As we begin this new series on the Book of Matthew, we start with some interesting information on the genealogies
in Matthew as compared to the one in Luke. It is fascinating to discover the people that are included in the genealogy of Jesus. Especially, when you realize that Jesus could have chosen any family line he wanted and he chooses Mary and Joseph and the colourful people included in their past. Check it out. The Pdf is available on our website. www.rediscovderinggod.ca
SHOW NOTES
Matthew 1
Introduction
Matthew’s gospel addresses the challenges faced by Jewish Christians in worshiping the LORD Jesus in the context of Judaism’s laws, traditions, temple and culture. This gospel and the Letter of James both address the same challenge. Was Christianity going to have to break away or remain part of Judaism.
By the time Matthew writes Gentiles are believing on Jesus in great numbers. Judaism will have to embrace them or they will move on without the Jews. Matthew reminds these gentile Christians Jesus is the new Moses that was prophesied (Deuteronomy 19:18). He will show many parallels between Moses and Jesus Christ. In doing so he is doing his best to keep Christians as part of Judaism.
Perhaps his most forceful argument is that Jesus is a Jew and the promised Messiah descended directly from Abraham and David.
Introduction of Matthew
Since Matthew was a tax collector, he would have been a rich, literate, and educated man compared to the fishermen who Jesus called. Matthew might have been written in Hebrew or was written in Hebrew style (Eusebius quotes Papias of Hierapolis, Church History 3.24.6). He would have spoken Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew as a tax collector.
Matthew has a pattern in his gospel. Jesus teaches five times (5-7, 10, 13, 18, 23-25) as Moses did and then the narrative (8-9, 11-12, 14-17, 19-22, 26-28) progresses after each teaching until the next teaching event. A parallel three part structure is also present. Jesus confronts the leaders with the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven (4:12-11:1) which evokes a hostile response (11:2- 20:34), followed by the Jesus death and resurrection (21:1-28:20).
The Genealogy of Messiah
Matthew’s genealogy for Jesus starts with Abraham and ends with Joseph the husband of Mary. The father of Joseph is Jacob not Heli as in Luke’s version. This genealogy is a continuation of that given in Genesis which explains the origin of Israel. Matthew is the gospel for Jews. The genealogy is arranged in 3 sets of 14 or 6 sets of 7 giving a total of 42 generations. Abraham to David, David to the Exile, and from the Exile to Messiah. Matthew traces the line through David’s son Solomon.
Four interesting women are mentioned: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. Tamar had two boys by her father-in-law Judah. Rahab was the Canaanite woman from Jericho who saved two spies and survived the destruction of Jericho. Ruth was a Moabitess and thus prohibited from becoming part of the assembly of Israel (Deuteronomy 23:3–6). Bathsheba had an affair withking David. Her son Solomon became king after David died.
Luke’s genealogy starts with Adam and ends with Joseph, Mary’s fiancé or husband. Joseph’s father is Heli not Jacob. No women are mentioned. There are 55 generations between Abraham and Joseph not 42 as Matthew has it. Luke traces the line through David’s son Nathan not through Solomon.
Why are they different? Here are some options.
1. One of the genealogies is actually Mary's.
The simplest solution is that we have genealogies of both parents of Jesus—Joseph and Mary. In this case, Luke gives us Mary’s genealogy, while Matthew gives us Joseph’s genealogy. This makes good sense, since Luke’s birth narrative focuses on Mary. Luke tells the story from her perspective.
This proposal is sometimes linked to the judgment pronounced against the line of Solomon by Jeremiah, who prophesied that no descendant of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 36:30) or his son Jechoniah (Jeremiah 22:24–30) would sit on the throne of David. Jesus avoided this judgment because he was the legal descendant—i.e. through Mary—rather than the physical descendant of David—through Joseph.
Matthew, on the other hand, follows Joseph’s side of the story. Matthew’s narrative moves through the dreams Joseph has. One problem with this suggestion is that throughout Luke’s birth narrative, he stresses that Joseph is a descendent of David. He never mentions Mary’s Davidic descent. So, despite Luke’s emphasis on Mary in his birth narrative, it would be surprising if his genealogy is Mary's.
2. One genealogy is a royal or legal genealogy, and the other is a physical genealogy.
Another possible explanation for the two different genealogies is that Matthew presents a royal or legal genealogy, while Luke gives a physical, or actual, genealogy. In other words, Matthew lists the official line of Davidic kings, not Jesus’ actual ancestors. His point is to show that Joseph is related to that line.
In this view, Luke would be giving us the actual, physical descendants—in other words, a genealogy in the way we’re accustomed to thinking about it. This may help provide a theological point, but it doesn’t solve the larger problem created by having two genealogies: Joseph can’t have two fathers.
3. Joseph had two fathers.
How can someone have two fathers? That’s a fair question—it’s not physically possible. However, there are two reasons the text can actually be read this way.
First, some suggest that Mary had no brothers to carry on her father’s name at her marriage, so Heli (Joseph’s father according to Luke) adopted Joseph as his own son. This would then give Joseph two genealogies—his own genealogy and Mary’s genealogy.
Second, it’s also possible to read Joseph’s genealogy in the context of the Old Testament law of levirate marriage. Levirate marriage is described in Deuteronomy 25:5: "If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her."
In other words, this law states that a brother of a man who died should marry his brother’s widow to produce heirs for him. In this case, Heli—Joseph’s father according to Luke’s genealogy—and Jacob—Joseph’s father according to Matthew’s genealogy—were either brothers or half-brothers. When one died, the other married his widow, producing Joseph and his offspring. This would leave Joseph with two fathers—both Heli and Jacob—one a natural father, and the other a legal father. From the text, we can’t tell which one is his natural father and which one is his legal father.
The important point is that this could explain why Joseph might have two fathers and therefore two distinct genealogies.
The two Nathan’s in the Old Testament.
Nathan the Prophet
2 Samuel 7:1-17 He gives King David a message from God about building a temple in Jerusalem and about David having an everlasting lineage through Solomon.
2 Samuel 12:1-15 Nathan rebukes David for his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah the Hittite.
2 Samuel 12:24-25 Nathan informs David that his son with Bathsheba, Solomon, must be called Jedidiah which means “beloved of the LORD.”
1 Kings 1:11-27 Nathan sides with Bathsheba in insisting that Solomon must be crowned king not Adonijah who was busy with a coup. David is old at this time and needs some help in making this happen.
Nathan one of the sons of David and Bathsheba
2 Samuel 5:14 Nathan was born in Jerusalem after David moved there from Hebron.
1 Chronicles 3:5 List of David’s sons born in Hebron and Jerusalem. Nathan is included as one of Bathsheba’s children.
1 Chronicles 14:4. A parallel account to Samuel’s.
Matthew follows the line of David through Solomon. Luke follows the line of David through Nathan.
Details on the virgin birth of Jesus and its prediction in the Old Testament.
Mary’s conception by the Spirit is a parallel to the conception by 90-year-old Sarah of Isaac. Both conceptions are miracles of God, and both initiate a new order on the earth. Isaac is the miraculous fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham. Jesus is the miraculous fulfilment of God’s promise of a Saviour first given in Genesis 3:15. There is some credence to the idea that Jesus was born prematurely as Joseph would not have taken her with if the birth was expected during the time of the census. Psalm 22 suggests this possibility.
Psalms 22:9-11 NIV
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. 10 From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
Matthew will refer to OT fulfilment over 70 times in his gospel. He will, for example, quote Isaiah’s prediction as follows:
Isaiah 7:14 NLT All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin (young woman) will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).
Matthew understands this prediction to include more than a word to Isaiah about his wife. He applies this message to the birth of Jesus.
This repurposing of OT passages occurs in New Testament times and later.
Revelation 12:9, for instance, informs us that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was a manifestation of the devil.
The Christian Church repurposed Isaiah 14, a prophecy about the king of Babylon, and Ezekiel 28, a prophecy about the King of Tyre, as a description of the origin and nature of the devil. These new insights were the result of inspiration working through the the information that Matthew already had. Inspiration gave him the eye salve to see these predictions in the light of Messiah’s arrival.
It is these divine insights which Believers long for as they read the Bible today. It takes perseverance and dedication to experience them but they are life giving and life changing.
Ian Hartley June 2024
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