Reviewed Book: Luz, Ulrich. Matthew in History: Interpretation, Influence, and Effects. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1994

Vaage, Leif E.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 22Issue 2 Essays Ecumenical and Historical Article 1011-1-1996Matthew in History: Interpretation, Influence, andEffectsLeif E. VaageFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationVaage, Leif E. (1996) "Matthew in History: Interpretation, Influence, and Effects," Consensus: Vol. 22 : Iss. 2 , Article 10.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol22/iss2/10136 Consensuswould be important in decisions to add or drop certain books, nor, moreprecisely, how Jesus Christ might in fact function in decisions of this kindas “true and final canon”.Indeed, much neglected in this volume are the critical theological devel-opments that gave rise to the formation of the agreed upon core collectionof Jewish writings in pre-Christian centuries and the agreed upon core col-lection of Christian writings during the second and third centuries CE.This latter is the period which William Farmer, in Jesus and the Gospels,refers to as the “classical phase” in Christian canon history, because of thepivotal role Irenaeus played at this time in defending the church’s core con-victions about Israel’s God and Israel’s scriptures against Marcion’s radicalanti-Judaism. For a proper account of these enormously consequential the-ological developments older works like that of Hans von Campenhausen(The Formation of the Christian Bible) are still indispensable.John W. MillerConrad Grebel College,University of WaterlooMatthew in History: Interpretation, Influence, and Ef-fectsUlrich LuzMinneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994X + 108 pp.This book is a revised set of lectures originally given in English atUnion Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, by the Swiss New Tes-tament professor Ulrich Luz. Luz is best known for his commentary (stillin progress) on the Gospel of Matthew; two tomes of which have alreadybeen published in German, the first of which is now also available in En-glish. More specifically, it is the incorporation into this commentary of thehistory of interpretation or Wirkungsgeschichte of the text as an integralaspect of the text’s meaning that Luz has especially emphasized. The bookunder review refiects both aspects of this larger work and, indeed, mighteasily serve as an accessible introduction to the governing concerns behindit.Despite the title, the book is not really about the Gospel of Matthew,at least not in any comprehensive or overarching fashion. Only two ofthe book’s five chapters have as their principal theme particular aspectsof the Gospel of Matthew, and in neither case is the topic discussed afundamental feature of Matthew’s narrative per se. Chapter three treatsthe so- called “mission instructions” in Matthew 10, while chapter four isessentially a discussion of the figure of Peter in Matthew 16:18. In bothBook Reviews 137cases, the Gospel of Matthew serves more as a source of examples for thelarger hermeneutical argument of the book than as the book’s specific focus.The book is really about hermeneutics or the problem of understand-ing how a text like the Gospel of Matthew can be held to be meaning-ful beyond the circumstances of its original composition and, furthermore,how the meanings ascribed to the text by later generations are not simplyarbitrary or to be considered strictly beside the point for an historicallyminded readership. Thus the first chapter of the book addresses the limitsof the historical-critical method: essentially, the tendency of this approachto make the text a thing of the past. The second chapter then explainshow the method of interpretation practised by Luz, which is attentive tothe “history of [meaning] effects” or Wirkungsgeschichte of the text, makespossible “a new dimension of understanding”. Lest one think, however,that Luz is simply opposed to the use of historical criticism in biblical in-terpretation, the fifth and final chapter of the book returns, after the twoaforementioned case studies in Matthew 10 and 16, to “the question oftruth” and “the value of the historical-critical method”.Leif E. VaageEmmanuel College,Toronto, OntarioComfort One Another, Reconstructing the Rhetoricand Audience of 1 ThessaloniansAbraham SmithLouisville: Westminster Press, 1995Abraham Smith’s book represents a new direction in biblical studies.Drawing upon the tools of literary criticism, he closely observes the contoursof language, pays attention to the rhetorical context of the period, andthinks hard about the relationship of the text of 1 Thessalonians to readers.In the first chapter, he develops principles as viable tests for a validinterpretation, thereby charting a course for interpretation. These prin-ciples include not doing violence to a text by ignoring some or all of itsparts, communicating an interpretation in an understandable fashion, andbringing new insights or direction to the interpretation.His section on readers is helpful to anyone engaged in biblical inter-pretation. First, he demonstrates that all critical readers are “constrainedto read as biased or interested readers” (17). Leaving behind the classicalempiricist notion of a “passive receptive mind”. Smith offers an “interac-tionist model”. He demonstrates how each writer “recontextualizes” anancient writer. Further, Smith asserts that the modern interpreter has this

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