Hi everyone, welcome to logical Bible study.
Our goal in this podcast is to help you understand the text of
the Bible, better by doing an exegesis of the text, really
diving into the literal sense. And today's text is a really
interesting one, we're going to see the genealogy of Jesus.
So I'll start by reading the passage and then we'll have a
look at it. Now this is one of these
passages where I'm going to get a lot of the pronunciations
wrong because it's a long list of Middle East and names, so
I'll probably stuff up a few of the pronunciations and it's
worth going to mass today. Just to hear your priest try and
read through this list of names as well.
Today, we have Matthew chapter 1, verses 1 to 17.
So, we're right at the start of the Gospel of Matthew, A
genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, Son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob,
Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah was the father of Perez and zerah by Tamar being their
mother, Perez was the father of hezron hezron.
The father of ram. Ram was the father of aminadab
and aminadab, the father of nahshon nahshon, the father of
Salman Salman was the father of Boaz Rahab, being his mother.
Boas was the father of Obed Ruth, being his mother, Obed was
the father of Jesse and Jesse was the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon whose mother had been you riyas.
Wife Solomon was the father of rehoboam rehoboam was the father
of abijah abijah. The father of our sir, our sir
was the father of Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat the father of joram
joram. The father of Azariah as Araya
was the father of jotham. Jotham was a father of ahaz ahaz
the father of Hezekiah A coil was the father of Manasseh.
Manasseh are the father of em on em on the father of Josiah and
Josiah was the father of jechoniah and his brothers, then
the deportation to Babylon took place.
After the deportation to Babylon jeconiah was the father of
shealtiel. She LT.
You're the father of zerubbabel. Zerubbabel the father of abhi,
would a beard, the father of eliakim eliakim the father of
Azor. Azor was the father of zadok
zadok, the father of Achim Achim.
The father of eliud, a lahood was the father of Eleazar.
Eliezer, the father of matthan, matthan the father of Jacob.
And Jacob was the father of Joseph.
The husband of Mary of her was born Jesus, who is called
Christ. The sum of generations, is there
for 14 from Abraham to David 14 from David to the Babylonian
deportation and 14 from the Babylonian deportation to
Christ. So, that's the end of our very
long reading today. Now, this is one of these
passages right at the start of Matthew chapter 1, which I guess
our exegesis is, probably not going to be able to do it
justice. Because there has been a lot
written about this entire genealogy.
Lots of Scholars are spent a lot of time, unpacking, why?
Matthew includes these names in the particular order that they
appear on? So there's actually a lot you
could say about every single person that appears in this
genealogy and why Matthew structures at the way he does.
So, So there'll be some parts of this that we're going to go over
pretty briefly but our aim is to do a decent exegesis of most of
the parts of today's text. So, we start here with a long
list of names, which traces, Jesus lineage, from David all
the way to Christ. And we don't see genealogies in
our culture as particularly important, but to the ancient
people genealogies are really important.
They tell a story, a very important story.
So when Matthew lists, this genealogy, every time, Matthew
writes down a name and his audience would have read that
name. They would have immediately
recalled all of the events associated with that person.
So Matthew here is actually read Lang the story of Israel.
And so would have actually been quite exciting for his original
readers to read this, particularly, because it's
depicted, as this genealogy, that reaches a crescendo in the
person of Jesus, the Messiah, the one that had been waiting
for. So, there's a lot, you could say
about this whole story that Matthew is, betraying hear from
David all the way to Christ. Now, where is the Gospel of?
Luke goes all the way back to Adam in his genealogy, Matthew,
if you read the first verse in Matthew starts from David, in
fact, he starts from Abraham but the two key figures that this
genealogy revolves around their David and Abraham.
It doesn't mention Adam. Matthew doesn't go all the way
back back to Adam and that makes sense.
Given who his audience is, remember, Matthew is writing to
Jews. So, Matthew wants to convince
his Jewish audience. That Jesus is the Messiah.
So, one of his Main goals all the way through, is, to show how
Jesus fits the description of the royal Messiah that they've
been waiting for particularly the Royal Messiah, as
understood, a being a descendant of King David.
So, that's why in this genealogy, he keeps relating it
back to King David because the his Jewish audience in
particular, had this strong emphasis on the Messiah, being a
son of David. And of course he keeps looking
back to Abraham as well because he's the father of the Jews.
So, if we keep in mind, Matthew's, Makes sense as to why
he structured his genealogy the way that he does surge in
Matthew's genealogy goes right back in till Abraham.
And it was promised that through Abraham all the nations of the
Earth would be blessed. That was something that Abraham
was told very early on. So Matthew here by emphasizing
that Jesus is descended from Abraham, not only is he
emphasizing that Jesus is the son of David.
He's also the Fulfillment of the promises to Abraham in that all
the world will be blessed through Jesus.
So it's actually quite amazing. How Matthew is able to weave all
of these subtle Jewish truths into his genealogy.
Now, in verse one here, our translation says this is the
book of the genealogy or sometimes the translation will
just be a genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Now what it actually says there in Greek is really interesting.
The phrase there in Greek is bib loss, Journey serious, which we
translate as book of genealogy. But what that could actually be
translated is, as book of Beginnings or even Book of
Genesis interestingly. So, Matthew here, starts his
Book of Matthew with bib lost genesius, which can be
translated Book of Genesis. So Matthew here is also
communicating that this is a new beginning for Humanity through
Messiah through the Messiah. There is this new beginning for
Humanity coming about, it's a new book of Genesis and he calls
it a genealogy of Jesus Christ. So Matthew, he uses the word
Christ, which of course means Messiah.
It's in the first verse here, Matthew tells his readers.
This is the genealogy of Christ. So he's actually building
excitement for his readers so that they actually want to keep
reading all this is the genealogy of Christ and so then
he sets out his genealogy building right up to the person
of Christ. So then he goes through that
long genealogy focusing on particularly David and Abraham
but he includes a whole list of names here it goes on for 16
verses of names and it's the basic formula Is X is the father
of Y, who is the father of Y? And it keeps going all the way
down through most periods of Israelite history.
So there's some periods there about the Kings.
There's some periods there about the Exile.
After that, although he does Skip some time periods, as well.
Now, again, there's a lot you could say about each of the
names you see, on this genealogy, but we're going to
skip over most of them. Although a lot of really good
stuff has been said about Scholars for this particular
passage. So, if you're interested, I
recommend picking up a And Terry for the gospel of Matthew.
One thing I want to draw your attention to those throughout
this genealogy women and mentioned particularly on, you
would have heard a few woman's name, like Ruth she was in
there. Now, that's pretty uncommon in a
Jewish society, which is male dominated.
Usually in the genealogies, you would only have men.
There was no need to include women in there.
So why does Matthew include women in his genealogy?
He doesn't have to the genealogy would be fine without it.
So Scholars have come up with some different theories about
Why Matthew might have included women?
And any of these could be, right.
So, one theory is that Matthew has included these women because
they're Sinners. Most of the for women, which are
included in this genealogy, a Sinners.
And so perhaps, Matthew is come to emphasize that Jesus is going
to take away the sins of the world.
And he's Has Come For Sinners. And these women are a good
example of the kind of Sinners that he's come for.
It's probably not the best explanation because some of the
men in the genealogy of sinners. As well.
And so it doesn't seem like the best explanation you could do
that without mentioning the women.
A second theory, which is really interesting.
Is that all four of the women that he includes, there seem to
be associated with having some sort of irregular marriage or
irregular unit. If you go back and Trace the
stories of these women, they all had a strange sort of marriage,
but it didn't disqualify any of them, from being part of the
royal lineage. And in fact, if they were the
ancestors of David, And Solomon. And some of these women were,
for example, Ruth is an ancestor of David and Solomon, it doesn't
disqualify David and Solomon from being God's chosen kings.
So maybe Matthew his included that in here.
So that his readers are a little more prepared for the shocking
Union that he's about to describe between Joseph and
Mary. So, the point he's making here
is well, all through God's history of Israel.
God has allowed there to be irregular unions.
And he has allowed the king to come from that.
At so and now he's eventually going going to go on to describe
the Virgin birth and perhaps this is a way of kind of
lessening the shock of the Virgin Birth by showing.
Actually, God does allow your regular unions as part of his
chosen mine. So that's an interesting Theory
as well on, I think that makes good sense actually given other
things, that Jesus says later in the gospel, the third Theory
would be that all four women who were chosen are non-israelite
And so perhaps Matty here is emphasizing that Jesus has come
for all people for Gentiles as well.
Now, it's also worth mentioning. If you compare Matthew's
genealogy here with Luke's genealogy, they are a little
different. They have some similarities, but
there's some differences as well.
And a lot of it has to do with they're tracing different lines
of ancestry for Joseph parents. Basically, there's also some
division among Scholars about how we should understand these
two genealogies. In terms of whose genealogies
are there, some have said that Luke's genealogy is basically
Mary's genealogy. Whereas the one we see in
Matthew today is Joseph's genealogy, perhaps that's true.
Although if you look at the Greek constructions there, it
looks like both of them, sort of terminate with Joseph and some
Scholars think the opposite is something that both genealogies
are genealogies of Mary. And so there's some arguments
about, you know, the best way to understand the differences
between Matthew and Luke but certainly we can say both of
them. Genealogies of Jesus and they
both have slightly different purposes in terms of their
different audiences. Let's now go down to verse 16,
which finishes with this, the father of Joseph, the husband of
Mary. Now this line breaks with the
pattern that's been set up up until now, the genealogy has
said and this person was the father of this person.
But now we have the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and
Mary is the mother of Jesus. So it doesn't actually say that
Joseph is. The father of Jesus.
He's only called the spouse of Mary.
So this is setting up the virginal conception story which
Matthew is about to tell as well.
Some Scholars see here, Joseph as a model of God's relationship
to men. So just as Joseph is not the
biological father of Jesus, but he is his real spiritual.
Father will likewise God is our real spiritual father, even if
he's not our biological father. So that's an interesting
connection to Now in Jewish culture, a child inherited
legal, kinship rights from their father.
So and this goes into the argument about why Luke, and
Matthew is genealogies, a different math.
You would be particularly concerned with showing how Jesus
has the inheritance rights to the throne of David.
And in order for Jesus to have those rights, there has to be.
He has to have a father from the line of David who passes on
those legal, davidic kinship rights to him.
So, Matthew here by mentioning Joseph as, and in fact, Joseph,
as a descendant of David is showing that by legal adoption
Jesus, inherits all of the davidic rights that Joseph has.
So in that culture, if you were adopted into a family or you had
a foster father who was considered to be your real
father, then all of the legal rights of the father were passed
on to you even if you're not their biological son.
So Matthew is making sure that his audience is really clear.
That Joseph had the davidic inheritance rights that he could
in fact pass on. His son.
Now, Matthew here does not just present Jesus name.
He includes his title Christ, Jesus Christ.
So again Matthew is emphasizing. This is the long-awaited
Messiah. We get to verse 17.
And then we have this really interesting summary statement
from Matthew. So he's finished the genealogy.
And then in verse 17, he says, the sum of generations is there
for 14 from Abraham to David 14 from David to the Babylonian
deportation and 14 from From the Babylonian, the deportation to
Christ. So, Matthew himself, tells his
readers that he has deliberately organized his chronology.
His genealogy around three groups of 14 and let's talk
about why he's done that. So those forty two generations
total and his divided up into three groups of 14.
So first he says, there's fourteen Generations from
Abraham to David so that would be approximately 1800 BC that's
the time of Abraham to around 1000 BC.
That's the time of David 14 Generations from Abraham to
David. Well, there would certainly be
more than fourteen Generations in 800 years.
So clearly his left some people out.
So that's the first block of 14. There's 14 individuals that he
has mentioned the cover, the time period from Abraham to
David, and then there's 14 from day.
It to the Babylonian deportation.
So that's 1,000 BC to 586 BC. So, that's the time frame of
only 400 years and a little more than that.
And then the third group is from the Babylonian deportation to
Christ so that will be 586 BC up to the birth of Christ around 3
or 2 BC. Depending on how your data.
It's a really interesting verse what's Matthew doing here.
He's got three groups of fourteen Generations in his
genealogy. Why?
Well, the Jews placed symbolic value on the number 14.
So it appears that Matthew has constructed his genealogy
deliberately to conform to a turn of three groups of 14,
there's different theories about what's the significance of 14.
But most Scholars agree that it has something to do with David.
And particularly there's a form of writing or of code words that
was in use at the time by the Jews called gamma Tria.
So gamer Tria is kind of like a numerical game that the Jews in
Jesus time would play with certain words and in the gamma
Tria system. Each letter of the Hebrew,
alphabet is assigned a number and Letters in the word, David
turns out, if you take the word, the Hebrew, letters for the
word, David, on the chemistry system, they add up to 14 and
most Jews would have known this. On top of that.
If you look at the genealogy has constructed, David is the 14th
individual who's listed really interesting.
So, by having Jesus arrived, at the end of three sets of
fourteen generations, and by having David as the 14th
individual in his list here, Yeah, it seems that Matthew is
really highlighting the role of David and his link to Jesus.
Perhaps he's saying something like this.
Jesus is the Thrice davidic son of David.
That seems to be the kind of the game that Matthew is playing
here. Remember, he's writing to Jews
and Jews would be really interested in this geometry, a
sort of stuff also in the Book of Revelation, if you're
interested in these the geometry and the codewords it appears
that in the Book of Revelation, when it's the number 666, It
appears to begin metria and in particular, it seems to be from
the word season Nero that translates to 666 on the
geometry, our system, so that's really interesting.
So, that means Matthew, if this is the right interpretation,
that means Matthew, his deliberately left out, certain
Generations. He obviously hasn't listed all
of the individuals in this family tree or even in this line
from Abraham to Jesus, his obviously left out.
Many of them, he's just using Father and Son in a loose sense
to mean descendant. So the real list if you was to
include all of them would be a whole lot longer, but he's using
Father and Son in this sense of descendant.
So that's the end of our face. Mating text today.
I hope you learned something new.
Obviously, there's a whole lot more.
You could say about a lot of the individuals in this genealogy
and you can have a look at that if you dive into some
commentaries. But hopefully, this gives you a
starting point if you want to hear the next section of text
that is read on December 18th every year.
Let's now turn to the catechism to see what it has to say about
this passage. And there's just one brief
reference here which is paragraph 437 about Christ.
God called Joseph to take Mary as your wife for that, which is
Conceived in her is of the holy spirit, so that Jesus, who is
called Christ should be born of Joseph spouse into the Messianic
lineage of David. So that last part here, the
Messianic lineage of David, that's clearly what Matthew is
trying to highlight in his genealogy?
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Thank you so much again and we'll continue to look at the
gospels in the coming days.