seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4 Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6 and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12 After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,
Abihud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
14 Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Elihud,
15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.
17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
a. Matthew 1:1 Or is an account of the origin
b. Matthew 1:1 Or Jesus Christ. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean Anointed One; also in verse 18.
c. Matthew 1:11 That is, Jehoiachin; also in verse 12
d. Matthew 1:18 Or The origin of Jesus the Messiah was like this
e. Matthew 1:19 Or was a righteous man and
f. Matthew 1:21 Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves.
g. Matthew 1:23 Isaiah 7:14
I was going to go into a study on Matthew to find out who was writing this.... but enduringword.com had that in mind from the get go.
The first two words of Matthew, biblos genseos, may be translated ‘record of the genealogy,’ ‘record of the origins,’ or ‘record of the history’” (Carson). There is a sense in which each meaning is valid.
- In Matthew 1:1-17 we have the “record of the genealogy.”
- In Matthew 1:18-2:23 we have the “record of the origins.”
- In the entire Gospel of Matthew we have the “record of the history.”
As a former tax collector (also called “Levi”), Matthew was qualified to write an account of Jesus’ life and teachings. A tax collector of that day must know Greek and be a literate, well-organized man. Some think that Matthew was the “recorder” among the disciples and took notes of Jesus’ teaching. We might say that when Matthew followed Jesus, he left everything behind – except his pen and paper. “Matthew nobly used his literary skill to become the first man ever to compile an account of the teaching of Jesus.” (Barclay)
“We know that he was a tax-gatherer and that he must therefore have been a bitterly hated man, for the Jews hated the members of their own race who had entered the civil service of their conquerors.” (Barclay)
Abraham… Joseph: This genealogy establishes Jesus’ claim to the throne of David through his adoptive father Joseph. This is not blood lineage of Jesus through Mary, but the legal lineage of Jesus through Joseph. The Gospel of Luke provides Jesus’ blood lineage through Mary.
Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ: Matthew wanted to make it clear that Joseph was not the father of Jesus; rather he was the husband of Mary.
“The new phraseology makes it clear that Matthew does not regard Jesus as Joseph’s son physically…The genealogy is clearly intended to be that of Jesus’ ‘legal’ ancestry, not of his physical descent.” (France)
Fourteen generations…fourteen generations…fourteen genera-tions: Here Matthew made it clear that this genealogy is not complete. There were not actually fourteen generations between the points indicated, but Matthew edited the list to make it easy to remember and memorize.
So all the generations: The practice of skipping generations at times was common in the listing of ancient genealogies. Matthew did nothing unusual by leaving some generations out.
She was found with child of the Holy Spirit: Matthew plainly (without the greater detail found in the Gospel of Luke) presents the virginal conception and subsequent birth of Jesus. However, the virgin birth was difficult for people to believe back then, even as it is also doubted now by some.
Joseph her husband: The previous verse told us that Mary was betrothed to Joseph. This comment shows that even though they were not formally married, Joseph was still considered Mary’s husband by betrothal.
Being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example: Being a just man, Joseph knew that if Mary had been unfaithful to him it would be impossible to go through with the marriage. Yet his nature as a just man also did not want to make this an unnecessary hardship or stigma upon Mary. Joseph made the understandable decision to seek a quiet divorce.
To put her away secretly: This refers to breaking an engagement by divorce. In Jewish culture of that time, a betrothal was binding and one needed a divorce to break the arrangement.
I think the easy English site covers the dream better.....
Joseph and Mary had promised to marry each other. But Joseph thought that Mary had not been loyal to him. They were *ews. And the only way for Jews to break this promise was to divorce each other. But Joseph was kind. He planned to protect her from public gossip. He wanted to divorce her in private. He himself would risk public gossip.
Matthew and Luke agree that Mary had the child ‘by the power of the Holy Spirit’ (Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:20). God showed the truth to Joseph in a dream. ‘Jesus’ is the same as the *Old Testament name ‘Joshua’. The name means ‘the *Lord saves’.
‘Immanuel’ means ‘God is with us’. God’s servant Isaiah lived about 700 years before Jesus. He gave the name ‘Immanuel’ to the son of a young woman. Isaiah wanted to encourage the king and the people to trust God. God would protect them from their enemies (Isaiah 7:14). Isaiah’s words came true in an even more wonderful way when Jesus came into the world. The whole gospel describes how Jesus was ‘God with us’. Everything that he said and did showed the power of God. And he showed how much God loves people.
Joseph believed the Lord’s messenger and he obeyed God’s message.
Well there are three things going on in this first chapter of the New Testament. The legal line from Abraham to Joseph was established. Then there is the discussion of the legal situation between Mary and Joseph and finally.... the decision Joseph made.First.... getting the characters sorted out.
- The book is written by Matthew.... he was a tax collector.... a man working for a foreign government..... and later in the gospel he will quit his job and leave everything to follow Jesus and write his story.
- Joseph is legally connected to Abraham..... he was a carpenter who was from the bloodline of Abraham through David.... He was supposed to marry Mary.
- Mary is physically connected to Abraham, Jacob, David, and Jesus. ..... she has not slept with Joseph yet.... and now she is pregnant......
Joseph could have quietly divorced Mary.... and kept his name out of the Bible..... but that's not what happened. Joseph fell asleep worrying what to do about Mary, the baby, and his future.... and he had a dream. An angel told him to go ahead and marry Mary.... it would be ok.... the angel assured Joseph that Mary was a good girl.... not a whore.... a good girl.
I use to teach Sunday School. One of the things that really touched the children.... was knowing that Mary and Joseph were not "old like your parents... they were only teenagers". Once those kids found out that Mary was probably only 12 or 13 years old.... and Joseph wouldn't have been much older... maybe 13 or 14..... they got into the story. Mary was a real kid in trouble and the angel came and talked to Joseph and saved her. Not only was Joseph going to go ahead with the marriage.... he was going to name the baby "Immanuel" meaning "God with us".
Now... all this talk about 14 generations..... the commentaries make excuses for not listing all the generations..... I was just thinking.... there are discussions about "is this end times?" on these forums. With all the virus, fires, locusts and fighting going on in the world.... people are starting to search. Here's a question for those of you who are participating in this discussion. There were two conquests [Assyria and Babylon] and the Old Testament ended. There were two more conquests [Greek and Roman] and Jesus showed up on the scene. Now.... we've had two World Wars..... Matthew said there were 14 generations and 14 generations...... so what I'm asking is... how many generations have there been since Jesus?
Back to the story..... Joseph was the legal father of Jesus.
