Matthew 1–7

A Commentary on Matthew 1–7

by Ulrich Luz

Translated by
James E. Crouch

Edited by
Helmut Koester

Fortress

Press Minneapolis

Matthew 1–7

A Commentary on Matthew 1–7

Copyright © 2007 Fortress Press, an imprint of Augsburg Fortress

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Augsburg Fortress, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Luz, Ulrich.

[Evangelium nach Matthäus. English]

Matthew 1–7: a commentary / by Ulrich Luz; translated by James E. Crouch; volume editor, Helmut Koester.—[Rev. ed.].

p. cm.—(Hermeneia—a critical and historical commentary on the Bible)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8006-6099-4

ISBN-10: 0-8006-6099-4

1. Bible. N.T. Matthew I–VII—Commentaries. I. Koester, Helmut, 1926– II. Title.

BS2575.53.L8913 2007

226.2’077—dc22

■ For Salome

Hermeneia

—A Critical

and Historical

Commentary

on the Bible

Old Testament Editorial Board

Peter Machinist, Harvard University, chair

Klaus Baltzer, University of Munich

Sidnie White Crawford, University of Nebraska

Paul D. Hanson, Harvard University

Thomas Krüger, University of Zurich

S. Dean McBride Jr., Union Theological Seminary in Virginia

Frank Moore Cross, Harvard University, emeritus

New Testament Editorial Board

Helmut Koester, Harvard University, chair

Harold W. Attridge, Yale University

Adela Yarbro Collins, Yale University

Eldon Jay Epp, Case Western Reserve University

Hans-Josef Klauck, University of Chicago

James M. Robinson, Claremont Graduate University, emeritus

The Author

Ulrich Luz was born in 1938, and he studied theology in Zürich and Göttingen under Hans Conzelmann, Eduard Schweizer, and Gerhard Ebeling. He taught at the International Christian University in Tokyo (1970–1971), at the University of Göttingen (1972–1980), and at the University of Bern in Switzerland (1980–2003). Now he is professor emeritus. He received honorary degrees from the universities of Leipzig, Budapest, Sibiu, Lausanne, Praha, and Nishinomiya and served as president of the Societas Novi Testamenti Studiorum in 1998. He is the author of numerous books, including Das Geschichtsverständnis des Paulus (1968), Matthew in History: Interpretation, Influence and Effects (1994), and The Theology of the Gospel of Matthew (1995), and editor of Die Mitte des Neuen Testaments: Einheit und Vielfalt neutestamentlicher Theologie (1983). He and his wife, Salome Keller, have three children.

Contents
Matthew 1–7

Foreword

Editor’s Note

Preface to the First Edition

Preface to the Hermeneia Edition

Translator’s Preface

Reference Codes

1. Sources and Abbreviations

2. Text-Critical Sigla

3. Short Titles of All Commentaries and of Studies and Articles Often Cited

■ Introduction

1 Structure and Basic Character of Matthew’s Story of Jesus

1.1 Basic Problems

1.2 Structuring ...