You probably thought that when we finished our study of Genesis, you wouldn’t have to wade through any more lists of name in a genealogy. Surprise! The Apostle Matthew begins his biography of Jesus in this way. Why?
Remember, one verse is never enough, nor does a single book of the Bible ever stand alone. Matthew was writing to an audience, probably to Jewish Christians in Galilee and Syria, who themselves had a language and culture, including traditions and stories. Matthew’s mission was to present Jesus in language that his audience could understand, in terms that they could turn around and use to spread the word to their friends and neighbors who were not yet Christians.
Then, why is our version of the gospel written in Greek? Most scholars agree that the Gospel According to Mark was already in circulation, and it is written in Greek. Matthew seems to have used that gospel as a framework for his stories, tweaking here and adding material there. To write in Aramaic, he would have had to back-translate. It wasn’t necessary because the Jews who lived in Galilee and north through Damascus and Antioch were already steeped in Greek language and culture. To reach the largest audience, and to prepare them for mission among the other Diaspora Jews and among Gentiles, Greek was the language to use.
The immediate audience would recognize the value of linking Jesus to honorable ancestors. Perhaps Matthew started with Jesus himself in order to show that Jesus actually gives honor to these ancestors. This genealogy is typical of Jewish style, beginning with an illustrious ancestor, Abraham in this case. Luke, who is a Gentile and not a Jew, begins with Joseph and works his way back to Adam, an ascending genealogy that serves his own purposes.
1: 1-6a. An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
This part of the genealogy is standard, following the text found in Genesis and again in the first two chapters of I Chronicles. What is not standard in this patriarchal culture is to name women ancestors. Note that prominent women, like Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, are not mentioned. Instead, the naming of Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth brings up some unusual arrangements. You may remember that Tamar, a Canaanite, was Judah’s daughter-in-law whom Judah sidelined by not giving his last son to the widowed Tamar as her husband, as was custom. She took matters into her own hands, disguised herself as a prostitute, and seduced Judah along the road. On finding out the truth of her pregnancy, he pronounced Tamar more righteous than he was because she continued the line of descent.
Rahab, a Canaanite, was a prostitute who lived in Jericho. When Joshua sent spies to find a way to capture Jericho, she hid them in her apartment in the great wall (the one that ‘came a’tumblin’ down’). For her help, she and her family were spared. She married one of the Israelites in Judah’s tribe, and the line of descent kept going.
Ruth, a Moabite, was a widow of an Israelite. Ruth followed her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to Israel, and eventually married Boaz. Ruth was David’s grandmother.
What do these women have in common? They are not Israelites. In two cases, they have a shady past. In all cases, their union with a descendant of Abraham was rather unusual. So, how will that help Matthew tell his story about Jesus?
Matthew is walking a tightrope here, trying hard to show that what happened between Joseph and Mary may have been unusual, but God has used out-of-the-ordinary unions before to fulfill God’s promise that Abraham would be the father of a great nation. Further, God promised that this nation would be a blessing to all the nations. So these three non-Israelites were added to Israel, and both David and Jesus had Gentile blood in their veins.[1] This will be an important point when Jesus announces his mission on earth and then transfers it to the Apostles.
1: 6b-11. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
One more female, same issue. “The wife of Uriah” was Bathsheba, not named here, but perhaps this phrase better tells the story. David and Bathsheba committed adultery. When Bathsheba became pregnant, David tried a scheme to make her husband, a Hittite soldier serving in Israel’s army, appear to be the father. When that failed, David commanded his general to put Uriah on the front line and then withdraw support from him. It worked, he was killed. So David now has three great sins on his record: adultery, deception, and murder. Yet, again, God was able to produce a ‘son of David’ who was known for his wisdom; his name was Solomon. Perhaps it is significant then that this gospel is the only one where Jesus says, “something greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12: 42). Indeed, Matthew wants to present Jesus as a fulfillment of prophecy, in a proper line of kings, and a wise sage.[2]
If you check the accuracy of Matthew’s genealogy, you would find a few unusual things there. The names following David are a line of the kings of Israel and then Judah after the dividing of the kingdoms. But, there are no kings named Asaph or Amos. Asaph seems to stand in for King Asa, who was a good king (II Chronicles 15: 17). Asaph was a worship leader (his name is on several psalms). Why does Matthew substitute him in? I don’t know.
Likewise, Amos was a prophet, not one of the kings. The proper name at that point is Amon, who was a wicked king (II Chronicles 33: 22). Perhaps Matthew could not stand to name him. Otherwise, again, I don’t know why Matthew substituted Amos for Amon.
1: 12-16. And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, who bore Jesus, who is called the Messiah.
Jechoniah, also called Johoiachin, reigned for 3 months, and then Nebuchadnezzar’s army came and defeated Jerusalem, capturing and deporting the royal family. Zedekiah was set up as king, but he was really a governor in the Babylonian political system. He rebelled in 586 and the Babylonian army returned and destroyed Jerusalem, thus eliminating the kingdom. The men listed here after Jechoniah may have been leaders, but they were not kings. Still, the royal line leads to, among others, Joseph, the official adoptive father of Jesus as Matthew carefully affirms.
1: 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
Matthew trimmed his genealogy. Besides substituting two names in the middle section, he left out the names of three kings (Ahaziah, Jehoash, and Amaziah) in the third section (compare I Chronicles 1-3). We modern readers, who like to think of ourselves as sticklers for accuracy and the ‘truth’, are not likely to understand the meaning of numbers and the importance of seeing order in God’s prophecies. We have seen elsewhere numbers like 7 and 40 show up repeatedly.
What is Matthew up to? Matthew wants to make a point about the symmetry of God’s arrangements for the birth of the Messiah. Thus, he truncates the third section and calls it ’14 generations’ when the historical books record 17 generations.[3] The choice of 14 generations may be related to Jeremiah and Daniel’s prophecies about 70 years or 70 weeks of years.[4] If so, then Matthew would have to consider a generation as 35 years in order to get 14 generations in 490 years. On top of that, there are only 13 names in the third section. To us, the symmetry of the numbers does not matter as much as that the line traces back to Abraham, to whom salvation was promised, and David, to whom an everlasting kingship was promised.
Matthew begins his biography of Jesus this way in order to frame the next story of Jesus’ birth, as well as set the stage for the unfolding of the story of Jesus’ life, teachings, suffering, and death and resurrection.
Themes:
The arrival of Jesus is the high point of God’s creative and redemptive actions from the beginning until now. Reflect on that for a while. That means that there is a structure to the world, a purpose in history, and an orientation toward life that is nothing like what those without God are trying to sell us. Take the news with a grain of salt; reporters may be breathless with breaking news, alarmists hype their indignation over current events, but remain calm and focus on what God is doing in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, among true believers.
To Greek-speaking Jews under the thumb of the Roman Empire, Matthew presents a counter-cultural story rooted in what God has done and is doing in the world. Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham has a new message, teachings that counter the narratives of power and patriotism, privilege and greed, lust and abuse of others.
To English-speaking Christians today, this is a story of our faith embedded in history, activated by Jesus’ life, teachings, death, and resurrection, and lived out daily as redeemed children of God. In the end, God is God, Jesus is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is our spiritual guide; and that is the reality that we believers live in.
[1] Keener and Walton suggest that “God used Rahab to show that he valued loyalty to his covenant more than ethnic background” (The NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (2019), page 1621.
[2] This is the approach of Ben Witherington in his commentary Matthew (2006), pages 16-21).
[3] And the Gospel According to Matthew has closer to 20 generations between the Exile and Joseph (Keener and Walton, P. 1621).
[4] Suggested by Tasker (1961), pages 31-32.