Sunday School lecture 12/21/03
Matthew 1:1-25
Matthew is, of course, the first of the four Gospels. The word Gospel means "good news" or "joyful message." In the context of the Four Gospels of the Bible, the word refers to the text that records that message.
Among scholars it is generally accepted that the original manuscript of this Gospel was written by Matthew, or Levi (same man), in his native tongue, the language of 1st century Palestine. This was not a purely Hebrew language but was a mixture of Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syraic commonly known as "Aramaean." The pure Yiddish of the day had been adulterated by the strong influence of the Greeks when Alexander the Great had conquered the world in the 4th century BC.
Matthew was written to the Jews of the time and with this in mind there is much to be gleaned from the first chapter of the Book.
The Book of the Genealogy is the proper title of the chapter. (Read ESV text 1:1) The phrasing of verse 1 is quite similar to other genealogical tables in the Bible such as Genesis 5:1 or Genesis 6:9. The author here, however, has inserted that Jesus was the Christ and that he was the son of both Abraham and David. All three of these statements would be important to the Jewish audience.
The term
Christos is the Greek for "anointed." The Hebrew equivalent for this term is "Messiah." Therefore Matthew is telling us that Jesus was the Anointed One, that is to say, one who was set apart or consecrated to fill an office. In the case of Christ, He was set apart to fill the role of King, High Priest and Prophet. As kings in the Old Testament were anointed with oil as a symbolic representation of being influenced by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was given the Spirit far beyond measure.
That Christ was the "Son of David" carried great significance for the Jews. In 2Samuel 7:16 the promise is made to David that his house would be established forever. Bear in mind now, that some 1000 years after that promise, the Jews had fallen into the hands of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, The Persians, the Greeks and now the Romans. God's anointed would be the Messiah, the new King from the house of David that would reestablish the throne of Israel. To the Jewish mind, this would be of benefit to the nation of Israel. Little did they know that the coming King would be Divine and Savior for Jews and Gentiles alike!
Likewise, Abraham had also been given the promise that all families of the earth would be blessed through him in Genesis 12:3. Abraham was by far the most revered and illustrious ancestor of the Jewish people. It was important to the theology of the Jews that these two important figures be a part of the Christ's lineage.
The Genealogy
(Read ESV text 2-17) Let us first address the problems with this list of names. Perhaps the most striking aspect of these 15 verses is that they do not coincide with the parallel genealogy found in Luke 3:23-38. We also find that Luke in his genealogical table between David and Christ lists 42 names while Matthew lists only 27. Throughout the centuries Christian scholars have sought to explain the difference in names in various ways. While none of the explanations are completely satisfactory, a review of the leading theories may reduce the complexity somewhat.
1. Some say that one or both of the genealogies may be flawed due to the similarity of certain ancient names and similar circumstances. This would allow errors to creep in as the centuries passed.
2. Some have assumed that Matthew is following the lineage of Joseph as he was the assumed father of Jesus and that Luke is following the line of Mary. This assumption is drawn from the view that since Joseph was not the father it had to be proven that Mary was also from the lineage of David. While this may be plausible, and perhaps even true, it is not provable that this was the intention of Luke.
3. A solution offered by the early church fathers suggests that Joseph was the legal son of Heli but the biological son of Jacob. This theory, while not entirely satisfactory, is probably the most acceptable. In Jewish culture, if a brother died before his wife had children, it was the duty of the brother to marry the widow and attempt to carry on his brother's house by impregnating the woman. The child would still carry the original husband's name and be his legal heir. Therefore in this theory, Matthan (a descendant of Solmon) in verse 15 married and had a son named Jacob. After Matthan died, Matthat (Luke 3:24) being of the same tribe but a different lineage (that of Nathan) married the widow and she conceived and bore Heli. Jacob then married a woman and died before she became pregnant. Heli, his half brother then stepped in to fulfill his duty and the woman conceived Joseph, making him the legal heir of Jacob. Thus the two lines converged in Joseph.
As for the number of names in the two genealogies, there is little over which to be concerned. In the Jewish way of keeping records, it was common to divide the names into even numbers of columns and omit those that were of less importance historically. To make the number "14" work for these columns, we must count David as 14th in the first column and 1st in the second. Likewise, we count Josias as last in the second column and 1st in the third.
Now that we have wrestled with some of the difficulties, let's proceed with the "Good News."
For me, the next striking feature of the genealogical record in Matthew is that there are four women mentioned: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah whom we know to be Bathsheba. Typically, Jewish genealogies omitted all women and indeed the author passed over notable possibilities such as Sarah, but he included three who were guilty of shameful acts and/or were outside of Israel. Tamar in genesis 38 posed as a whore and tricked her father-in-law Judah into fathering her twin sons. Rahab was the prostitute of Jericho who brought her family into the community by assisting the invading army of Joshua. Ruth was a Moabite, a descendant of Lot's daughter's incestuous union with her father. Bathsheba commited adultery with David when Uriah was off at war.
That Jesus was descendant of such stock may have discredited Him with some of Matthew's audience but the message is sent loud and clear that all facets of mankind were included in God's great plan of salvation. Not only were the highly esteemed Abraham and David listed here, but the sinful representatives of the past also were present. Salvation is an act stemming from the Grace of God, not a man or woman's merit. Through this genealogy we see Christ related not only to the Jews and the chosen, but to all of mankind.