Charles Howard Candler Professor of New Testament Walter Wilson published three new monographs with Eerdmans Publishing Company in 2022, including a two-volume commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.
In Ancient Wisdom: An Introduction to Sayings Collection, Wilson surveys and analyzes 27 major collections of wisdom sayings, exposing readers to wisdom literature from a wide array of historical, cultural, and linguistic settings. He connects the wisdom texts to the worlds from which they emerged, and the collection unfolds into a larger understanding of how different ancient peoples articulated a gnomic understanding of life. In addition, each entry includes a short bibliography directing the reader to an up-to-date translation of the collection in question and other relevant secondary texts.
In The Gospel of Matthew Volume 1 and Volume 2, Wilson offers a wealth of insight into the first book of the New Testament. He characterizes the Gospel of Matthew as both a continuation of the biblical story and a didactic narrative meant to shape the commitments and identity of a particular group of disaffected Jewish followers of Jesus in the late first century CE. Through meticulous engagement with the original text as well as primary and secondary sources, Wilson contextualizes the Gospel and interprets its intended messages for contemporaneous readers about topics including morality, liturgy, mission, group discipline, and eschatology.