Synopsis: A Marginal Scribe collects eight studies written over a period of two decades, all of which use social-scientific criticism to interpret the Gospel of Matthew. It prefaces them, first, with a new chapter on the struggle between historians and social scientists since the Enlightenment and its parallel in New Testament studies, which culminated in the emergence of social-scientific criticism; and, second, with a new chapter on recent social-scientific interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew. The eight, more specialized studies cover a variety of themes and use a variety of models but concentrate and are held together by those that illumine social ranking and marginality. The book closes with a chapter that ties together these studies. Endorsements: "Dennis Duling's work is always engaging, always stimulating, and always insightful." --Warren Carter Brite Divinity School "This is a wonderful resource." --Carolyn Osiek Brite Divinity School "Dennis Duling's A Marginal Scribe is to date the most thorough, methodologically consistent, and nuanced application of social-science models to the gospel of Matthew" --John S. Kloppenborg University of Toronto "Future work simply cannot ignore this book." --Douglas E. Oakman Pacific Lutheran University " A] 'must read' for both biblical hermeneutes in general and Matthean scholars in particular." --John H. Elliott University of San Francisco "Duling offers penetrating understandings of important dimensions of Matthew . . ." --Philip Esler St. Mary's University College "Dennis C. Duling is without peer in the application of social-scientific methods to the Gospel of Matthew." --David Sim Australian Catholic University " A] rich, fruitful, seasoned, refined body of research." --Stuart L. Love Pepperdine University Author Biography: Dennis C. Duling, Emeritus Professor and Koesler Distinguished Teacher at Canisius College, is a Fellow of the University of Chicago and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is annotator of the Gospel of Matthew in the HarperCollins Study Bible (1993, 2006) and author of Jesus Christ through History (1979) and The New Testament: History, Literature, and Social Context (2003).