The son of David, the son of Abraham: Matthew opens with a family tree and a birth

The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament as the church arranged it, though it was not the first written. It does not name its author. From the second century the church said he was Matthew the tax collector whom Jesus called (Matthew 9:9; 10:3). The earliest witness is Papias, quoted by the historian Eusebius, who said Matthew arranged the sayings of the Lord in the Hebrew dialect. What Papias meant is disputed, and our Greek Matthew does not read like a translation. Many modern scholars doubt that an eyewitness would lean so heavily on Mark and think an unnamed Jewish Christian teacher wrote it. Others defend the traditional view. This class uses the name Matthew for the author and does not depend on the answer.

The date turns on the synoptic problem, the question of why Matthew, Mark and Luke share so much. The most common answer is the two-source hypothesis: Mark wrote first, and Matthew and Luke each used Mark plus a collection of sayings called Q. That puts Matthew after Mark, often around AD 80 to 90. Others drop Q (the Farrer hypothesis), and some hold that Matthew came first, as Augustine thought, which allows a date in the 50s or 60s. All agree the book was in use by the early second century; Ignatius of Antioch appears to know it.

The Gospel is steeped in the Old Testament and repeatedly says something happened 'to fulfill' what a prophet said. Its audience is usually taken to be Jewish Christians, perhaps in Syria, though that is an informed guess. Its aim is to show that Jesus is Israel's Messiah, that he fulfils the Law and the Prophets, and that the blessing promised to Abraham reaches all nations.

Only Matthew and Luke tell of Jesus' birth. Luke tells it mainly through Mary (Luke 1:26-38), Matthew mainly through Joseph. The setting is Judea under Herod the Great, king under Rome until about 4 BC. In Jewish custom a betrothal was binding and could be ended only by formal divorce, which explains Joseph's dilemma.

Matthew 1 joins a genealogy to a short narrative. Ancient genealogies (Genesis 5; 1 Chronicles 1-9) were not complete lists. They could skip generations, since 'father of' could mean 'ancestor of', and they were shaped to say who someone was. The Gospels as a whole are best seen as ancient biography, a form that presented a person through his words and deeds (a case made, for example, by Richard Burridge). They are selective and shaped by theology, but they claim to report real events.

Two principles apply.

• First, read the genealogy for what it says about Jesus, not as an exercise in arithmetic. Its structure, names and surprises are Matthew's choices, and they are the commentary.
• Second, read his fulfillment quotations with care. The Greek verb (pleroo, to fill up) can describe a prediction that comes to pass, or a pattern in Israel's story that reaches its full shape in Jesus. Each case is taken on its own terms, and Isaiah 7:14 must be read in the setting Isaiah gives it.

The chapter also frames the book. The child named 'God with us' here is the risen Lord who says at the end, 'I am with you always' (28:20).

Verse 1

'Record of the genealogy' is biblos geneseos, 'book of origin'. The phrase echoes Genesis 2:4 and 5:1 in the Greek Old Testament, and scholars differ on whether it titles the genealogy or the whole Gospel. 'Christ' is the Greek for the Hebrew mashiach, 'anointed one'. 'Son of David' recalls the promise of an eternal throne (2 Samuel 7:12-16), and 'son of Abraham' the promise that all nations would be blessed through his offspring (Genesis 22:18).

Verses 2–6

The first set follows Genesis, Ruth and 1 Chronicles 2. Unusually, it names four women. Tamar bore Perez to Judah, her father-in-law, through a scandalous act (Genesis 38). Rahab is most naturally the woman of Jericho who hid the spies (Joshua 2), though the Old Testament does not say she married Salmon. Ruth was a Moabite. 'Uriah's wife' is Bathsheba, left unnamed, which recalls David's sin (2 Samuel 11). Tamar, Rahab and Ruth were probably Gentiles. Matthew does not explain the choice, but the likeliest reading is that the Messiah's line has always included outsiders and sinners, which prepares for Mary's pregnancy in the same chapter.

Verses 6–11

The second set runs through the kings of Judah to 'the exile to Babylon' in 586 BC. Matthew omits several kings: Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah between Joram and Uzziah (1 Chronicles 3:11-12), and Jehoiakim before Jeconiah. This is not ignorance. Skipping generations was normal, and he wants fourteen names. The set ends at Israel's lowest point, the loss of throne and land.

Verses 12–16

The third set runs from the exile to Jesus. The pattern breaks at the end. Every earlier line reads 'A was the father of B', but verse 16 reads 'Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus'. The Greek 'of whom' is feminine singular, so Jesus is said to come from Mary, not Joseph. Joseph gives the legal line of descent; he is not the biological father.

Verse 17

Matthew states his scheme of three sets of fourteen. A common suggestion is that fourteen is the numerical value of the letters of David's name in Hebrew (4 + 6 + 4); it is plausible, but Matthew does not say so. The count works only if some names, such as David and Jeconiah, serve two sets, and scholars differ on the third. Luke's genealogy (Luke 3:23-38) runs backward to Adam and names a different father for Joseph. Proposed harmonies include a levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-6) and the idea that Luke gives Mary's line. None can be proved.

Verses 18–19

'Pledged in marriage' is the betrothal. Mary is 'found to be with child through the Holy Spirit', and the reader is told the cause before Joseph knows it. Joseph is 'righteous' (dikaios) and 'unwilling to disgrace her publicly'. The Law prescribed severe penalties for a betrothed woman's unfaithfulness (Deuteronomy 22:23-24). His righteousness shows in mercy: he will end the engagement quietly.

Verses 20–21

The angel calls him 'Joseph, son of David', placing him in the royal line. 'Embrace Mary as your wife' means take her into his home. Naming the child makes Joseph his legal father. Jesus is the Greek form of Yeshua (Joshua), 'the LORD saves', and the angel plays on it: 'He will save His people from their sins.' A son of David might be expected to save from enemies. This one saves from sin.

Verses 22–25

Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 in the Greek form, which renders the Hebrew almah, 'young woman', as parthenos, 'virgin'. In Isaiah the sign was given to the faithless King Ahaz, and Jewish interpreters have long read it as a young woman of his day. Matthew, with the church, sees the sign reaching its full meaning in Jesus. Joseph wakes, takes Mary, 'had no union with her until she gave birth', and names the child, accepting him as his own.

The first doctrine is God's faithfulness to his promises. The covenants with Abraham and David are named in the first verse, and the genealogy records that God carried them through centuries of failure, including the failure of kings and the loss of the land. Matthew says all of it leads to one man.

The second is the incarnation. The child is conceived by the Holy Spirit yet born into a human family with a human mother and a legal human father. The creeds confess both that he is truly God and truly man and that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Luke teaches the same in his own way (Luke 1:34-35), and John in another (John 1:14).

• The third is the nature of salvation. The angel does not say the child will rescue Israel from Rome. He will save from sins, so the root problem is sin and the answer is a person. The women of the genealogy point to the same grace, and Paul's statement that the blessing of Abraham comes to the Gentiles in Christ (Galatians 3:14) belongs with it.
• The fourth is God's presence. 'God with us' frames the Gospel and returns at 18:20 and 28:20.

The chapter claims that Jesus is the Messiah, Son of David and Son of Abraham. The promise of 2 Samuel 7:12-16 of a son who reigns forever is fulfilled in him, and Paul, reading the Abraham promise, says the 'offspring' is Christ (Galatians 3:16). Paul also says the gospel concerns God's Son, 'descended from David according to the flesh' (Romans 1:3). The genealogy is Matthew's case that Jesus has the right to the title.

The chapter also says what kind of Messiah he is. He will not first defeat Rome. He will save his people from their sins (1:21), and the title Immanuel says who is doing the saving. 'God with us' is not a figure of speech for divine help. The Gospel goes on to show Jesus forgiving sins, calming a storm and receiving worship, which Israel's Scriptures reserve for God. Matthew's use of Isaiah 7:14 is fulfillment in the Gospel's own terms: Isaiah's sign had its own setting, and Matthew sees it filled to the full. Isaiah himself goes on to speak of a child on David's throne called 'Mighty God' (Isaiah 9:6-7), which supports reading the sign as reaching beyond Ahaz's day.

The four women are an echo of a theme the Gospel develops: he eats with tax collectors and sinners (9:10-13), and a Gentile centurion's faith astonishes him (8:10).