I've been preparing, over the last several months, to teach a class at my church on the New Testament in its historical/cultural setting. Out of the dozen plus books I read this was one of the most informative and best written of them. Certainly one needs many other sources to get a full picture of what is going on in the NT and in Matthew in particular, but this book gives a great amount of info you probably won't get from anywhere else. Also, since the author is writing about the context in which Matthew was written, he seems to have no interest in the traditional critical questions such as authorship, date, sources, etc. This makes it friendly to those interested in the Bible from either side of the conservative/liberal divide.

Prof. Neyrey brings fresh insight to the text of Matthew using resources from otherwise ignored classical sources. With the tools of classical literature and social science criticism, Neyrey writes clearly, arguing cogently for Matthew as encomium literature. A must for every bookshelf.

The illustrations in the "What it's like to be a baby...." series is absolutely wonderful. The artworks made me smile. Mr Nicholas has a true talent for bringing out the essence of the animals he brings to life with a paintbrush.