Description: Matthew crowds more Old Testament quotations and allusions into the prologue than anywhere else in his gospel. In this volume, Nicholas G. Piotrowski demonstrates the narratological and rhetorical effects of such frontloading. Particularly, seven formula-quotations constellate to establish a redemptive-historical setting inside of which the rest of the narrative operates. This setting is defined by Old Testament expectations for David's great son to end Israel's exile and rule the nations. Piotrowski contends that the rhetorical effect of this intertextual storytelling was to provide the Matthean community with an identity--in a contentious atmosphere--in terms of God's historical design for the ages, now fulfilled in Jesus and his followers.
Review Quotes: "This study offers a welcome addition to the growing body of literature surrounding Matthew's scriptural hermeneutic. Piotrowski's careful analysis of scriptural source texts in their respective macro-contexts is commendable, just as his detection of an underlying hermeneutical coherence guiding Matthew's handling of his source material is largely persuasive."
Max Botner, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Reviews of Biblical and Early Christian Studies, May 2017
"Piotrowski's study shows that there is still much undiscovered insight in the well-worn area of Matthew's formula quotations. He is a clear communicator and is to be highly commended for a creative and articulate study of Matthew's formula quotations."
H. Daniel Zacharias, Acadia Divinity College, Bulletin for Biblical Research 27.3
"Piotrowski's book shows the Gospel of Matthew in a new way. The synchronous approach to the text proves to be a very effective method of literary criticism. Certainly the findings are very inspiring and open the field for further research."
Jacek Pietrzak OP, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, BibAn 7/4 (2017)
"Piotrowski's study is a careful examination of the ways in which the OT texts create patterns for making sense of the events of Jesus's birth and early days. His study of the OT texts and especially their broader context illuminates Matthew's narratival purposes in significant ways."
Joshua Jipp, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
"Die von P. vorgeschlagene Leseweise der 'prologue-quotations' ist von hoher 'coherency and cogency' (232) und die derzeit actuellste und literaturwissenschaftlich sehr schlüssig erarbeitete Deutung. ... ...Für die weitere Arbeit am ersten Evangelium und an den vielfältigen Verknüpfungen des Neuen Testaments mut dem Alten Testament ist dieser Beitrag unverzichtbar."
Thomas Hieke, Theologische Literaturzeitung 140 (10), 2017.