Matthew 1
January 9, 2015

Today I begin a new program of reading through the New Testament in a year.   Those who are reading along may find that I am a little further ahead in the reading than the program calls for.

The genealogy of Jesus here is divided into three equal groups of 14 generations.  If only it were that simple.   But when we look at Luke's Gospel Chapter 3:23 and following, there are 21 generations listed for the same period!   How can that be?    This brings up the odd practice of middle eastern authors called "telescoping".   The author would simply leave out the people who are part of the family tree if he felt they weren't important to the story, or to achieve a number he was looking for.  In this case, it appears that the number was 7.   Matthew uses a double seven (14) generations, and Luke follows the same practice but uses a triple seven. (21 generations).

It doesn't mean you cannot trust the text, it simply means that in order to understand the author you have to understand the times in which he was writing.   By today's standards and culture the same practice would be unthinkable...but in their day, it was quite common.

The doctrinal point that we can take from this passage is that Jesus was born of a human woman, who traces her roots back to the tribe of Judah.  That's important for prophecy to be proved true.

Joseph was a righteous man, but he was also a gentleman.  He could have had Mary stoned under the law, but had already chosen not to do so.   The appearance of the angel to encourage Joseph could have come as a relief to Joseph...he could now accept that his trust in Mary had not been violated.

The virgin birth is a key element in our faith.  The teachings of Jesus, and the prophecies about a Messiah do not work without it.   Any hybrid of the faith that claims Jesus was not born of a virgin is heresy, and not to be trusted.    In other words, if Jesus wasn't born of a virgin, you might just as well throw out the whole Bible.

Jesus is Greek for "the Lord saves".  The Hebrew form of the same word is "Joshua".
Which brings up another point that you may find interesting.   The Old Testament is written in Hebrew, the language of the Jews.   The New Testament is written in Aramaic Greek, the popular language at the time, because of the far reach and influence of the Roman Empire.

The Old Testament was translated from Hebrew to Greek, and called the Septuagint.  It was later translated into Latin and called the Vulgate.  Luther translated the Bible into German.   It wasn't until the 1600's that the English version, called "King James" appeared.     By the time the KJV of the Bible appeared, it had been translated many times, and the originals were lost.


PR