Matthew 1

Matthew 1:1 A birth[1] record of Jesus Christ, a descendant of David, a descendant of Abraham.

Matthew 1:2 Abraham fathered[2] Isaac and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers,

Matthew 1:3 and Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez fathered Hezron, and Hezron fathered Ram,

Matthew 1:4 and Ram fathered Amminadab, and Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon,

Matthew 1:5 and Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, and Obed fathered Jesse,

Matthew 1:6 and Jesse fathered David, the king. And David fathered Solomon by the wife of Uriah,

Matthew 1:7 and Solomon fathered Rehoboam, and Rehoboam fathered Abijah, and Abijah fathered Asaph,

Matthew 1:8 and Asaph fathered Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat fathered Joram, and Joram fathered Uzziah,

Matthew 1:9 and Uzziah fathered Jotham, and Jotham fathered Ahaz, and Ahaz fathered Hezekiah,

Matthew 1:10 and Hezekiah fathered Manasseh, and Manasseh fathered Amos, and Amos fathered Josiah,

Matthew 1:11 and Josiah fathered Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

Matthew 1:12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah fathered Shealtiel, and Shealtiel fathered Zerubbabel,

Matthew 1:13 and Zerubbabel fathered Abiud, and Abiud fathered Eliakim, and Eliakim fathered Azor,

Matthew 1:14 and Azor fathered Zadok, and Zadok fathered Achim, and Achim fathered Eliud,

Matthew 1:15 and Eliud fathered Eleazar, and Eleazar fathered Matthan, and Matthan fathered Jacob,

Matthew 1:16 and Jacob fathered Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

Matthew 1:17 Now all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Matthew 1:18 and the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When Mary, his mother had been engaged to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be pregnant by the Sacred[3] Breath.[4]

Matthew 1:19 And her husband Joseph, being an honorable man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

Matthew 1:20 But as he thought about these things, notice,[5] an agent[6] of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife because what has been fathered in her is from the Sacred Breath.

Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you will call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their failures.”[7]

Matthew 1:22 All this happened in order to fulfill what the Lord had predicted through the prophet:

Matthew 1:23 “Notice, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel” (which translates as ‘God with us’).[8]

Matthew 1:24 When Joseph woke up[9] from his sleep, he did as the agent of the Lord had instructed him: he took Mary as his wife,

Matthew 1:25 but did not have intimacy with[10] her until after she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

[1]γένεσις = birth. Matthew 1:1, 18.

[2]γεννάω = to father (verb). Matthew 1:2-16, 20; 2:1, 4; 19:12; 26:24.

[3]ἅγιος = sacred. Matthew 1:18, 20; 3:11; 4:5; 7:6; 12:32; 24:15; 27:52-53; 28:19.

[4] πνεῦμα = breath. Matthew 1:18, 20; 3:11, 16; 4:1; 5:3; 8:16; 10:1, 20; 12:18, 28, 31-32, 43, 45; 22:43; 26:41; 27:50; 28:19.

[5] ἰδού = notice. Matthew 1:20, 23; 2:13, 19; 3:16-17; 4:11; 7:4; 8:24, 34; 9:10; 10:16; 11:10, 19; 12:2, 18, 41-42, 46-47, 49; 13:3; 17:3, 5; 19:27; 20:18; 21:5; 22:4; 23:34, 38; 24:23, 25-26; 25:6; 26:45-47, 51; 27:51; 28:2, 7, 9, 20.

[6]ἄγγελος = agent. Matthew 1:20, 24; 2:13, 19; 4:6, 11; 11:10; 13:39, 41, 49; 16:27; 18:10; 22:30; 24:31, 36; 25:31, 41; 26:53; 28:2, 5.

[7] ἁμαρτία = failure. Matthew 1:21; 3:6; 9:2, 5, 6; 12:31; 26:28.

[8] Isaiah 7:14.

[9] ἐγείρω = wake up, raise up, get up. Matthew 1:24; 2:13, 14, 20, 21; 3:9; 8:15, 25, 26; 9:5, 6, 7, 19, 25; 10:8; 11:5, 11; 12:11, 42; 14:2; 16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:19; 24:7, 11, 24; 25:7; 26:32, 46; 27:52, 63, 64; 28:6, 7.

[10] γινώσκω know, have intimacy with. Matthew 1:25; 6:3; 7:23; 9:30; 10:26; 12:7, 15, 33; 13:11; 16:3, 8; 21:45; 22:18; 24:32-33, 39, 43, 50; 25:24; 26:10.

Matthew 1 quotes:

“Matthew offers three forms of proof—or witness—that Jesus qualifies as King. He first cites the lineage of Jesus, and he does it in accountant-like terms. Jesus is shown to be a direct descendant of both Abraham and David. Jesus is clearly proclaimed to be a Jew, with Abraham—the father of all who have faith—as both His spiritual and biological ancestor. (See Romans 4:16.) Jesus is also of the lineage of King David, to whom an everlasting throne was promised. (See 2 Samuel 7:13 and Isaiah 9:7.) Not only does Jesus fit the prescribed identity for Messiah, but, according to Matthew, Jesus appears in history after three sets of fourteen generations—these multiples of seven (in couplets representing the days of the patriarchs, the kings, and the prophets), had special numerical meaning to the Jewish people. Six groups of seven have passed, which puts Jesus at the threshold of the seventh seven—a numerical position of perfect rule, since seven is the biblical number that refers to perfection in Jewish tradition.”

Blackaby, Henry T. The Gospel of Matthew. Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2007. p. 15.

“When God made the world in the beginning, we are told that his Spirit was brooding above the waters. In the silence of the world’s non-being, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, most glorious of creatures. Now the Spirit comes again, into the sheltering darkness of the womb of Mary, who was as open to the will of God as were the waters of the uncreated world. There, in a miracle of smallness and silence, Jesus is conceived, who will be the true light of the world, taking flesh to dwell among us. When on the sixth day of creation God made man, he did for Adam what he had not done for any other creature. The beasts were brought forth from the earth, but God himself breathed the breath of life into the dust of Adam, and he became a living soul. So now the new Adam breaks into the world by a breath, by the Spirit of God, so that all who unite themselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus will be new creations, and will have true life within them.”

Cameron, Peter John. Praying with Saint Matthew’s Gospel : Daily Reflections on the Gospel of Saint Matthew. Magnificat, 2010. p. 22.

“In recalling stories of Abraham, David, and the exile (to name but three), the audience learns something of the nature of God. This God constantly intervenes in human affairs. God took initiative in calling Abraham and selecting David. God promised Abraham land and descendants and David an eternal kingdom. God remained faithful to these promises even when both men failed. Abraham and Sarah’s age threatened the promise, as did the offering of Isaac as a sacrifice (Gen 18-22) and the devastating experience of God’s judgment in exile. Yet God remained faithful and acted powerfully to deliver on the promises. Continually God guided Israel forward into a new future.”

Carter, Warren. Matthew : Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist. Rev. ed, Hendrickson Publishers, 2004. p. 108.

“On the two other occasions in Matthew when a single angel appears — significantly, following Jesus’ birth and resurrection (chs. 2 and 28) — the figure is again identified as angelos Kyriou — a servant and messenger of Yahweh. The opening idou prepares readers for the startling and the significant; this will be true to a yet greater degree in 1:23: ‘Behold [Idou, for Hebrew hinéh] the virgin will conceive….’ In this passage, the angel is the only servant of God whose speech is directly reported. He addresses Joseph by name, and identifies him as ‘son of David’ (1:20). Then the angel discloses the manner of Mary’s conception, together with the name and’the mission of the child she will bear.”

Chamblin, J K. Matthew: A Mentor Commentary. Fearn, Tain: Christian Focus Pub, 2010. p. 197.

“Matthew portrays Joseph not as fearing to break the law through failure to divorce Mary, but as fearing to do wrong by taking Mary to wife when she was pregnant by divine causation. Then the statement in v 18, “she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit,’’ does not come as a piece of advance information to the reader, but bears its more natural sense that Joseph found out the reason for, as well as the fact of, Mary’s pregnancy early in the episode (and presumably from Mary; cf. Luke 1:26-45). That , not a wrong deduction, left Joseph in a quandary. In deference to the Holy Spirit he decided to divorce Mary. In consideration of Mary he planned to hand her the certificate of divorce without any witnesses at all. The Mosaic law did not require them, anyway. They had become customary to protect a man from a divorced wife’s false denial of divorce. But, according to Matthew, Joseph intended to waive that precaution. The angel will repeat what Joseph already believed both to assure him of its truth and to provide a basis for the command to marry. Meanwhile, readers of Matthew have no reason to suspect Mary of what not even Joseph suspected her.”

Gundry, Robert H. Matthew: A Commentary on His Literary and Theological Art. , 1983. p. 22.

“Matthew’s Gospel is a story about Jesus’ birth, public ministry, and his passion, death, and resurrection. Even the larger sections of Jesus’ teachings appear in the context of this overall story line. The Evangelist presents himself as a believer in Jesus’ special importance and as the all-knowing narrator whose words can be trusted. He wrote originally for a largely Jewish-Christian audience that wanted greater clarity about how their faith in Jesus related to their identity as Jews in the late first century.”

Harrington, Daniel J. Meeting St. Matthew Today: Understanding the Man, His Mission, and His Message. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2010. p. 15.

“So the decisive moment has arrived. Israel’s long-awaited Shepherd King has come. How will the people respond? Matthew points to a sharp contrast. Jesus’ coming is an intrusion to some but a joy to others. King Herod and the residents of Jerusalem are “disturbed” —troubled, upset, scared—by news about a king of the Jews. By contrast, some strangers from the east joyfully open their hearts and their treasures to the child born to be King and Savior. Ironically, it is these outsiders who model the right way to respond to Jesus arrival. They recognize that something momentous is happening, and so they pursue him and kneel before him and offer him what they value most.”

Hiigel John L. Partnering with the King : Study the Gospel of Matthew and Become a Disciple of Jesus. Paraclete Press 2013. p. 19.

“The Gospel of Matthew does not begin at the birth of Jesus but with Jesus’ origins, with his ancestry and genealogy, going back to the beginnings of faith, to Abraham and his son Isaac. This long line will end with Joseph of the house of David, the earthly, legal father of Jesus. This listing, this history of believers who lived on the Word of God — the Torah — and its promises, is crucial to understanding who Jesus is. He is the culmination of this nation, his race, and the chosen people of Yahweh God. This is the Genesis of Jesus. As a Jew Matthew thinks, breathes, and lives in the shadow and the light of the Torah. Genesis first recounts creation, the beginnings of the heavens and the earth, then the generations of humankind (see Gn 4 and 5). Just so, Matthew’s Gospel begins with Jesus’ own roots in this people: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham….” He is the offspring of all these people. “Genealogy” signifies “origin,” “beginnings.” And Jesus himself will generate and bring forth a new people of God, those born again in his Spirit as his brothers and sisters, to the glory of our one Father.”

McKenna Megan. Matthew : The Book of Mercy. New City Press 2007. p. 34.

“The fact that Matthew never explicitly refers to Joseph as Jesus’ father reminds us that Jesus was born to an adoptive father. After being named and taken into the family by Joseph, legally, Jesus is Joseph’s son. And being Joseph’s son means that this adoption ties Jesus to the line of David as a royal son. Finally, in terms of how Jesus came, Matthew tells us that all of these things happened amidst a fallen world. Jesus came to a world of sin in need of salvation, which is why it is crucial to see that ultimately, Jesus is God’s Son. The problem of sin needed a divine solution.”

Platt, David. Exalting Jesus in Matthew. , 2013. p. 20.

“Herod made many wrong choices. Although he built fortresses and palaces, he destroyed lives. And other people paid dearly for his bad choices. In contrast, Jesus made the right choices. Even though the devil tempted him directly and tried to lure him with offers of fame, power, and authority, Jesus chose correctly in every decision. Likewise, Joseph had only one desire whenever he was faced with decisions: to do what God wanted. Whatever God desired was Joseph’s desire. We learn from these examples that every opportunity to make a wrong choice is also an opportunity to make a right choice. The right choice will always honor God. How often do you consider God in your day-to-day choices?”

Wilson, Neil S. Matthew : Life Application Bible Studies. Tyndale, 2009. p. 92.

“Joseph was a righteous man, but he was also a compassionate man. He cared for Mary. He could not treat this matter lightly, and neither would he act vindictively. He demonstrates the struggle of a soul trying to be faithful. When a person has both convictions about principles and compassion for people, he or she often faces painful choices. At times neither side of a decision seems to be totally good. Joseph could not figure out how to move through this dilemma in a way that would settle his soul. He needed saving.”

Younger, Carol D. The Gospel of Matthew: Hope in the Resurrected Christ : Adult Bible Study Guide. Dallas, Tex: BaptistWay Press, 2008. p. 28.