The Gospel of Matthew

It has been no easy task to attempt the interpretation of a document so familiar and so valued as the Gospel according to Matthew, especially when the work has to be limited in space. There is hardly a verse which does not leave room for comment, and every reader of the Bible is aware of the meaning usually attributed to the text. Yet so deep and so rich is its content that there is always the possibility of fresh discovery, and I am sending out this little book in the hope that some of its sentences may at least challenge to new efforts those most competent to think and speak on this great subject. I have tried to avoid elaborating familiar lines of exposition and extended treatment of passages which seem to me self-explanatory. Further, I have most lightly skimmed over areas which are common to the First and Second Gospels, believing that they should find their explanation in a work dealing with the Gospel according to Mark. For discussion of these the reader is referred to the Commentary on Mark in this series. This little book is not a learned work, and reference to the work of the recognized New Testament scholars of our own and earlier times has been avoided. But it must be obvious that the writer has sat at the feet of Dr. T. R. Glover, to whom, more than to any other, our generation owes a living picture of the historic Jesus. - Preface.