Bible Study series: Matthew 1:1-17. It may be hard to believe, but we can learn so much from a genealogy, particularly Matthew’s.

A warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together. In this post, I use the NIV unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:

biblegateway.com

In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!

Matthew 1

In this post links are provided for further study.

Let’s begin.

Scripture: Matthew 1:1-17

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:1-17)

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

¹⁷ Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah. (NIV)

Commentary

Alternative translations:

“was the father of” (ESV,  NASB, NEC, NLT). Other options: “the father of” (NET) or “begat” (KJV) or “begot” (NKJV) or “had” (Message). Of course, the KJV and NKJV are right because the verb is active and applies to the father who begets or procreates, while the mother births or gives birth (and they procreate together). Also, one could translate the main verb as “ancestor of,” indicating a skipped genealogy (Turner, p. 58).

However, the modern reader doesn’t like “begot” or “begat,” yet they appear in the opening verses of the New Testament! So translators don’t want to scare off beginning readers. I can’t blame them when other options are available.

At the end of Matt. 2, commentator Turner offers us this summary of the infancy narrative:

In retrospect it is clear that the message of the so-called infancy narratives in Matt. 1-2 has little to do with Jesus’ infancy. Rather, they trace his ancestry, miraculous conception, early worship and opposition and residence in Nazareth. All this is interwoven with biblical-historical patterning and prophetic prediction. Jesus is the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. He is the culmination of biblical history and prophecy. As the son of David, he is the genuine king of Israel, contrasted with the wicked usurper Herod. As the son of Abraham, he brings the blessing of God to the gentile magi … “Jesus culminates Israel’s history in chapter 1; in chapter 2 he repeats it.” (comment on 2:23b).

In the last quoted sentence Turner is referring to two other commentators. His point is that Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel’s history and the answer to Israel’s longing for deliverance. Jesus is the apex of the story of Israel. I add: but this deliverance will not be as the Jerusalem establishment and Jewish leaders and the populace demands. We know that his people will officially reject him, though thousands converted after Pentecost (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 6:7 [large number of priests]; 21:20).

This genealogy teaches us that God sends his son, birthed into his creation, so that God can launch the newly accented kingdom, which will eventually culminate in new creation at the end of this age, when he comes back a second time in the Second Coming. Right now, however, this is his first coming.

Grammarian Wesley Olmstead suggests this translation of v. 1: “The account of the genesis of Jesus the Messiah” (emphasis original). The Septuagint (pronounced sep-TOO-ah-gent) is a third to second century Greek translation of the Hebrew. And the wording “the account of the genesis” appears only in Gen. 2:4 and 5:1. Matthew is being intentional. Verse 18 again repeats the Greek word genesis, to give the account of Jesus’s birth or the beginning of his life; and second, Gen. 5:1 echoes 2:4, so this the genesis or creation of Jesus during his incarnation. No, Jesus was not created at his conception and had no existence before his incarnation, but it is the genesis or beginning of his earthly life. In any case, Olmstead offers this translation in light of Gen. 2:4 and 5:1. You can take it or leave it.

One big point to the genealogy is that some Jews of the first century and beyond, looking for ways to deny Jesus as the Messiah, claimed that Jesus’s parentage was doubtful. In reply, Matthew’s genealogy is designed to clear the air and prove it was royal and included key figures in Israel’s past. So Matthew is being polemical or feisty.

“Christ”: it is a title that means “an anointed one” or “the anointed one.” It soon evolved into his name, and even the writers of the epistles seem to adopt it as his name. It appears 18 times in Matthew, and three times in the prologue (vv. 1-17). This shows that Matthew is a devout Christian who recognized that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah (Carson).

See my post on the title or name of Christ:

3. Titles of Jesus: The Son of David and the Messiah

What Is the ‘Anointing’?

“Son of David”: David is the turning point or pivot in the genealogy, and it recurs throughout the Gospel: 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30-32; 21:9, 15; 22:42, 45). Jesus will show that he is the Lord of David, so he rises above the earlier model king, his ancestors (22:41-46). Jesus was going to fulfill the David covenant by sitting on his throne—by himself, without sharing it with his ancestor. So the throne of David is not enduring forever (2 Sam. 7:12-16).

God’s Covenant with David

“The tree of David, hacked off so that only a stump remained, was spouting a new branch” (Is. 11:1) (Carson). The new branch was Jesus the Messiah.

Jesus is also the son of Abraham, since David was the son of Abraham. The promise of faith came through the patriarch (Gen. 12:1-3; 17:7; 22:18). This was very basic in Paul’s theology, since Abraham was declared righteous by faith (Rom. 4:1-5; 9-25; Gal. 3:7-18). This promise of salvation by faith—as distinct from law-keeping—will be fulfilled in Christ Jesus. The blessing of Abraham’s seed or offspring is Jesus, and at the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations, Jesus will fulfill the promise (Matt. 28:18-20).

God’s Covenant with Abraham

I really like the idea that the genealogy is presented in a leaning capital N.

N

From Abraham to David in the first fourteen generations, Israel rises. In the next fourteen generations, Israel falls. In the last fourteen generations, Israel’s history ends at the top—Messiah Jesus (Turner’s comment on v. 17).

What is the purpose of genealogies? In the Ancient Near East they served these basic functions, among others: economic (legacy and inheritance), tribal (sense of belonging), political (who has the right to rule?), domestic (family relationships and geographical inheritance or origins). Matthew’s purpose is revealed in v. 1, to show Jesus’s connection to Abraham and David. He will be the fulfillment of God’s covenants with both of them. He will bring the divine blessing to the nations, which includes Gentile women and men, who are named in the list of names.

Now the more difficult situation is to reconcile Matthew’s genealogy with Luke’s. Several attempts has been made. In the next link, I look at various scholars’ attempt. To me, they are convincing, particularly James Bejon’s brilliant efforts in the early generational chains after David to the deportation.

Please see my post:

Reconciling Matthew’s and Luke’s Genealogies: Mission: Impossible?

The results of those scholars’ attempts at reconciling the two genealogies are too complex for this commentary. Click on the above link, if you are interested. Keener boils things down: “The best alternative to harmonizing the lists is to suggest that Matthew emphasizes the nature of Jesus’ lineage as royalty rather than trying to formulate a biologically precise list (contrast possibly Luke), to which he did not have access” (pp. 75-76). Again, see the link, just above about harmonizing the two genealogies.

The levirate marriage in the OT (Deut. 25:5-10) says that a woman whose husband just died may marry his brother to carry on the deceased brother’s name. In Luke 3:23, Joseph’s father is said to be Heli, whereas in v. 16 he is said to be the son of Jacob. In their commentary on Luke, Liefeld and Pao offer this solution: “The widow of a childless man could marry his brother so that a child of the second marriage could legally be considered as the son of the deceased man in order to perpetuate his name. In a genealogy, the child could be listed as the son of Heli in Luke but as the son of Jacob in Matthew. On the levirate marriage theory, Heli and Jacob may have been half brothers, with the same mother, but fathers of different names. Perhaps Heli died and Jacob married his widow (Luke. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. [Zondervan, 2007], p. 97).

In v. 16, I really like the wording: “Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.” In Greek the pronoun “of whom” is feminine, so it clearly and can only refer to Mary. Jesus was born from her, not Mary’s husband Joseph. This is a subtle way to express the virgin birth. So I could have analyzed Mary in Matthew’s genealogy, adding up to five women, but she is about to be the star of this chapter and the next, so let’s wait till then. Also Turner points out that the verb becomes passive, which is a surprise, because it introduces divine activity (comment on 1:6b-11). Many scholars call it the divine passive, meaning, God is behind the scenes working it out.

In v. 17, Matthew summarizes the three sets of fourteen. Let’s first look at what deportation means. The deportation means that Judah (the surviving kingdom) was conquered by Babylon in 605, and thousands, including Daniel, were deported to Babylon. In 597 King Jehoiachin and thousands of nobles were deported, including Ezekiel. In 587/6, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, and King Zedekiah and others were exiled to Babylon.

Many scholars (e.g. Keener on p. 74, who then references many others in n. 6) have observed that Matthew organized his genealogy in three sets of fourteen, and fourteen can be reached by 7 + 7 = 14, and seven is the number of completion. It is the Sabbath day of rest. Further, three fourteens can be reached by six sevens (3 x 14 = 42 and 6 x 7 = 42). The period of the seventh seven is really significant for the ongoing purpose of God. In Dan. 9:24-27 the Anointed One brings in the final and seventh week of seven years. Jesus is the Anointed One and he is ushering in the final age.

One other teaching says that 6 x 7 = six days of creation, plus God’s rest on the seventh day (Gen. 1). Then these teachers look up the number seven in the Bible and find other important meanings, hinting at rest. You can make of this what you will.

However, Matthew does not divide his list of names by six sevens. So this calculation is over-reading Matthew himself. It is never a good idea to outsmart the author of a biblical text, as many modern American Bible TV interpreters often do (unfortunately). It is likely that Matthew organized his first set of fourteen because there were fourteen head-of-household names in the genealogical list from Abraham to David (1 Chron. 1:28-2:55). And Matthew started there.

Now let’s analyze this more thoroughly because the timespan between Abraham and David is about seven hundred to eight hundred years and would require more than fourteen generations. From David to the exile is only four hundred years, but Matthew omits four members of the dynastic succession. And from the deportation or exile to the birth of Jesus is about six hundred years, so Matthew’s thirteen names cannot cover the span (Luke has twenty-two names for the same period).

Therefore, Matthew’s list is selective. Why did he do that? First “was the father of” can mean “was the ancestor of,” so any number of names could be omitted to go straight to the main ancestor, perhaps the dynastic one. Second, clearly Matthew highlights king David. And when the three letters in his name (d-w-d, the vowels were inserted later in Hebrew), the three letters add up to fourteen (again see Keener on p. 74 and note 6):

D = 4
W = 6
D = 4
⸻⸻⸻
= 14

This addition is not a farfetched explanation. Matthew was a Jew who counted numbers for a living. He was a tax collector, after all (I accept traditional authorship and take it seriously). Other Jewish writings before and contemporaneous with the Gospel played with numbers (the pursuit is called gematria, which you can google, if you wish). However, I prefer to keep the plain things the main things, so I use caution in numerology.

Finally, the alert reader will notice that the third set of fourteen has one member missing. Various solutions have been proposed, but I like Carson’s: “And if the third set of fourteen is short one member, perhaps it will suggest to some readers that just as God cuts short the time of distress for the sake of his elect (Matt. 24:22), so also he mercifully shortens the period from the Exile to Jesus the Messiah.”

A less spiritual reason is that David is the pivot. He looks back to Abraham and then he turns, so to speak, and looks forward to Jesus in two sets of fourteen.

Once again:

Reconciling Matthew’s and Luke’s Genealogies: Mission: Impossible?

That link has further links to a great effort at reconciling the two genealogies, and I think they succeed.

However, let’s imagine, for the sake of argument, that with the available information we are unable to reconcile Luke’s and Matthew’s genealogies. We must stop the foolishness of a brittle position on Scripture. “If there are disagreements or differences, then the brittle Bible breaks into pieces, and so does my brittle faith! I quit!” No. Focus on the main point.

To conclude ….

The genealogy of Jesus showed that he was thoroughly Jewish, but more than that, he was the son of David and son of Abraham. Jesus belongs in the bigger story of God, revealed in the Bible. More than “belongs,” he is the culmination of the story. All the  thematic strands of the OT come together in him and carry on, reshaped and reworked, through him. He was the new Israel.

See the next section for links to the inspiration of Scripture and the historical reliability of the Gospels (below the next major table).

Also see:

Luke’s Birth Narrative: Pagan Myth or Sacred Story?

Grow App for Matthew 1:1-17

1. God has adopted you in the flow of salvation from Abraham to Christ. Have you ever felt like an outcast? How did God redeem you from your past or outsider status?

2.. If you have a young family, how do you start a new legacy?

3.. If your family is nearly grown, and you made mistakes, how does God redeem your mistakes?

RELATED

Reconciling Matthew’s and Luke’s Genealogies: Mission: Impossible?

9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel

1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel

2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels

14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels

1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series

Luke’s Birth Narrative: Pagan Myth or Sacred Story?

Common Details in Matthew’s and Luke’s Birth Narratives

SOURCES

For the bibliographical data, please click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:

Matthew 1