Matthew 1: 1 Commentary

1. Matthew, in writing to a Jewish audience
a. Demonstrates that Jesus is the MESSIAH
b. And the ultimate heir of King David’s throne
2. He establishes Jesus’ ROYAL lineage
a. As a son of King David
3. And establishes Jesus’ RACIAL lineage
a. As a son of Abraham
4. This is in contrast to Luke, writing to Gentiles
a. Who traces Jesus’ HUMAN lineage back to Adam
b. Demonstrating Jesus is the perfect human Savior
5. “JESUS” was His given name as announced by Gabriel to Mary
a. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS (Luke 1:30-31)
6. In Hebrew, Yeshua means
a. ‘The Lord is Salvation’
7. Gabriel further verifies Jesus’ claim to the throne of David
a. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:32-33)
8. The word “CHRIST” comes from the Greek word ‘Christos’
a. Which translates as ‘Anointed’
9. It is a TITLE and NOT a name
a. It is NOT Jesus’ last name
b. For His human name
c. Would have been Yeshua Ben-Joseph
10. It denotes He is the MESSIAH
a. Dedicated for God’s use

By Tractorman (wrote 3584 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 12/20/2011 11:12 am

For Doctor Skeptic:
Overzealous Muslims who did not know their Koran had attacked the genealogy of Matthew and that of Luke as Bible Contradictions! To a carnal mind, even to a babe believers it would seem to be so…but I tell you, that God laughs at men who thinks they are authorities over God’s Word…God plays on fools…so that it is best that we humble ourselves before God and His Word.
“The answer to this seeming error and contradictions sometimes had so many twist and turn that only those who are really interested in finding the answers will find it…

The truthful answer is…”Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus Christ is that of Joseph(note the words ‘the son of or begat’)… while that of Luke is that of Mary( note the words ‘of Heli-the original text in Greek merely say “of Heli’..actually Joseph was the son in law of Heli, Mary’s genealogy was given in her husband name by Luke.

Joseph children could not sit on David’s throne because he was the descendant of jeconiah, who was cursed by God that no man of his seed will sit on David ’s throne (Jeremiah 22:24-30)… So how then could Christ be a descendant of David and qualify to sit on the throne? Enter his mother Mary’s genealogy by Luke. Mary’s ancestor was David son Nathan (Luke 3:31, 2 Samuel 5:14). The curse on Jeconiah did not passed to Christ because He was not Joseph real son. See how interwoven the stories of the Bible is? With all the twist and turn. with the time span ranging to thousand of years…if we read more of it, in the end we will see that the books of the Bible are interconnected which would be an impossible task for any human being to concoct.( a quote from my Book)

By TIUCHE (wrote 51 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 4/17/2011 15:39 pm

To Abraham god has promised that kings would come out of him.Gen.17:6.
In the Gospel of Matthew,Jesus was called “Son of David” in many references.
1:1;9:27;12:23;15:22;20:30;21:9,15;22:42.
Jesus said,”I am the root & offspring of David & the bright & morning star.” Rev.22:16.Read Isaiah 11:1,10;Jeremiah23:5,6;Rev.5:5
David was the first king of Israel & Judah(one combined kingdom)who came through the tribe of Judah.(King Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin).
God had promised a dynasty that would last forever to David.2 Sam.7:12-16.
David called the Messiah as “Lord” in Psalm 110:1.Jesus was the Son of David as He came in the flesh through his line and at the same time He is David’s Lord as He is the Son of God.Romans 1:3,4;Read Matt.22:42-46;Mark 12:36,37;Luke 20:41-44.

By Alex (wrote 499 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 12/21/2008 15:31 pm

1)No part of the Bible can be considered as unimportant.Every word is important.
2)In Heb.7:3,we read that Melchisedec was without father ,without mother,
without descent,having neither beginning of years ,nor end of life,but made unto the Son of God,abideth a priest continually”The point is Jesus Christ is the Alpha & the omega,the first & the last.Rev.1:11,17.He is the Son of god but has to come into the world as man.
3)Matthew’s Gospel, which was written to the Jews ,shows Jesus as the King.So he chose the royal line of David.Mark’s Gospel shows that Jesus as the Servant and there is no record of genealogy in it.Luke’s Gospel shows Jesus as man & he went upto Adam.John’s Gospel shows Jesus as God & he began,”In the beginning was the word,and the word was with God and the word was God.”
4)Judah was the kingly tribe.(Gen.49:10)Matthew takes the genealogy from Abraham.Note the phrase “David,the king” in verse 6 twice.Jesus has to come in the line of David as per prophecy.2 Sam 7:13-16.But one difficulty arises.Note that there was one king named Jechonias in vs.11&12.Jeremiah has mentioned his name as Coniah & prophesied, “..for no man of his seed shall prosper,sitting upon the throne of David & ruling anymore in Judah.”
Jer.22:30.How then Jesus Christ could come in this royal line?Matthew gives this genealogy of Joseph whereas Luke actually gives the genealogy of Mary.Jesus is the seed of the woman.Gen.3:16.The problem is solved.The virgin birth of Jesus Christ is explained by showing these two genealogies.
5)The reason for dividing into 3 sets of generations may be that when the numerals of the Hebrew letters in the name of David are added it comes to 14.Some of the names of the kings were omitted to keep the number as 14 in each division.
6)To prove historic Christianity genealogies are essential.They were important for the Jews.

By Alexander (wrote 499 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/10/2008 06:07 am

1 Timothy 1:4 actually says “endless genealogies” and it looks to me like Matthew’s genealogy has an end. Interesting, Dr. Skeptic, right after saying that he thinks Matthew’s genealogy is “a long genealogy like that we are told to avoid in 1 Timothy 1:4″ says “A problem with Matthew’s genealogy is that it appears to be too short.” So, is it too long, or too short? Is it endless, or does it end too fast? “Luke goes from King David to Joseph in 41 generations, whereas Matthew takes just 26.” You may not have noticed, but Matthew traces back to Abraham whereas Luke traces all the way back to Adam. That accounts for why Luke is longer. There are a lot of generations between Adam and Abraham, and Matthew skipped them, seeing the Jews to whom he was principally writing knew Abraham’s genealogy already.

By josh (wrote 51 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/10/2008 02:11 am

The gospel of Matthew begins with a long genealogy like that we are told to avoid in 1 Timothy 1:4 (”Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies”) and Titus 3:9 (”Avoid foolish questions and genealogies”).

A problem with Matthew’s genealogy is that it appears to be too short. Luke goes from King David to Joseph in 41 generations, whereas Matthew takes just 26. In order for this to work, the average age of fathers in Matthew’s genealogy has to be much older than normal.

It’s known from history that David reigned around the year 1000 BC, so to get to Joseph in 26 generations, the average age of a father in this genealogy needs to be about 37 or so, which is an extremely high average, especially two to three thousand years ago when life was short. There is no reason it should be this high.

By Dr Skeptic (wrote 2 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/9/2008 16:39 pm