Never before have I spent so much time on this, the first chapter of Matthew. For the most part in my life, the first 17 verses have been quickly skimmed, and the last 7 verses were only dealt with at Christmas. Never before did I imagine there could be so much in this chapter-full of names.
Now, if you go into Matthew with the idea that we are just taking the text for what it says, and not immediately thinking, "He has a reason for writing this," you may have trouble with this. But, that's not what we're doing here. We're looking into why Matthew is writing what he is writing.
Here is the text for Matthew 1:
Matthew 1
The Ancestors of Jesus the Messiah
1 This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham: 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Isaac was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.
3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar).
Perez was the father of Hezron.
Hezron was the father of Ram.
4 Ram was the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon.
5 Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab).
Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth).
Obed was the father of Jesse.
6 Jesse was the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon (whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah).
7 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.
Rehoboam was the father of Abijah.
Abijah was the father of Asa.
8 Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram.
Jehoram was the father of Uzziah.
9 Uzziah was the father of Jotham.
Jotham was the father of Ahaz.
Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah.
10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh.
Manasseh was the father of Amon.
Amon was the father of Josiah.
11 Josiah was the father of Jehoiachin and his brothers (born at the time of the exile to Babylon).
12 After the Babylonian exile:
Jehoiachin was the father of Shealtiel.
Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel.
13 Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud.
Abiud was the father of Eliakim.
Eliakim was the father of Azor.
14 Azor was the father of Zadok.
Zadok was the father of Akim.
Akim was the father of Eliud.
15 Eliud was the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar was the father of Matthan.
Matthan was the father of Jacob.
16 Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.
17 All those listed above include fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah.
The Birth of Jesus the Messiah
18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus,[i] for he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:
23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.’”
24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
Now, take your time, look over the list through verse 17, and recall your Old Testament history. What are some things you notice. First, count the generations. 14, 14, and 14, just like Matthew says, right? Well, not really. It's actually kind of like 14, 14, and 13, unless you count David in both the first and second list, and Jehoiachin in both the second and third lists. It can be stretched out to work, but it's iffy. Secondly, the list isn't even complete, or correct! Look in Luke's geneology in Luke Chapter 3. It is way different than Matthew's. Different people are mentioned, different number of people is listed.
Anyway, that's not my point. An obvious point in the first 14 is the mention of 4 women. Why would Matthew decide to drop 4 women in the middle of this list of all these men?
As for the last 14, we don't really know much about them, because they were during the exile. We have little to no knowledge of Jesus ancestory in this time, so we just have to trust what Matthew has written here.
I'm going to look at this chapter keeping in mind that Matthew had a specific purpose for writing. He's saying Jesus was the Messiah. He's saying that God the Father had a specific purpose in the events leading up to Jesus. He's saying that God the Father was in control of the events. He's saying God is a merciful, forgiving, loving, and just God. He's saying that the Spirit was essential in the bringing of Christ. And then he's saying that Christ is essential.
Now, this could be ridiculously long, so I'm going to stretch this out over a few posts. I'm gonna think on those questions and what I think about them and consider the question about the women in the first post, the question about skipping over kings in the second post, and the final 7 verses in the 3rd post. Get ready...
Later guys,
Matt
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