Recent decades have seen significant shifts in biblical scholarship opening up a range of ways of engaging the biblical narrative - both methodologically (the tools and techniques for engaging the text) and hermeneutically (the perspectives that inform an interpreter's approach to the text and to the interpretative task). It is these shifts that give shape to this introduction and study guide, so that students encounter not only the text of Matthew itself but also its rich lode of recent interpretation.
Among aspects of 1st-century life brought to the fore by current social-scientific methodology are kinship, the honor and shame culture, and masculinity. Gender is another interpretative lens that has characterized the study of the Gospel of Matthew in recent decades and the Guide provides pathways through this rich literature.
The guide to Matthew concludes with the most recent turn of the hermeneutical lens, namely an ecological perspective on what is perhaps the best-known text in Matthew, the Beatitudes. This final chapter is an example of how we can enter an old and familiar text like the Gospel of Matthew from yet another new critical direction.

1. Reading the Matthean Narrative
Preachers of the Basileia
Preaching, Teaching and Healing
Commissioning to Preach, Teach and Heal
Opposition Mounts as the Mission Unfolds
Mission Continues en route to and within the City of Jerusalem
Final Days
2. Reading the Matthean Narrative with Recent Scholars
Historical-Critical Approaches and Commentaries
Emerging Literary Approaches and the Study of Matthew
3. Reading the Matthean Narrative within Roman Imperialism
Roman Imperialism and the Gospel of Matthew
The Meaning of Empire
Matthew as a Counter-Narrative?
Expanding the Roman Imperial Context
Social-Scientific Approaches
Roman Characters in the Gospel of Matthew
Critical Issues
4. Reading the Matthean Narrative with/in Contemporary Contexts
Feminist Readings
Masculinity Readings/Reading Masculinity
Queer Hermeneutics
Postcolonial Hermeneutics
Ecological Hermeneutics
5. Reading the Matthean Beatitudes (Mt. 5.1-12) Ecologically
Ecological Hermeneutic and Methodology
Reading Mt. 5.1-12 Ecologically