Incomplete Commentary on Matthew (Opus Imperfectum) - (Ancient Christian Texts) by Thomas C Oden (Hardcover)

About the Book

Despite some gaps in coverage, the Incomplete Commentary on Matthew has long been prized for its early and lengthy exposition of the Gospel of Matthew. Thomas Aquinas noted that he would rather have a complete copy of the Incomplete Commentary on Matthew than to be mayor of Paris. Offered here for the first time in English translation is a wonderful resource designed for pastors, teachers, students and lay people interested in the early church's interpretation of Matthew's Gospel.

Book Synopsis

In the translator's introduction to this volume, James Kellerman relates the following story:

As Thomas Aquinas was approaching Paris, a fellow traveler pointed out the lovely buildings gracing that city. Aquinas was impressed, to be sure, but he sighed and stated that he would rather have the complete Incomplete Commentary on Matthew than to be mayor of Paris itself.

Thomas's affection for the work attests its great popularity during the Middle Ages, despite its significant missing parts--everything beyond the end of Matthew 25, with further gaps of Matthew 8:11--10:15 and 13:14--18:35. Although there are gaps, what remains is quite lengthy, so much so that we offer the work in two volumes, comprising fifty-four homilies.

While the early-fifth-century author displays a few Arian propensities in a handful of passages, for the most part the commentary is moral in nature and therefore orthodox and generic. The unknown author, who for several centuries was thought to be John Chrysostom, follows the allegorizing method of the Alexandrians, but not by overlooking the literal meaning. His passion, above all, is to set forth the meaning of Matthew's Gospel for his readers.

Here, for the first time, this ancient work is made available in English, ably translated by James A. Kellerman and edited by Thomas C. Oden.

Ancient Christian Texts are new English translations of full-length commentaries or sermon series from ancient Christian authors that allow you to study key writings of the early church fathers in a fresh way.

About the Author

Thomas C. Oden (1931-2016), was the general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and the Ancient Christian Doctrine series as well as the author of Classic Christianity, a revision of his three-volume systematic theology. He was the director of the Center for Early African Christianity at Eastern University in Pennsylvania and he served as the Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology at The Theological School of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Oden was active in the Confessing Movement in America, particularly within the United Methodist Church and was president of The Institute for Classical Christian Studies. He suggested that Christians need to rely upon the wisdom of the historical Church, particularly the early Church, rather than on modern scholarship and theology and said his mission was "to begin to prepare the postmodern Christian community for its third millennium by returning again to the careful study and respectful following of the central tradition of classical Christianity."

James A. Kellerman (Ph.D., Loyola University--Chicago) serves as pastor of First Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Chicago, Illinois, and as adjunct assistant professor of Latin at Concordia University--Chicago.