In this abridged version of her doctoral thesis, Margaret Hannan presents a literary and theological reading of the various basileia logia in the Gospel of Matthew. Hannan draws attention to Matthew’s crafting of his material in order to highlight the basileia logia unique to his Gospel, placing them at strategic points throughout the Gospel. In doing so, Matthew attempts to “drive home all-important theological motifs” (173). Hannan sees these kingdom-sayings as containing the author’s unique voice expressing his conviction that “God’s gratuitous saving and liberating presence is a reality in every era of history” (230).

Hannan assumes that Matthew’s particular theological understanding of Jesus’ mission and proclamation is to be found in the structure and composition of his gospel. This requires the interpreter to take the whole gospel into account rather than isolated units of tradition. Matthew has skillfully crafted a story by interweaving traditional materials with his own unique theological statements. She wants not only to notice what was said (syntax) but also how it is said, the position of a pericope within the narrative. Since Hannan deals primarily with the text of Matthew, there is little interaction with the other Gospels. This is not a redactional study but rather an attempt to develop the theology of the author of the first Gospel.

A study of this kind must develop some sort of an understanding of Matthew’s community. This is always tentative work since what may be known about the community is found only in the text of Matthew. For Hannan, Matthew’s community is a very limited community of Jewish believers-in-Jesus in a predominately Greek-speaking culture (9). The author of Matthew attempts to maintain continuity with the historic Jesus in the midst of cultural changes precipitated by the fall of the Temple. Matthew’s community is one of several Jewish voices that respond to the loss of the Temple as the center of Jewish worship.

Hannan works through the text of Matthew in a series of short chapters that function as a commentary on the kingdom-sayings. Each chapter begins with a survey of the composition of the section followed by explanations of how each pericope contributes to the overall kingdom-theme of Matthew. As Hannan notes, the “preaching of the kingdom of heaven” is the motivating factor for Jesus’ Galilean period (45), for the individual instruction of his disciples beginning in chapter 13 (101), and for his final ministry in Jerusalem (193).

Each chapter concludes with theological reflections on the unit examined. Most of these follow from the text and demonstrate the growth of the theme of kingdom in Matthew’s Gospel. On occasion these theological observations seem to stray beyond what the text of Matthew seems to be saying. For example, Hannan comments on the preaching of John the Baptist as strongly pointing to God’s coming salvation from the oppression of both the religious leadership and “the imperial weight of Rome,” citing 4:15–16 in support of this statement (41). That John was critical of the religious leadership of the Jews is clear, but he has virtually nothing to say about Rome, and 4:15–16 is a citation of Isaiah 9 which has little to do with the “imperial weight of Rome.” That Jesus challenged the religious authority of his day is clear, but does God’s sovereignty as presented in Matthew really challenge “exploitative relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, and among the disciples of Jesus”? (172). This seems more like Pauline theology than what is found in Matthew’s Gospel. However, these statements do not greatly detract from the value of this study for students of the first Gospel.

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