality of this conflict to the Gospel, Repschinski rightly supposes that a proper appreciation of Matthew's treatment of these conflicts cannot help but elucidate the evangelist's own relationship to Judaism. Accordingly, he embarks on a commendably thorough analysis of the controversy stories and then invokes its conclusions to construct broader inferences about the Gospel and formative Judaism. Repschinski adopts an eclectic methodology that draws upon form, redaction, and narrative criticisms. In establishing what constitutes a controversy story, Repschinski is guided by Rudolf Bultmann's form-critical categories, and because Bultmann discerns a close connection between controversy stories and biographical apophthegms, Repschinski includes both within his ambit. In all, he addresses seventeen stories in Matthew, including the rejection of Jesus at Nazareth (13:53-58). The book as a whole is well organized and carefully constructed. Each major section is furnished with summations that neatly anticipate the coming section. After a substantial and valuable Forschungsbericht (ch. 1), Repschinski begins with a redaction-critical examination of each of the Gospel's controversy dialogues, as well as a discussion of the related pericopae in Mark (chs. 2-5). He then approaches the controversy stories from a literary and narrative standpoint (chs. 6-7), concluding with an application of his findings to the relationship between Matthew's and formative Judaism (ch. 8). The only feature that appears somewhat incongruous in Repschinski's arrangement is his decision to delay consideration of form-critical approaches until ch. 6, but this is because he uses the form-critical approaches as a preamble for his structural evaluation of the controversy stories. Repschinski's redaction-critical analyses follow the Gospel's chronology, beginning with the disputes in Matt 9 and culminating with Jesus' final controversies in Jerusalem. Repschinski establishes that Matthew intensifies the conflict in all the controversy narratives he has inherited from Mark. What is more, Matthew streamlines all Mark's stories and clearly identifies the Jewish leadership as Jesus' opponents. Although the constitution of these opponents is varied, it is the Pharisees who figure most prominently in Matthew as Jesus' detractors. The crowds often serve as the audience to these conflicts, and occasionally reference is made in these controversies also to Matthew's community (as in Matt 9:8). Of particular note in the Gospel is the christological component of the controversy stones, which begins to become prominent in ch. 12 and emerges as a characteristic feature of the conflicts in Jerusalem. Jesus is represented by Matthew as the undisputed victor in all these contests and as the authoritative expositor of the Mosaic Law. The Jerusalem controversies also demonstrate a pronounced derogation of the Jewish leadership, which suggests to Repschinski that Jesus and his opponents are both vying for the leadership of the crowds. The final trait isolated by Repschinski in his redaction-critical analysis is a particular affinity on Matthew's part for Jewish traditions and modes of interpretation. The portion of Repschinski's book devoted to narrative criticism focuses on two issues: first, how the controversy stories fit within Matthew's narrative framework and, second, the theological implications that arise from the narratives. …