Knowing The Word in Matthew
More introductory material before we finally start with Matthew 1 tomorrow:
In the first section of Matthew (1:1-4:16), his concern is to show that Jesus is the one in whom the Old Testament hopes find their fulfillment. While the subject matter of these opening chapters is the life of Jesus, Matthew’s underlying purpose is to demonstrate that he is the Son of God by giving scriptural proofs of his Messiahship. The opening genealogy links Jesus to David, whose son the Messiah was to be, and fits him into the whole development of God’s purpose of salvation in the Old Testament. The deliberate scriptural orientation of Matthew contrasts with Luke, who shares delightful stories of the birth of Jesus at the beginning of his gospel. Even Matthew’s story of the Magi is more concerned with Old Testament events and fulfillment than in the story itself. In a sense, Matthew is deeply apologetic. He is making a clear biblical case for Jesus Messiah.
Opening with a genealogy does not seem to be the most engaging technique to us in the 21st Century; however, to the Jews in the 1st Century and before, genealogies were of utmost importance, as evidenced by the numerous genealogies in the Old Testament. (Read 1 Chronicles if you want to better understand.) But Matthew composes his genealogy outside the OT convention. As R. T. France notices, the way he “presents his genealogy introduces several important strands into his presentation of Jesus as the Messiah: 1) It places Jesus fully in line with the history of OT Israel, as one famous name after another reminds the reader of the forward movement of God’s saving purpose. 2) By organizing that history into a regular scheme of three groups of fourteen generations, it indicates that the time of preparation is now complete, and that in Jesus the time of fulfillment has arrived. 3) By tracing Jesus’ descent through the royal line of Judah, it stakes his claim to the title ‘King of the Jews.’ 4) It establishes his status as ‘Son of David,’ not only by emphasizing David’s place in the genealogy, but, perhaps, by a play on the name of David in the use of the number fourteen, which is the numerical number of the letters of David’s name added together.”
Luke’s genealogy is considerably different than Matthew’s. First, it goes back to Adam. Second, from Abraham to David there is close but not total agreement, but from David to Jesus the lists diverge. While Luke traces Jesus from Nathan (another son of David), Matthew traces him from Solomon. The most probable explanation of this difference is that while Luke records the actual physical genealogy of Joseph (father of Jesus), Matthew records the line of succession to the throne, the “official” genealogy of the king. This would not necessarily pass from father to son, but would remain within the family. The verb Matthew uses for “beget” is used of a relationship which is not genetic but is the one used between a Rabbinic teacher and his pupil.