Matthew’s Genealogy

One of the projects I am working on is an apologetic commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.  I am going to start it as a series of posts and then collect them as a book.  Feel free to comment and help me to sharpen my arguments.

“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. 

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. 

And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. 

So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.” (Matthew 1:1–17 ESV)

I like the genealogy presented by Matthew.  I think there is a powerful message in the inclusion of the women, all of whom are gentiles and have some sort of sexual irregularity to their lives.  But that is not where I want to go here.

The first thing critics do is to compare Matthew’s genealogy with that presented in Luke 3:23-38.  The problem is not that Matthew goes back to Abraham and Luke goes all the way back to Adam.  The problem is that Jesus’ immediate ancestors are different.  Matthew follows a line through David’s son Solomon and Luke follows a line through David’s son Nathan.  The most common explanation is that Matthew is providing the genealogy of Joseph and Luke is providing the genealogy of Mary, although there are other explanations as well.  I will confess that I do not fully understand how these genealogies fit together.  What I do know that there was a tradition that Jesus was a descendant of David that predates both Matthew and Luke.  Paul speaks of Jesus as “his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh.” (Romans 1:3 ESV)  What we have to realize is that genealogies were recorded not to provide information for a family tree but often for rhetorical reasons.  Matthew was not concerned that we know Jesus’ great great great grandfather.  What Matthew was concerned with was that we know that Jesus was a descendant of David, that there were some colorful characters in his family and that by the pattern of the three sets of fourteen generations that God was very deliberative in bringing about the birth of Jesus.  In this, Matthew was very successful.

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