The aim of this series is to enable serious students of the New Testament-pastor's intermediate-level scholars, and disciplined, seeking lay people-to gain insights into and understanding of the basic meaning and intent of the New Testament writings by highlighting the context in which they were produced. While the commentaries build on detailed and precise scholarly knowledge concerning the new Testament and include fresh translations of the document under consideration, they do not presuppose knowledge of the original Greek New Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures on the part of the reader.

The commentaries intend to make clear to the reader what are the major conceptual and cultural features of the work under analysis, and what role the document played in the origins of Christianity and in subsequent Christian thought.

Church and Community in Crisis shows how Matthew's Gospel was shaped by an in response to local and regional tensions within Jewish society and culture in the post-70 C.E. period in Palestine.

J. Andrew Overman teaches in the Department of Religion and Classics at Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN, and is the author of Matthew's Gospel and Formative Judaism: The Social World of the Matthean Community.