Peter

A STUNNING, PROVOCATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON THE DISCIPLE PETER AS DEPICTED BY MATTHEWIn this highly controversial work on Peter, Robert Gundry's intellectual gifts and remarkable powers of analysis are displayed to an even higher degree than in his previous publications. . . One need not agree with Gundry's conclusions to acknowledge that the penetrating exegesis presented here and the nature of the argumentation as a whole demand serious reflection and engagement. Those who pay close attention to this brief but unusually weighty book will not be able to read Matthew in quite the same way that they did before. --MOISES SILVAauthor of Biblical Words and Their MeaningPeter, long thought to be 'prince of the apostles' and one of the heroes of the Gospel of Matthew, is shown here to be neither. This extraordinarily closely argued volume by Robert Gundry offers a compelling case that Matthew constructs the figure of Peter as a failed disciple and an apostate. . . A courageous book that will require scholars to reassess how the Peter of Matthew came to be, in Gundry's words, 'airbrushed' and turned into a model of disciple and central figure in ecclesiastical memory. --JOHN S. KLOPPENBORGUniversity of TorontoIf Bob Gundry is known for anything, it is for his dogged pursuit of the meaning of Scripture. Here he once again provides fresh, penetrating analysis--in the present case, leading to an unsettling conclusion. Provocative, as he can often be, Gundry is never boring but always instructive and well worth a careful reading. --DONALD A. HAGNERFuller Theological SeminaryROBERT H. GUNDRY is scholar-in-residence and professor emeritus of New Testament and Greek at Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California. His other books include A Survey of the New Testament (now in its fifth edition), Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross, and Matthew: A Commentary on His Handbook for a Mixed Church under Persecution.