The New Wettstein enables scholars to gain a better grasp of the rich links between the world of ideas in the New Testament and its contemporary context in Antiquity. With this, it is possible to demonstrate both how the authors of the New Testament are intellectually rooted in their cultural, social, intellectual and religious world and how they depart from it. The New Wettstein plays a central role in this process in two ways:

a) Firstly, the volumes of the New Wettstein provide New Testament researchers with a hitherto unavailable resource with a wealth of material and breadth of content which makes the laborious search for antique parallels significantly easier. At the same time, the New Wettstein is an important teaching resource, as the wealth of material presented with its processing of parallel text passages can easily be utilised for teaching. Students of theology and classical studies, pastors in training and teachers of religion and ethics will also be able to profit directly from the New Wettstein for their work in exegesis, as its processing of the reference passages enables the students to form their own judgment about the location of New Testament texts in their contemporary context in Antiquity.

b) It is inconceivable that a project similar to the New Wettstein can be set up in other research centres in the world. This project based in Halle is already unique on a world scale and will certainly remain so.

Der vorliegende Band "Neuer Wettstein" zum MtEv umfasst die Kapitel 11-28 und bietet insgesamt ca. 2000 neu ausgearbeitete Texte aus Griechentum und Hellenismus. In Verbindung mit dem ersten Band liegt damit der Forschung eine einzigartige Sammlung von Vergleichstexten vor. Das Matthäusevangelium kann auf dieser Basis umfassend auf kulturhistorischer, sozialer, philosophischer und theologischer Ebene erschlossen werden