In this commentary we have endeavored to take the words of Matthew's gospel seriously and to see behind them a whole cultural, legal, and spiritual tradition growing around the belief that Israel was the chosen people of God and that the coming of the Messiah was the fulfillment of God's revelation of himself to men. This is the conviction with which the nascent Christian community met the world of its day, both Jewish and Greek, and there is no understanding of our NT sources unless the conviction that Jesus was the promised Messiah is treated seriously. We have, therefore, taken considerable pains to place the Jesus of the gospels firmly against his own background, making full use of all the evidence now available -- historical, archaeological, and linguistic. - Preface