"This strongly textual and historical view of the Gospels, as mediating between conflicts, [...] provides a powerful source of formative thinking for us on matters of corporate and individual identity." - Church Times, May 25, 2001 "Riches has made an important contribution to understanding the first two Gospels in terms of underlying mythological outlooks". -- Journal of Theological Studies, 53.1 (April 2002) "Able students will get a lot from it and all theologians and biblical scholars can learn something from its interdisciplinary approach." -- Theological Book Review Feed the Minds "This is a carefully arranged work, well thought out... this is a very well-informed book on the backgrounds to the gospels of Mark and Matthew, and on the manner in which Riches believes their authors expressed the identities of their communities against other groups of their own day. It should prove very useful to students of those Gospels, for students of Judaism and Christianity and also for all interested in the formation of the Gospel message and of the Christian theology in general." --Irish Theological Quarterly, vol 68/1 (2003)"