Matthew 1:1-17

KJV
1The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

This is a book of Jesus Christ's generation? Other translations say "record." I'll take them at their word that this opening statement is just about the next 16 or so verses. I'm confident that "book" doesn't mean the same thing to you and me that it did to them: a large, bound collection of pages. If someone wants to explore the meaning of whatever ancient Greek word was used to mean "book," please leave a comment.

2Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;

3And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;

4And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;

5And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;

6And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;

7And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa;

8And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias;

9And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias;

10And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;

11And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon:

12And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel;

13And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor;

14And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud;

15And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob;

16And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.


The New Testament begins with the begats. The structure is a sound one. If you're going to promote someone, you start by legitimizing him, demonstrating his authority. Here, it is done with bloodlines. Of course, the only people to whom such a bloodline would matter, would be Jews. Notice what becomes obvious right away: this is no eyewitness account. Eyewitnesses see events, not pedigrees. And I'm sure whoever wrote this would be quite embarrassed to be accused of witnessing all that begatting.

But we're not just talking about a pedigree here. It's also about the fulfillment of prophecy. I find this fulfillment to be absurdly tautological, however. Not only does the author seem to be simply making up a genealogy to fill the prophecy, he's also kind of making up the prophecy, too. The early Christians picked and chose from the scriptures (eventually pinned down to the "Old Testament") to find the verses that could work as prophecies. On my to-do list is to find a book that explores what sort of Messiah the Jews of the time were actually expecting (if you know of such a book leave a comment!). We'll see later that even in the New Testament itself, the expectations were not met by Jesus.

17So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

Notice the numbers game here. As with many religions, numerology is very important to the Bible. I don't have anything intelligent to say about the number 14 and numerology for its own sake holds no interest for me. It is interesting to see the Jewish milestones here: Abraham, David, Babylon. Note that the third milestone involved the destruction of the Temple, something that occurred again around the year 70 CE.

This traumatic event, and its date, are crucial to studying the New Testament and when and how it was written. The fact that this writer would make this connection to Bablyon suggests that he was writing *after* the fall. We will see other references as well, and most (not all) scholars would date this book after 70CE. Burton Mack dates it to about 90 CE. In fact, in all likelihood, the only parts of the New Testament that were written before the Fall were the original, authentic letters of Paul.

Tune in for Matthew 1:18, when we see our first contradiction. It didn't take long!