Matthew 1:1-17,
I have always enjoyed the book of Matthew. In my opinion, he is the most detailed of all the Gospel writers. One of the most difficult parts of the book for gentile believers is this genealogy of Jesus. It seems to be boring and a record of insignificant facts. Yet it is vitally important to the understanding of Jesus as Messiah. First and foremost, it establishes beyond a shadow of doubt that Jesus is a Jew. His lineage goes all the way back to Abraham. I am going to point out a few things that stand out to me, and discuss the book a little bit, but for the sake of not boring you to tears, I won’t go verse by verse today.
Matthew was a tax collector. He was not like a tax collector by today’s standards, rather by Roman standards. They had an interesting way of collecting taxes. Each citizen was required to pay two forms of tax, property tax and a toll tax. I’m not sure how the taxes were figured, but it was collected on a pyramid type of scheme. A high ranking official would buy the right to collect taxes from the Roman government at public auction. They were allotted a certain number of taxes to collect; anything over and above those taxes went in their pocket. They would “hire” people to work for them under the same scheme.
These people were given a certain figure that they had to collect on taxes; anything over and above those taxes went in their pockets. They had the perfect get rich scheme, backed by the full authority of the Roman government. The draw-back to it was that they were hated by every other citizen in the country. They were considered to be lower than any other citizen, equated with traitors to the common man.
Another interesting thing about Matthew is that he never claimed authorship to the book. He always spoke in the third person, and never mentioned himself as author. The earliest manuscripts had his signature on them, and going by that, the early compliers of the Bible considered him to be the author. It could be that being an outcast as a tax collector, he felt it better to keep a low profile and tell the marvelous story.
The theme of the book centers on the Kingship of Christ, which is why he starts out with a genealogy. Another interesting facet of this book is the rejection of Jesus as King. We are told in many different ways how that Jesus was rejected, even in the first part of the book. Mary was rejected by her people being pregnant out of wedlock. John the Baptist, the great prophet suffered extreme rejection, even death in prison. The book is a series of rejections. I can’t help but wonder if Matthew’s life as a Tax collector caused him to notice this side of Jesus. It was also a hard life, full of rejection, he understood the Messiah that he served.
Matt 1:1 Every Jewish person recognizes that the Messianic reign will come through David, (Psalm 89:36; 132:11; Isa 9:6-7; Jer 23:5; 33:15-17,26; Am 9:11; Zc 12:8). Matthew took this theme and established the bloodline of the Messiah. David was not squeaky clean by any means. We will look at that a little later.
Matt 1:2 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus came from the royal line that was put in place by the fathers of the faith. When the Jewish people look at God they are looking at the God of Abram, Isaac and Jacob. A quick search on the scriptures has this exact phrase appearing in the Old Testament 29 times. It is significant because with all three of these men the Messiah was prophesied to come through their lineage (Gen 17:19; 21:12; 22:18; 26:3-5; Num 24:17).
Genesis 49:10 When Jacob blessed his sons prior to his death he prophesied that “the scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” It is interesting that the name Shiloh only occurs one time in the Bible. There is a lot of speculation on its meaning. The Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon argues that the word actually means “Messiah” in an embryonic form. The literal translation would be “He whose it is, or that which belongs to him…whose is the kingdom”[i]. Every notable translator recognizes this term as a Messianic reference. It is similar to another Hebrew word “Shiloh” which means peace or tranquility. This word refers to a town. Some argue that the name of town that is simply misspelled in this passage. I doubt that. It is significant that Shiloh ends the kingly reign by being the final king. “To Him shall be the obedience of the peoples”, this is a messianic term which demonstrates that Messiah is not only coming for the Jew; He also comes for the Gentile. He will rule over both. This theme runs through the Gospel of Matthew.
Matt 1:3; Gen 38 Tamar was the one who tricked Judah into having intercourse with her. The story is fascinating since Judah refused to follow Torah. He was supposed to give Tamar to his next son when the first son died. Each son she was married to kept dying. Judah decided to stop giving his sons when he had one left. Tamar acted as a harlot on the side of the road targeting him as the victim. She became pregnant by Judah (her father-in-law) as he took liberty outside of his home. She tricked him into giving her his staff and cord as a pledge for payment for prostitution services. When he found out she was pregnant he wanted to burn her to death. She revealed that he was the father and the sentence was cancelled. Her twin sons were Perez and Zerah. Perez stuck his hand out first and they tied a scarlet thread to it. Zerah was born first, Perez second. These sons were sons of Judah, they were begat through sin by violating torah. This is an example of grace in the Old Testament. Both Perez and Zerah were illegitimate children, born out of wedlock, conceived under deception of prostitution.
Matt1:5 How about Rahab, another woman, also another gentile, she is mentioned as the mother of Boaz. But there is something even more significant about Rahab, look at Joshua 2:1, she was a whore, a prostitute, and beyond a doubt a gentile. Along with that, she was very cunning and found a way to get around the requirement that everyone at Jericho be killed. She lived to tell about it. God ordered the Hebrews to extinguish every man, woman, and child and Rahab found a way to get Israel to violate God’s command. In my opinion the conquest for the Promised Land was tainted because of this woman. After making a covenant with her, the Hebrew people were unable to carry out God’s command to the letter (Ex 34:10-16). Her faith established that God’s grace ruled the Old Testament (Heb 11:31; Ja 2:25).
What about Ruth, another woman, and another gentile, mentioned as the mother of Obed. Ruth 1:4 She was a righteous woman, and an intricate part of the lineage of David, Ruth 4:16-22.
Matt 1:6-7 One thing that jumped out at me through the first reading was that Solomon was Bathsheba’s son, who was conceived in sin and was a product of adultery. To make matters worse, David had Uriah sent to the front lines and killed in order to cover up the sin. (David was a cold blooded murderer; he premeditated the murder, and covered it up after it was committed.) He did take Bathsheba as his wife though. At any rate, God preserved the lineage of Abraham, even though there was sin involved in the line. It is believed that she was a gentile, or was the wife of a gentile. 2 Samuel 11:3.
Matt 1:8 Asa in 1:8 was a good king turned bad, 2 Chronicles 16. He embezzled the temple funds in order to bribe a foreign nation to oppress Israel so that he could oppress Judah. He wickedly oppressed his people, and turned so far from the Lord that even on his deathbed, he refused to seek the Lord.
Matt 1:10 How about Manasseh and Anon in verse 10? These were exceedingly wicked kings who raised altars for Baal, practiced witchcraft, and did a lot of evil in the sight of the Lord. 2 Kings 21.
I did not look at the polluted politicians, bad kings, and other names in the geneology. I would suggest running down the cross references if you are interested. One other thing I did not mention was the meaning of their names. This in itself is a fascinating study since the Old Testament people named people after their attributes. For example Jacob means supplanter, while Naasson means serpent or enchanter (Mat 1:4).
There was a line-up of murderers, whores, thieves, idol worshippers, and even Gentiles in the line of David. The lineage of the genes was preserved. Take this one step further, did you ever think about the 144,000 that is prophesied in Revelation? God did not consider the Gentiles in the lineage of Jesus to have polluted the genealogy. He knew that these people were in Jesus’ lineage, and gave Him the right to the throne through this line. He still keeps track of His gene pool, God knows who and where the ten lost tribes are at, and He will call them forth in due time. I would bet that most of these ten tribes do not know that they are Jewish since they have been dispersed throughout the world. There are arguments on both sides of this coin. It is interesting that the Jewish people have a unique marker on the DNA chain that establish their lineage. Anyone with that gene is of Jewish descent. A quick search on the internet reveals that several companies offer the test, from about 99 bucks and upward. Some claim that they can differentiate different tribes or subgroups. From this study we can see that Jew and Gentile mixed did not nullify the line of the Messiah.
Matthew brought this up for a good reason; the women did not have to be included in the genealogy. He wanted to point out that Jesus did not come from a priestly line, where everyone was squeaky clean. He came from a line of common people who made common mistakes and lived common lives. He also came from a line of Kingly people, who made kingly mistakes and ranked with the worst of the politicians. Mixed in with these commoners and dirty kings, were righteous good kings, and good people. Jesus chose this line to come into the world, not a line from the Levites, or from a pure righteous people. The point of all of this, Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteous. He came from a line of sinners, and lived a holy and righteous life. Jesus was the one lamb that was totally unblemished, the perfect one for sacrifice for both Jew and Gentile.
Another point of interest, Matthew omitted some of the generations for some reason, He picked the key generations, and some of the most interesting ones. These generations were the ones who gave Jesus the legal right to the throne of David, since Joseph was His step father. Many believe that the genealogy in Luke 3:23ff is Mary’s lineage, and looking at v. 27, Zerubbabel is listed in both Mary’s lineage and in Joseph’s Lineage, Matthew 1:12. Jesus both had the blood lineage through Mary, and the kingly lineage through Joseph. This is one of the key messages in Matthew, the Kingship of Jesus. 2 Samuel 7:12-16.
Please note: McArthur stated “It is both interesting and significant that since the destruction of the Temple in a.d. 70 no genealogies exist that can trace the ancestry of any Jew now living. The primary significance of that fact is that, for those Jews who still look for the Messiah, his lineage to David could never be established. Jesus Christ is the last verifiable claimant to the throne of David, and therefore to the messianic line.”[ii]
Matt 1:17 One last parting shot. There were three sets of fourteen. This makes two sets of three sevens. Those interested in numerology will make a lot of this. It indicates God’s stamp of approval
1:18 Betrothal is a foreign concept to us. It was really quite simple, the man and woman were assigned to be married by their parents, yep, the parents picked their mate. A dowry was paid by the groom or his parents as a guarantee that if he chickened out within the waiting period before marriage, they were compensated for the costs. The girls were betrothed from 12 and 13 years old, quite a difference from our day. One thing that I found interesting is that there was little or no social contact made during the betrothal period. This is also contrary to our thinking. In our day, we would consider this the time for them to get to know each other. That simply was not considered as necessary. They were assigned to get married, and it would happen, likes or dislikes were not considered. Another interesting thing is that once the dowry was paid and they were in the betrothal period, they were legally married and would require a divorce in order to separate. As far as history goes, we know almost nothing about Joseph and Mary. We have the record that demonstrates that they were both righteous, both devoted to the Word and had hearts that were sensitive to God’s leading.
Jesus being a child by the Holy Spirit is important. Matthew wanted to make a point of showing that not only was Jesus of the Davidic line, but that He was also the literal Son of God. Romans 1:4.
1:19 Look at the display of compassion that Joseph displays. Even though he has been wronged, he doesn’t want to add extra burdens upon Mary. He chooses to divorce her secretly, which is well within his rights, and in the culture was required that virginity was sacred. Deuteronomy 22:20-21, 23-24. To put her away secretly, he would have had to call together two or three witnesses and divorce her quietly, as opposed to going through the proper channels and publicly humiliating her. We are given one of the few insights into his character in that he is called a righteous man. Remember, Matthew was writing as he was led by the Holy Spirit.
1:20 Would you believe this? Joseph was in touch with the Lord, and was willing to listen when God sent His messenger to speak with him. The angel pointed out that Joseph was a son of David, recognizing his royal lineage. Also, that she was of child by a divine act of God.
1:21 This statement is specific, in the emphatic sense, stating that Jesus will save the people from their sins. Jesus is Greek for Joshua, and is Hebrew for Yeshua, meaning “Yahweh is Salvation”.
1:22-23 Matthew quotes from Isaiah 7:14 and 8:10. Speaking of a literal virgin becoming pregnant and bearing a son. This was impossible at the time outside of the will of God.
1:24-25 Joseph honored the word of the Lord, took Mary as his wife, and did not have sexual relations with her until Jesus was born. He made sure to keep her a virgin, and was careful not to violate the prophetic scriptures.
[i] Brown, F., Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C. A. (2000). Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems.
[ii] MacArthur, J. (1989). Matthew (Mt 1:1). Chicago: Moody Press.