Such have been the many accolades in response to Raymond Brown's best-selling The Birth Of the Messiah. It is a thought-provoking presentation and scintillating analysis of the deeper, often elusive, truths which inspired the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke. A renowned biblical scholar, who has already won a large ecumenical audience, Brown offers the best modern criticism combined with insight into the spiritual concerns of the Gospel authors. Each scene of the narratives is followed by extensive notes and commentary relating it to its Old Testament antecedents and its function in he first century Church as well as to current thought.