Matthew 1:1-17
Q.1. What makes the opening comments of Matthew’s Gospel a significant transition from the Old to the New Testament? What point do you think Matthew was making in the way he connected the genealogy with the history of God’s people? – (Mt.1:1 & 17)
Whereas Mark started his Gospel with John the Baptizer, Matthew began with the unique circumstances of the conception of Jesus (see Mt.1:18-25 c.f. Mk.1:1-11). However, before this, he connected his Gospel to Israel’s patriarchs and kings, by documenting the genealogy of Jesus – The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Mt.1:1). He wanted his readers to believe that Jesus was the long-promised Messiah, written about by the Old Testament prophets, and spoken of in the covenants. Israel was familiar with numbers and genealogies in their scriptures, so Matthew summed up the genealogy with three couplets of sevens. These the Jews would see as important – all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations (Mt.1:17).
Q.2. Why was the link between Jesus the Messiah, David, and Abraham made? Since men normally feature in genealogical records, what do we learn about the inclusion of the four women mentioned? Why was the genealogy traced to Joseph when he wasn’t the father of Jesus? – (Mt.1:1-16)
Matthew was writing to convince his Jewish readers that Jesus was the fulfilment of the Covenant promised by God to Abraham – In your SEED all the nations of the earth shall be blessed (Gen.22:18). The book of Galatians explains that this referred to Christ, because it identifies the promises as having come through Abraham’s SEED, not seeds i.e. singular not plural (see Gal.316). Not only was David Israel’s most famous king, but God made a special Covenant with him, promising that the Messiah would come through his descendants, from the tribe of Judah – 12 … I will raise up your SEED after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish His kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to Him, and He will be a Son to Me … (2 Sam.7:12-14 c.f. Heb.7:14). Included in Christ’s ancestry were four women– Tamar, who bore children to her father-in-law, Judah; Rahab, a converted harlot from Jericho; Ruth, an ‘outsider’ from Moab; Bathsheba, who committed adultery with King David. The genealogy also included many men whose sins were recorded for all to see. This all underscores the depravity of all men, compared with the abundant grace of God. Jesus was associated with ordinary sinners like us. Jesus was not conceived by Joseph, but by the Holy Spirit, so He was the adopted Son of Joseph (see Mt.1:20 & 25). This seemed to also prefigure the provision of the adoption of believers into the family of God. No one is a natural born child of God, but all believers are adopted and treated as the sons of the living God (see Gal.4:4-7; Eph.1:4-6).