In this book, Erik Waaler discusses how Matthew uses the Old Testament in Matthew 1-4 to describe Jesus as the Christ. He debates the intricate system of changes that occur when a text is moved from one literary context to another and criticizes the current terminology of quotation, allusion, and echo for being too simplistic. Issues like worldview, metalepsis, different sociological, historic and linguistic contexts and development all have to be taken into consideration, he argues, as do the influence of both traditional interpretations known to Matthew and his primary audience as well as the intentional and unintentional changes this interaction causes. These different methodological approaches are then applied to the study of recontextualization of the Old Testament in Matthew 1-4.
