Matthew As Story (Revised)

Much of literary criticism involves a study of the content of the narratives and of the rhetorical techniques by means of which they are told. Some chapter discussions are; the method itself, tracing the storylines of Jesus, Jesus’ designation of himself as the Son of man, the disposition and character of the great speeches Jesus delivers, and the social and religious circumstances in which the Christian community apparently lived. The author views Matthew as a unified narrative, organized with a coherent plot, the story of which is governed by a single, overarching, “evaluative point of view.”