Matt Woodley
InterVarsity Press, 2011, 288 pp., $18
This is Matt Woodley’s second contribution to InterVarsity’s Resonate Series—a commentary series they humbly describe as a “practical, pastoral, biblically grounded and culturally conscious un-commentary that may just change the way we interact with Scripture forever.”
While it may not quite achieve the “change the way…forever” status, this new brand of commentary may be very helpful for the reader who is frustrated by the heavy, traditional commentary format.
The Gospel of Matthew is not a 288-page list of explanatory annotations on the first book of the New Testament. It is a very casual walk through the gospel that tackles the content in topical and chronological chunks. Woodley attempts to take each section of the Scripture and address it in a culturally engaging manner.
While the more traditionally educated readers probably will not be rushing out to sell off their expository commentary sets to replace them with The Gospel of Matthew, this is potentially a tremendously helpful tool for someone who is less biblically savvy. That is its true promise, not to one-up the scores of existing commentaries, but to offer something more accessible to a largely biblically illiterate culture.
