Matthew 1

1:1-17   The genealogy of Jesus Christ traced through his legal father, Joseph.  Lk.3, which traces Jesus’ natural decent through David’s and Bathsheba’s son Nathan (1 Chr. 3:5), not Solomon, is apparently Mary’s paternal line (both lists are said to be abbreviated).  

     1:1   In obedience to the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son, Jesus came to fulfill the promises of the covenants with Abraham and David.

     Matthew’s purpose is to legally secure the crown rights of Jesus Christ, the long awaited Son of David.  This is the male royal line through Solomon.  Note the full rights of the adopted son of Joseph, as secure as a natural born.  Our own hope is adoption, for Jn.1:13 says those who believe in Christ become God’s children “begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

     Like all honest human geneologies, Jesus’ geneology is full of scandal, moral failure, and embarrassment.  Also, after the deportation, says one commentator, it is mostly a list of “nondescripts, nobodies, and unknowns.”  A “shriveled-up family stump” from which comes a new shoot.  The moral failures of the men are highlighted by mention of four mothers other than Mary:  V.3. Tamar, a harlot;  V.5. Rahab, a harlot Gentile, and Ruth, a Gentile;  and V.6. Bathsheba, a woman taken in adultery, the wife of a Gentile, Uriah the Hittite. 

     Credit Gordon Pols in Bible Studies for much of the following.

     1:17  divides the generations into three groups of 14 each:  Abraham to David;  Solomon to Jeconiah (aka Jehoiachin);  and Shealtiel to Jesus.  In V. 17, drop the translator added italics, so that it reads, “…to Christ fourteen generations.”  Note that Mary must be counted in the third group to have 14 generations.  So she should be, for her part in the line to Jesus is in addition to these others.

     What would all this mean to the Jewish mind?  “The Hebrew alphabet did double duty by also serving as numbers.”  Also, “Hebrew writing used consonants only.”  Thus David’s name,  DVD (Daleth-Vav-Daleth), “had a corresponding numerical value of 4-6-4.  This adds up to 14!”, making the genealogy shout, David, David, David!

     Pols continues,  “The rabbis divided the history of the human race into ten ‘world weeks’ of seven generations each.  Israel’s history was to unfold in six….  The Jewish mind would think of the number fourteen as being two times seven (seven being the number of fullness, completeness).”  Seven had this value from the week of creation, and two is the number for witness, testimony.  What we have here, then, is six times seven generations, with Christ bringing Jewish history to a conclusion and ushering in the seven times seven, what the N.T. calls “these last days.”  (Heb.1:2;  1 Cor.10:11; 1 Pet. 1:20, 4:7; 1 Jn.2:18; etc.).  In the end time, “Israel and the world obtain to jubilee….  In him the kingdom of God has come.”  Cf. Lk. 4:18-19;  Lev. 25:8-10.

     The word translated “born” in these verses, and as “conceived” in v.20 are better translated “begat” or “begotten”.  It means to regenerate, and obtains from conception on.

     1:18-25.  It is important to know that in Jewish marriage customs, betrothal was equivalent to our marriage ceremony.  It was a legally binding covenant, and any children after it would be the legitimate heirs of the husband.  The bride usually continued living in her father’s house until such time as the bridegroom came for her.

     1:18 after a legally binding betrothal, but before Joseph consummated the marriage, Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit.

     1:19-20.  Note that Joseph is called her husband, and Mary, his wife.  (Cf. “Sons in law” used in Gen.19:14).  It takes a divorce to break the legal tie.  As a righteous man, Joseph could not take Mary in adultery.  She was “one body” with some other man, so he supposed (cf. 1 Cor. 6:16).  He brings no public charges (decides “to put her away secretly”).  In other words, he will let people think the child is his, divorce her, and take any shame upon himself rather than shame her.

     1:20.  The phrase poorly translated “take Mary as your wife,” should be “take unto you Mary your wife” (KJV).  She is his legal wife.  He has only to take her into his home.  The point of all this is that there was neither scandal nor taint of sin attending Jesus’ birth.

     1:24.  As above, the KJV rightly translates, “took unto him his wife.”

     1:25 margin better.  Lk.2:5 reads “betrothed to him”  (at the time of Jesus’ birth) to make the same point, that Joseph “was not knowing her” until after Jesus was born.