1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,*n1 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,*n1 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,*n1 and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel,*n1 and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
17 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.
There's no place to start like right at the beginning. I suppose I could say a couple of things about this genealogy. First, I've always found it interesting how Matthew highlights certain women in the genealogy. He mentions Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary. I've heard it speculated that these names were added to the genealogy to point out the mercy of God.
Tamar dressed herself like a prostitute in order to trick Jacob into having a child with her but given the customs of the day Jacob declared her to be more righteous then he was.
Ruth was a cursed Moabite. Deut 23:3 says, "No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the
tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD
forever." Interestingly, David was only three generations removed from Ruth.
Bathsheba was taken by David to be his wife after he had her rightful husband killed in the battlefield.
Mary, while we all view her as blessed, would have been seen as questionable in her day because of how she was found to be pregnant before her marriage to Joseph.
In each of these situations the women mentioned were seen in disrepute but in actuality they were blessed by God both in there own lives and through the privilege of being in the lineage of the saviour. May we remember that when we are viewed by the world as nothing that if we are righteous God will bless us.
One other thing that always comes up when the genealogies are brought up is the question of why Matthew's genealogy is different from Lukes. I heard it speculated that one is Mary's family and the other is Joseph's. Maybe this is the case. I just don't know. What I do know though is that Matthew and Luke weren't dumb enough to get this wrong. Even if I didn't believe in the inspiration of the scriptures it would ridiculous to believe that early disciples of Jesus who went to the work of writing a gospel would mess up something so simple as the genealogy.
Do any of you have any other thoughts on this passage?
It's interesting that you mentioned the women...I was wondering what the significance of those 4 women was. And also why Bathsheba is not mentioned by name but as the widow of Uriah. Would that mean that any children she conceived would technically be Uriahs?
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting to note that the 2 geneologies differ after David. Joseph is descended from Solomon's line and if we are inferring that Lukes gospel is Mary's lineage then after David it is Nathan. Is this because of Solomons falling away from the Lord?
I really liked reading this this morning because these are the types of chapters my busied mind would usually skip over, but don't all of the Lords words return to Him completed? Next, I really enjoyed the points about the women. You wrote that if we are found righteous that God will bless us. For me, I see these ladies' actions many times don't make sense to me to be counted as "righteous", but in combination with Hebrews 11 (and some other places), it seems they were righteous because of their faith. That faith justified them and now we can read not about their perfect lives and good deeds, but how they chose to believe God in a time of testing and danger. May God grant us this type of faith in our daily lives with our husbands and children and like you wrote Rose, remember that what is honored by me in despised by God and vice versa.
ReplyDelete***by men is despised by God. And I also had wanted to add the righteousness by faith is proven by a life of good works. Blessings to you today.
ReplyDeleteI've called these generation passages "the begats" forever, skipped them as Adrienne said and didn't notice the difference in the 2 gospels for a long time.
ReplyDeleteEven when it was pointed out as an "inconsistency" I saw it from a genealogical point of view. I can give the example of Princess Diana. She was a descendant from 2 of Charles 11's mistresses. somewhere along the line to 2 houses intermarried. not at her parents marriage but generations before, if I recall correctly.
I'm impressed by the mention of the women now that it is pointed out. I was reading a mini biography of a medieval woman this morning and it was noted there that unless the wife or mother of a famous individual was also remarkable, or scandalous, in her own right, history forgets her.
Thanks for interesting incites, Rose, Katrina and Adrienne
lol, when I wrote, "incites" I knew it was wrong but couldn't see why. one glance tonight, INSIGHTS!
ReplyDeleteI always found it kind of interesting that we are told to avoid "endless genealogies" (1Tim 4) which bring about questions and not edification but the gospels begin with the record Christ's lineage. Obviously Jesus' lineage is important for explaining the fulfilment of prophecy about Him. I am not Jewish nor have learned much about Judaism in general so the genealogy of Christ has never been that significant to me but I can imagine reading this from a Jewish perspective and finding this extremely important. Burton and I met a male flight attendant who was an observant Jew and He asked about our appearance because he said it looked "just like his people." Burton told Him we were followers of Jesus and He said he was not but later he said he was interested in Christianity but there's a lot of prophecies Jesus would have to fulfill and he wanted to study that because he wasn't convinced he had. We just happened to have borrowed a book from our friends (the Kirklands) called YESHUA: The Hebrew name for Jesus which is all about how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. It was a blessing! He seemed thankful to receive it and said he would read it then send it back. We havent received it back yet but we don't care! I hope he keeps it until his heart is fully the Lord's! Anyway, all that to say, from his perspective, I am sure the genealogy would be of great significance. Praise be to God that the scriptures speak to all peoples, no matter what background, and strike them in a way that is meaningful and pertinent to them. Sorry that waan't much commentary on the scripture itself but this is all for edification so testimonies are a blessing too. Lord bless you all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. This was encouraging to read.
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