the method to be pursued in grasping the message of this most influential book. The primary conviction of the present volume is that hermeneutical method, that is, the specific strategy for reading and interpreting material, must correspond to the character of that which is being studied.12 In other words, the very nature of the Gospel of Matthew should provide us with the framework or mode for its study. It is my contention that, in terms of form, the Gospel of Matthew is literary; in terms of content,