Matthew 1
The Ancestors of Jesus 1:1-17
v1 This is the record of Jesus Christ’s family. His ancestor long ago was David, and Abraham was an ancestor before that. (Jesus is the son of Abraham.)
Commentary
Verse 1
Jesus was the son of David. In other words, he was David’s descendant who lived many hundreds of years after David. Therefore, Jesus was the king whom the Jews were expecting. He would be a great king like David. But Jesus did not come to use military power to establish himself as king.
Jesus is also the ‘son of Abraham.’ That means that he was also Abraham’s descendant. But he lived many hundreds of years later. God called Abraham to begin the Jewish nation. And God promised Abraham that one of his grandsons in the future would bring good things to the whole world (Genesis 22:18). This promise came true when Jesus came to the world.
Verses 2-17
v2 Abraham was Isaac’s father. Isaac was Jacob’s father. Jacob had many sons and Judah was the first son. v3 Judah was Perez and Zera’s father, and Tamar was their mother. Perez was Hezron’s father, and Hezron was Ram’s father. v4 Ram was Amminadab’s father, and Amminadab was Nahshon’s father. Nahshon was Salmon’s father. v5 Salmon was Boaz’s father and Rahab was his mother. Boaz was Obed’s father and Ruth was his mother. Obed was Jesse’s father. v6 And Jesse was King David’s father. David was Solomon’s father, and his mother had been Uriah’s wife. v7 Solomon was Rehoboam’s father. Then Rehoboam was Abijah’s father, and Abijah was Asa’s father. v8 Asa was Jehoshaphat’s father, and Jehoshaphat was Jehoram’s father. Then Jehoram was Uzziah’s father. v9 Uzziah was Jotham’s father, and Jotham was Ahaz’s father. Then Ahaz was Hezekiah’s father. v10 Hezekiah was Mannaseh’s father, and Manasseh was Amon’s father. Then Amon was Josiah’s father. v11 Josiah had several sons and Jechoniah was the first son. At that time an enemy took the Jewish people away to Babylon. v12 Then Jechoniah was Shealtiel’s father, and Shealtiel was Zerubbabel’s father. v13 Zerubbabel was Abiud’s father, and Abiud was Eliakim’s father. Then Eliakim was Azor’s father. v14 Azor was Zadok’s father, and Zadok was Akim’s father. Then Akim was Eliud’s father. v15 Eliud was Eleazar’s father, and Eleazar was Matthan’s father. Then Matthan was Jacob’s father. v16 And Jacob was Joseph’s father. Joseph was Mary’s husband. She gave birth to Jesus who is called the Christ. v17 So there were 14 grandfathers from Abraham to David. Then there were 14 grandfathers from David until the time that the enemy took them to Babylon. There were 14 more grandfathers from that time until Christ was born.
Commentary
Verses 2-17
Matthew records Jesus’ ancestors through Joseph. Jesus was Mary’s son, but He was not Joseph’s biological son. However, when Joseph married Mary, he became the legal father of Jesus.
Matthew divided the list of these ancestors into three groups.
---1. The first section reminds people of their history up to king David, Israel’s best king.
---2. The second section records later kings when the people did not obey God.
---3. The third section ends with Jesus Christ.
It was not usual to put the names of women on a family list. But Jesus showed that women are important to God also. There are four women on the list who were not Jews:
---1. Tamar (verse 3)
---2. Rahab (verse 5)
---3. Ruth (verse 5)
---4. Uriah’s wife Bathsheba (verse 6)
Three of these four women were guilty of bad behavior.
---1. Tamar had sex with her father-in-law (Genesis 38). This was the only way that she could have a son.
---2. Rahab sold herself for sex in the town called Jericho (Joshua 2:1-7).
---3. Bathsheba had sex with David before she became his wife (2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12).
The Birth of Jesus 1:18-25
v18 This is how the birth of Jesus happened. His mother Mary had promised to marry Joseph. They had not yet had sex together. But it was clear that she was going to have a baby. She became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. v19 Her husband Joseph was a good man. He did not want people to think bad things about her. So he decided to divorce her secretly. v20 But, as Joseph was thinking about this, the Lord’s messenger appeared to him in a dream. ‘Joseph, son of David’, the Lord’s messenger said, ‘do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife. The baby inside her is from the Holy Spirit. v21 She will have a son. You must give him the name “Jesus”. That is because he will save his people from their sins.’ v22 All this happened because of what the Lord had said to the prophet long ago. It came true.
v23 ‘The virgin is going to have a baby. She will give birth to a son’, God had said. ‘They will call him “Immanuel”.’ This name means “God is with us.” v24 Joseph woke up. Then he did what the Lord’s messenger had ordered. He took Mary home as his wife. v25 But he did not have sex with her until after her son was born. And Joseph gave him the name ‘Jesus’.
Commentary
Verses 18-19
Joseph and Mary had promised to marry each other. But Joseph thought that Mary had not been loyal to him. They were Jews. And the only way for Jews to break this promise was to divorce each other. But Joseph was kind. He planned to protect her from public gossip. He wanted to divorce her in private. He himself would risk public gossip.
Verses 20-21
Matthew and Luke agree that Mary had the child ‘by the power of the Holy Spirit’ (Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:20). God showed the truth to Joseph in a dream.
Verses 22-23
‘Immanuel’ means ‘God is with us’. God’s servant Isaiah lived about 700 years before Jesus. He gave the name ‘Immanuel’ to the son of a young woman. Isaiah wanted to encourage the king and the people to trust God. God would protect them from their enemies (Isaiah 7:14). Isaiah’s words came true in an even more wonderful way when Jesus came into the world. The whole gospel describes how Jesus was ‘God with us.’ Everything that he said and did revealed the power of God.
Verses 24-25
Joseph believed the Lord’s messenger and he obeyed God’s message.
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