Welcome Lynnette

I'm so excited to have you here. Thanks for your introduction to Matthew. It is important to know the writer when we want to know the work.

I did some online research which concurs with your commentary stating that the book was written for a Jewish audience. Beyone the abudance of scriptural refences, the book of Matthew uses language that jews would accept and understand - "kingdom of heaven" vs "kingdom of God."

This I think is an important thing to consider as we read through the book. One of our lenses can thus be -- why would a 1st century jew want to know this? I think it would be admisable to wonder into old testament scripts to gather meaning of Matthew. I look forward to it.

On another note, responding to the time crunch... I know it's hard. It's one reason that I wanted to do this study. There's no fixed time to meet or to make sure you do it. But its something that can be slid in between paying bills and checking email. I hope that everyone finds just a few minutes. I'm already being blessed by the commentary that you are all posting. It reopens the texts yet again in a new way. Which as we toil on in our faith, finding moments to make it new, to deepen or strengthen that rock is a great blessing.

I just downloaded a pdf with the greek commentary if any one would like it: Greek commentary of Matthew