Advent 2017 The Christmas Story from Matthew 1-2
The gospel opens with a bang! This is no mystery, no ‘who done it?” with clues scattered along the way so you can try to come up with the answer. No, right from the first verse the answer is made plain and clear: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
The book of the generation (Greek βιβλος γενεσεως) is a phrase found in the LXX
Genesis 2:4 This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when they were made, in the day in which the Lord God made the heaven and the earth,
Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generation of men in the day in which God made Adam
“I suppose these words to have been the original title to this Gospel; and that they signify, according to the Hebrew Phraseology, not only the account of the genealogy of Christ, as detailed below, but the history of his birth, acts, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension.” (Adam Clarke)
“This book is an account, not of the divine, but human generation of Christ; and not merely of his birth; nor of his genealogy, which is contained in this chapter; but also of his whole life and actions, of what was said, done, and suffered by him. It is an Hebrew way of speaking, much like that in Genesis 5:1; and as that was the book of the generation of the first Adam; this is the book of the generation of the second Adam.” (John Gill)
John Chrysostom begins his second homily on Matthew by voicing the supposed objection of the congregation, “ ‘Did you not promise to discourse of the Only-begotten Son of God, and do you make mention of David, and say that he is both father and ancestor?’ Stay, seek not to learn all at once, but gently and little by little. Why, it is in the vestibule that you are standing, by the very porch; why then do you hasten towards the inner shrine? [For I do not] declare unto you that other generation, for it is unutterable, and unspeakable. And before me the Prophet Esaias has told you this, saying thus, ‘Who shall declare His generation?’
It is not then of that we are now to speak, but of this beneath, this which took place on earth. Think not, therefore, it is of small things you are hearing, when you hear of this birth, but rouse up your mind, and straightway tremble, being told that God has come upon earth. For so marvellous was this, and beyond expectation, that because of these things the very angels formed a choir, and in behalf of the world offered up their praise for them, and the prophets from the first were amazed at this, that ‘He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men’. Yea, for it is far beyond all thought to hear that God the Unspeakable, the Unutterable, the Incomprehensible, and He that is equal to the Father, has passed through a virgin's womb, and has vouchsafed to be born of a woman, and to have Abraham and David for forefathers.
Hearing these things, arise, and surmise nothing low: but even because of this very thing most of all should you marvel, that being Son of the Unoriginate God, and His true Son, He suffered Himself to be called also Son of David, that He might make you son of God.
Do you see at once of what nature are the Gospels? For it is far more difficult, judging by human reason, for God to become man, than for a man to be declared a son of God. When therefore you are told that the Son of God is Son of David and of Abraham, doubt not any more that thou too, the son of Adam, shall be son of God. For not at random, nor in vain did He abase Himself so greatly - He was minded to exalt us. Thus He was born after the flesh, that you might be born after the Spirit; He was born of a woman, that you might cease to be the son of a woman.” (John Chrysostom)
1 the son of David - "Nothing is more common in the Jewish writings, than for the son of David to stand alone for the Messiah." (John Gill)
1 the son of Abraham - "Abraham was the first to whom a particular promise was made, that the Messiah should spring from, Genesis 22:18. The first promise in Genesis 3:15 only signified that he should be the seed of the woman; and it would have been sufficient for the fulfillment of it, if he had been born of any woman, in whatsoever nation, tribe, or family; but by the promise made to Abraham he was to descend from him." (John Gill)
In verses 2-16 we have a whole lot of “begats”. Why? Matthew wrote his gospel for the Jews and he wanted to demonstrate that Jesus was descended from Abraham through David and was thereby qualified to be the Christ.
16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus Jesus was not Joseph’s son, so how does Joseph’s genealogy prove anything? “First, I can assure you that Mary was also of the house of David, “a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.” It was not the law among the Jews that the genealogy of women should be traced. In order then that he might keep the custom, and not seem to be making alterations from the beginning, and yet might make the Virgin known to us, for this cause he has passed over her ancestors in silence, and traced the genealogy of Joseph. For if he had done this with respect to the Virgin, he would have seemed to be introducing novelties; and if he had passed over Joseph in silence, we should not have known the Virgin's forefathers. In order therefore that we might learn, touching Mary, who she was, and of what origin, he has traced the genealogy of her espoused husband, and shown him to be of the house of David. For when this has been clearly proved, that other fact is demonstrated with it, namely, that the Virgin likewise is sprung from thence, by reason that this righteous man, even as I have already said, would not have endured to take a wife from another race.” (Chrysostom)
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.
What does this emphasis on fourteen generations signify? I confess, I don’t understand this, but I do understand that “His argument was merely to show that Jesus Christ as surely descended, in an uninterrupted line from David, as David did from Abraham. And this he has done in the most satisfactory manner; nor did any person in those days pretend to detect any inaccuracy in his statement " (Adam Clarke)
Now, about some notorious women in the genealogy, namely Thamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba
“When tracing the genealogy through the men, he has mentioned women also; and why since he determined upon doing this, he yet did not mention them all, but passing over the more eminent, such as Sarah, Rebecca, and as many as are like them, he has brought forward only them that are famed for some bad thing. For he has made mention of the wife of Uriah, and of Thamar, and of Rahab, and of Ruth, of whom one was of a strange race [Ruth], another an harlot [Rahab], another was defiled by her near kinsman, and with him not in the form of marriage, but by a stolen intercourse, when she had put on herself the mask of an harlot [Thamar]; and touching the wife of Uriah [Bathsheba] no one is ignorant, by reason of the notoriety of the crime. And yet the evangelist has passed by all the rest, and inserted in the genealogy these alone . . . [by this] His glory is manifested; not by having great forefathers, but low and of little account. For to the lofty One it is a great glory to be able to abase Himself exceedingly.” (Chrysostom)
And finally,
16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
When he says, who is called, he is saying he is known as Christ, that this is his name.
I think the highlighted part would be better translated, the one who is called the Christ or simply, the one called the Christ. There are many times in the Scripture where Jesus is called the Christ, but our translation omits the article, as a result I believe we miss the emphasis. Christ is not his last name, it is a title, Jesus the Christ.
So right from the beginning, plainly and emphatically, Matthew tells us that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. This is good news indeed: the promised Deliverer has come; the long awaited Savior has appeared; God’s promise of the Christ has been fulfilled!
See Part 2 Christ or Messiah?
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Adam Clarke – English Methodist theologian and biblical scholar; 1760-1832
John Gill - English Baptist pastor, biblical scholar, and theologian; 1697-1771
John Chrysostom - Archbishop of Constantinople; 349–407
LXX – Septuagint; Greek translation of the Old Testament
No comments:
Post a Comment