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← Anchored: The Gospels: A Plain-Language Study Guide to Scripture - Volume Six

Anchored · Book 6

Anchored: The Gospels: A Plain-Language Study Guide to Scripture - Volume Six

MATTHEW: Part 1 (Chapter 1)

Volume 6: The Gospels

(If colors don’t display in your viewer, gold/blue text will just look bold: the [G]/[J] tags still mark who’s talking.)

Meet your teachers: Pastor Eli Grace (warm and relational; focuses on what God has already done for you: grace and faith) and Teacher Naomi Cross (grounded and structured; focuses on how faith shows itself in action: obedience and works). - Pastor Eli Grace : warm, relational, focuses on what God has already done for you - Teacher Naomi Cross : grounded, structured, focuses on how faith shows itself in action

Book Snapshot: Matthew

CHAPTER 1: The Family Tree, and the Name

The World Back Then

Judea in the last years of Herod the Great: a client king kept in place by Rome, a spectacular temple going up in Jerusalem, and a population that kept records. Family lines were not sentimental in that world; they were legal. A priest proved his line before he could serve. A family proved its line to hold its land. Ancestry told you who you could marry and where you were allowed to stand. And up in Nazareth, a village of a few hundred people where everybody knew everybody’s business, a young woman who was legally bound to a man she had not yet married was found to be pregnant. Betrothal there was not an engagement you could quietly call off. Ending it took a divorce.

The Story (Free Paraphrase, verse by verse)

v1 The record of the family line of Jesus the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham. That single line is the whole book compressed into eleven words. Son of David means king: the promised heir of the throne. Son of Abraham means promise: the family through whom every nation on earth was going to be blessed. Matthew opens with a claim, and then spends sixteen verses documenting it.

v2-6 Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and Judah’s brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, and their mother was Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron; Hezron of Ram; Ram of Amminadab; Amminadab of Nahshon; Nahshon of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz, and Boaz’s mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed, and Obed’s mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the woman who had been Uriah’s wife.

Deep Dive: The four women Matthew refused to leave out Teacher Naomi: Start with the mechanics, because they matter. A Jewish genealogy of this period ran father to son. Women were not normally listed. Matthew lists four of them (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the one he will not even name, “the wife of Uriah”) and he leaves out Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, the four you would expect. That is not an accident. He had to go out of his way to do this. Pastor Eli: And look at who they are. Tamar was widowed twice, denied the protection the law owed her, and got her rights the only way left to her: by a disguise and a deception at a roadside (Genesis 38). Rahab ran a house in Jericho and hid two spies on her roof (Joshua 2). Ruth was a Moabite, from a people the law kept at arm’s length, who went out at night to a threshing floor and asked a man to cover her (Ruth 3). And the fourth is Bathsheba, and Matthew writes her into the list as another man’s wife so that you cannot read verse 6 without remembering what David did. Teacher Naomi: So what is the through-line? One reading, and it is old: every one of them is a foreigner or married into the story from outside. Rahab is Canaanite, Ruth is Moabite, Tamar is almost certainly Canaanite, and Uriah is a Hittite. Matthew is a man writing to Jewish readers, and on the first page he is telling them that Gentile blood runs in the Messiah’s veins. When you get to the last page and Jesus sends them to all nations, the ground was prepared in chapter 1, verse 3. Pastor Eli: The second reading is the one I cannot get past. Every one of these stories has a scandal attached, and in three of the four the scandal was not the woman’s fault, and in every one of them God worked through what the neighbors were whispering about. Matthew is about to tell you about a pregnancy that a village will count the months on. He puts these four women in first, deliberately, so that when the whispering starts you already know what kind of family this is. Teacher Naomi: Both readings can be true at once, and I would hold them together rather than pick. But I want to say the third thing plainly, because it is the one that gets skipped. These are not four cautionary tales redeemed by grace. Tamar is called more righteous than Judah by Judah himself. Rahab is named for her faith in Hebrews 11 and her works in James 2. Ruth has a whole book. They are not a stain Matthew is being generous about. They are ancestors he is proud of.

Deep Dive: The four women Matthew refused to leave out

Teacher Naomi: Start with the mechanics, because they matter. A Jewish genealogy of this period ran father to son. Women were not normally listed. Matthew lists four of them (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the one he will not even name, “the wife of Uriah”) and he leaves out Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, the four you would expect. That is not an accident. He had to go out of his way to do this.

Pastor Eli: And look at who they are. Tamar was widowed twice, denied the protection the law owed her, and got her rights the only way left to her: by a disguise and a deception at a roadside (Genesis 38). Rahab ran a house in Jericho and hid two spies on her roof (Joshua 2). Ruth was a Moabite, from a people the law kept at arm’s length, who went out at night to a threshing floor and asked a man to cover her (Ruth 3). And the fourth is Bathsheba, and Matthew writes her into the list as another man’s wife so that you cannot read verse 6 without remembering what David did.

Teacher Naomi: So what is the through-line? One reading, and it is old: every one of them is a foreigner or married into the story from outside. Rahab is Canaanite, Ruth is Moabite, Tamar is almost certainly Canaanite, and Uriah is a Hittite. Matthew is a man writing to Jewish readers, and on the first page he is telling them that Gentile blood runs in the Messiah’s veins. When you get to the last page and Jesus sends them to all nations, the ground was prepared in chapter 1, verse 3.

Pastor Eli: The second reading is the one I cannot get past. Every one of these stories has a scandal attached, and in three of the four the scandal was not the woman’s fault, and in every one of them God worked through what the neighbors were whispering about. Matthew is about to tell you about a pregnancy that a village will count the months on. He puts these four women in first, deliberately, so that when the whispering starts you already know what kind of family this is.

Teacher Naomi: Both readings can be true at once, and I would hold them together rather than pick. But I want to say the third thing plainly, because it is the one that gets skipped. These are not four cautionary tales redeemed by grace. Tamar is called more righteous than Judah by Judah himself. Rahab is named for her faith in Hebrews 11 and her works in James 2. Ruth has a whole book. They are not a stain Matthew is being generous about. They are ancestors he is proud of.

v7-11 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam; Rehoboam of Abijah; Abijah of Asa; Asa of Jehoshaphat; Jehoshaphat of Joram; Joram of Uzziah; Uzziah of Jotham; Jotham of Ahaz; Ahaz of Hezekiah; Hezekiah of Manasseh; Manasseh of Amon; Amon of Josiah. And Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and Jeconiah’s brothers, around the time the nation was carried off to Babylon.

v12-16 After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel; Shealtiel of Zerubbabel; Zerubbabel of Abiud; Abiud of Eliakim; Eliakim of Azor; Azor of Zadok; Zadok of Achim; Achim of Eliud; Eliud of Eleazar; Eleazar of Matthan; Matthan of Jacob. And Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and of Mary was born Jesus, who is called Messiah. Read verse 16 again slowly. Thirty-nine times the sentence has run this man fathered that man , and then at the last link the pattern breaks. Joseph is not said to father anyone. The line runs to him, and stops, and the birth arrives from somewhere else.

v17 So the generations count out like this: fourteen from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen from the deportation to the Messiah.

Deep Dive: Two family trees that do not match Teacher Naomi: We are not walking past this. Luke gives a genealogy too (Luke 3:23-38), and between David and Joseph the two lists barely agree on anything. Matthew runs the line through Solomon and the kings of Judah. Luke runs it through Nathan, another of David’s sons, and a set of names almost nobody recognizes. Matthew names Joseph’s father as Jacob. Luke names him as Heli. Matthew has about twenty-eight generations from David to Jesus; Luke has about forty-one. This is a real problem and pretending otherwise helps nobody. Pastor Eli: So here are the main explanations, each at its full strength. First: one of the lists is Mary’s. On this reading Luke traces Mary’s bloodline and calls Joseph the son of Heli because he was Heli’s son-in-law. It solves a lot at once and it is very old. Against it: Luke plainly writes that Jesus was thought to be the son of Joseph and then gives Joseph’s ancestry, and he never mentions Mary in the list at all. Teacher Naomi: Second: levirate marriage. Under the law, if a man died childless his brother married the widow and the first son counted as the dead man’s heir (Deuteronomy 25:5-6). A man could therefore have a legal father and a biological father with different names, and two accurate lists could diverge. Against it: you have to postulate that this happened more than once, at just the right places, and we have no record that it did. Pastor Eli: Third, and this one I find strong: the two writers are answering two different questions. Matthew gives the legal succession (who inherits the throne of David, king to king to king) because his whole book is an argument about kingship. Luke gives a biological descent and runs it all the way back past Abraham to Adam, because his whole book is about a savior for the human race. Both would be doing what an ancient genealogy was for, which was never a modern birth registry. Teacher Naomi: And a fourth possibility that deserves to be said out loud: the two writers may simply have had different sources and preserved different traditions, and we cannot now reconcile them from this distance. That is not a comfortable answer. It is an honest one, and holding it does not require anyone to think either man was careless. Pastor Eli: Notice, too, that Matthew is openly not exhaustive. Between Joram and Uzziah in verse 8 he passes over three real kings (Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah) and everybody in his audience knew it. His three fourteens are a shape, not a headcount. Some readers point out that the Hebrew letters in the name David add up to fourteen, and hear Matthew drumming the king’s name three times. Others think fourteen is just twice seven, the number of completion doubled. Either way, he is composing, and he is not hiding it. Teacher Naomi: Which is where we leave it. Four explanations, all with real support, none of them able to close the case. What we will not do is tell you the problem is not there. What we also will not do is treat a two-thousand-year-old puzzle about a name list as though it settles anything about the man at the end of it.

Deep Dive: Two family trees that do not match

Teacher Naomi: We are not walking past this. Luke gives a genealogy too (Luke 3:23-38), and between David and Joseph the two lists barely agree on anything. Matthew runs the line through Solomon and the kings of Judah. Luke runs it through Nathan, another of David’s sons, and a set of names almost nobody recognizes. Matthew names Joseph’s father as Jacob. Luke names him as Heli. Matthew has about twenty-eight generations from David to Jesus; Luke has about forty-one. This is a real problem and pretending otherwise helps nobody.

Pastor Eli: So here are the main explanations, each at its full strength. First: one of the lists is Mary’s. On this reading Luke traces Mary’s bloodline and calls Joseph the son of Heli because he was Heli’s son-in-law. It solves a lot at once and it is very old. Against it: Luke plainly writes that Jesus was thought to be the son of Joseph and then gives Joseph’s ancestry, and he never mentions Mary in the list at all.

Teacher Naomi: Second: levirate marriage. Under the law, if a man died childless his brother married the widow and the first son counted as the dead man’s heir (Deuteronomy 25:5-6). A man could therefore have a legal father and a biological father with different names, and two accurate lists could diverge. Against it: you have to postulate that this happened more than once, at just the right places, and we have no record that it did.

Pastor Eli: Third, and this one I find strong: the two writers are answering two different questions. Matthew gives the legal succession (who inherits the throne of David, king to king to king) because his whole book is an argument about kingship. Luke gives a biological descent and runs it all the way back past Abraham to Adam, because his whole book is about a savior for the human race. Both would be doing what an ancient genealogy was for, which was never a modern birth registry.

Teacher Naomi: And a fourth possibility that deserves to be said out loud: the two writers may simply have had different sources and preserved different traditions, and we cannot now reconcile them from this distance. That is not a comfortable answer. It is an honest one, and holding it does not require anyone to think either man was careless.

Pastor Eli: Notice, too, that Matthew is openly not exhaustive. Between Joram and Uzziah in verse 8 he passes over three real kings (Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah) and everybody in his audience knew it. His three fourteens are a shape, not a headcount. Some readers point out that the Hebrew letters in the name David add up to fourteen, and hear Matthew drumming the king’s name three times. Others think fourteen is just twice seven, the number of completion doubled. Either way, he is composing, and he is not hiding it.

Teacher Naomi: Which is where we leave it. Four explanations, all with real support, none of them able to close the case. What we will not do is tell you the problem is not there. What we also will not do is treat a two-thousand-year-old puzzle about a name list as though it settles anything about the man at the end of it.

Reading B (from verse 18)

v18-19 Now this is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. His mother Mary was pledged to Joseph, and before they had come together she was found to be pregnant: by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband was a righteous man, and he did not want to expose her publicly, so he decided to end the marriage contract quietly. Hold both halves of verse 19 together, because that is where Joseph’s whole character sits. He is described as righteous , a man who keeps the law, and the very next clause says he was looking for the least damaging way to do a lawful thing. His righteousness already had mercy inside it before the angel said a word.

v20-21 But while he was still turning it over, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She shall bring forth a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.” The name is not decorative. Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua : the Lord saves. The angel gives Joseph the name and then, in the same breath, gives him the job description that goes with it.

v22-23 All of this happened so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled: “Look, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel,” which means God with us . That quotation is Isaiah 7:14, and Volume 4 walked it in detail, so here is the short version. The Hebrew word Isaiah used is almah , which means a young woman of marriageable age; it does not by itself specify virginity, though it never clearly refers to a married woman either. The Greek translation used for centuries before Jesus was born rendered it parthenos , which does mean virgin, and that is the text Matthew quotes. Honest readers weigh those two facts differently and have for a very long time. What is not in dispute is what Matthew does with the name. His book opens with God with us and ends, in 28:20, with Jesus saying he is with them always. He built the whole thing between those two sentences.

v24-25 When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him and took Mary home as his wife. And he did not have marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son. And he called him Jesus. Joseph never speaks a single word in this Gospel. He gets four dreams and he obeys every one of them, and the last thing he does in this chapter is give the boy his name, which, legally, is the act that makes Jesus a son of David.

Key Words

Key Themes

Big Idea

Matthew begins with a list of names because he is making an argument: this man is the promised king, descended from David, heir to the promise given to Abraham. But look at who he lets into the list. A trafficked-into-silence widow, an innkeeper from a doomed city, a foreign woman who gleaned in somebody else’s field, and a woman named only by the husband a king had killed. The family tree of the Messiah runs straight through the worst chapters in Israel’s story, and then ends with a birth nobody in Nazareth could explain, and a name that means God saves.

Try It

Read verse 6 again, “David became the father of Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah”, and notice that God did not edit the worst thing in David’s history out of the record. What is the part of your own history you assume disqualifies you? Write it down on paper this week, and then write next to it: this is in the genealogy too.

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