Matthewchapter 1
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Speaks with:Genesis 22×2Hebrews 11×2Genesis 38×2James 2×21 Chronicles 3×2Matthew 1×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Genealogy of Jesus the Christ, son of David and son of Abraham, arranged in three groups of fourteen from Abraham to David to the exile to Christ. The angelic announcement to Joseph, the virgin conception, and the name 'Jesus'. He shall save his people from their sins. Matthew grounds the opening of his Gospel in fulfillment (Isa 7:14, cited 1:22–23).
Context
Gospel · Matthew — Matthew overview
- A. 1–17 The Line of the King: Abraham to Christ
- B. 18–25 Joseph Told to Take Mary as His Wife
The outline
A.The Line of the King: Abraham to Christvv. 1 to 17
Read vv. 1 to 17 →B.Joseph Told to Take Mary as His Wifevv. 18 to 25
Read vv. 18 to 25 →
The world behind this chapter
Matthew 1The history
Jewish families kept their descent on record. Land rights, priestly service, and any claim to royal blood all ran through documented ancestry, and family lists were preserved and recited. Opening a book with a genealogy was not dull bookkeeping to a Jewish reader; it was the legal case being filed.
Betrothal in that world was not engagement as we know it. It was a binding contract, usually made about a year before the couple lived together, with a bride-price paid and witnesses present. The pair were already called husband and wife, and the only way out was a formal certificate of divorce. Unfaithfulness during that year was treated as adultery.
That is why Joseph's plan matters. He could have brought the matter to a public hearing and shamed Mary, or he could hand her the certificate quietly before two witnesses. He chose the quiet route — the merciful option a righteous man had available.
The four women named in the list would have raised eyebrows: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah. Three were foreigners or married into scandal, and all four entered Israel's royal line by irregular paths.
What it meant to them
For a Jewish reader the first question about any claimant was simple: show me the papers. Matthew answers before he tells a single story — this man descends from Abraham, through David, through the kings, through the exile.
And the exile is the hinge. The list breaks at Babylon, where the throne stopped. Matthew's readers lived in the long aftermath of that break, under Rome. He is saying the line did not die there; it ran underground and surfaced in a carpenter's household in Nazareth.
Sources cited
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
- Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Matthew 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 1 · Where two books join
Chronicles closes the Hebrew canon with the Adam-to-Israel genealogy; Matthew opens the NT resuming the genealogical mode. Interpretive canonical-order observation.
1 Chronicles 1:1→Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Hamilton, Dominion and Dynasty NSBT 15
v. 1 · A parallel passage
The two genealogies (Abraham->Christ; Adam->Christ) that land the seed line; Luke's terminus 'Adam, son of God' frames Christ as second Adam (1 Cor 15:45-47).
Luke 3:38→the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
MT-ASV
v. 1 · A stop on the Messiah's trail
The prophecy lands: 'the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham' - the genealogy collects the line.
Micah 5:2→But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.
MT-ASV; public-domain quotation
v. 3 · The same person
Tamar bears Perez (H6557) to Judah - first of the four women; the Judah->Perez->David trunk enters through a scandal.
Genesis 38:29→But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez.
Matt 1:3; Gen 38:29; TIPNR
v. 5 · The same person
Boaz, son of Salmon and Rahab (H1162G), husband of Ruth - two Gentile women in the line one verse apart.
Ruth 4:21→Salmon was the father of Boaz, Boaz was the father of Obed,
Matt 1:5; Ruth 4:21; TIPNR
v. 6 · Where the family lists differ
After David the lists fork: Matthew via Solomon (H8010), Luke via Nathan (H5416) - both David's sons in TIPNR. The decisive divergence.
Luke 3:31→the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,
Matt 1:6; Luke 3:31; STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0)
v. 8 · Kings left out of the list
The three telescoped kings between Joram and Uzziah are datable: Ahaziah 841, Joash 835-796, Amaziah 796-767 BC (Thiele); Jehoiakim 609-598 dropped between Josiah and Jeconiah. Named as data.
1 Chronicles 3:11→Abijah was his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,
Thiele; Albright; Galil; Kitchen (date facts usable); 1 Chr 3:11-16; 2 Kgs 8-14
v. 12 · Whose son he was
Zerubbabel's father: 1 Chr 3:19 says Pedaiah; Matt 1:12/Ezra 3:2/Hag 1:1 say Shealtiel. TIPNR flags a levirate/uncle harmonization as uncertain.
1 Chronicles 3:19→The sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei. The children of Zerubbabel:
1 Chr 3:18-19; Ezra 3:2; Hag 1:1; TIPNR
v. 12 · The curse against the royal line
Jeremiah pronounces Coniah childless / none of his seed on David's throne, yet Matthew places Jeconiah in Messiah's royal line - the tension that launched the resolutions.
Jeremiah 22:30→This is what the LORD says: “Enroll this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will prosper to sit on the throne of David or to rule again in Judah.”
Jer 22:30; Matt 1:12 (PD)
v. 12 · The same person
Shealtiel and Zerubbabel are the one place where Matthew's and Luke's genealogies touch (Matt 1:12; Luke 3:27), but they arrive by different fathers (Jeconiah in Matthew, Neri in Luke) and leave by different sons (Abiud in Matthew, Rhesa in Luke).
Luke 3:27→the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,
Matt 1:12; Luke 3:27; TIPNR (4 records)
v. 16 · A disputed family line
Joseph is 'son of Jacob' (Matthew) yet 'son of Heli' (Luke). The two classic resolutions (Luke traces Mary's line, or a levirate marriage gave Joseph a legal and a natural father) are both presented here; neither is flattened.
Luke 3:23→Jesus Himself was about thirty years old when He began His ministry. He was regarded as the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,
Matt 1:16; Luke 3:23; Africanus in Eusebius EH I.7 (PD); Annius of Viterbo 1498
v. 17 · How the passage is built
Matthew's 3x14 telescopes generations (Ahaziah/Joash/Amaziah dropped Matt 1:8 vs 1 Chr 3:11-12); '14' read as gematria for David.
fourteen generations→Matt 1:17; 1 Chr 3:11-12
v. 17 · A number pattern the author built in
In Hebrew the name David is written with three letters: D(4) + W(6) + D(4) = 14, and Matthew hangs his whole genealogy on three sets of fourteen, naming David at the hinge (Matt 1:6, 17). It is the leading explanation for why the count is fourteen and why kings were passed over to keep it.
Matthew 1:6→and Jesse the father of David the king. Next: David was the father of Solomon by Uriah’s wife,
Davies & Allison Matthew Vol.1 on 1:17; Matt 1:1-17 / 1 Chr 3 (PD)
v. 21 · The New Testament explains the name
'Call his name Jesus [YHWH-saves], for he shall save his people' - the NT deriving mission from the name; the tree's terminus.
Strong's H3091→Matt 1:21
v. 23 · Quoted here · The New Testament explains the name · Prophecy and fulfillment · A picture of Christ
Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 outright over the virgin conception: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt 1:23).
Isaiah 7:14→Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.
Catholic Resources (Immanuel); text Isa 7:14
v. 23 · Bookends: the same words open and close
BOOK-LEVEL. Matthew's Immanuel frame: 'God with us' (1:23) opens, 'I am with you always, even unto the end of the world' (28:20) closes - the Gospel's spine.
Matthew 28:20→and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Brauns/Blomberg (chrisbrauns.com); ASV/WEB text
Where scholars push back(4)
Luke 3:27. Because the surrounding names differ, the reference work TIPNR treats them as two different pairs of men who share names rather than one pair, a disambiguation others reject.
Matthew 1:6. Davies and Allison note the number-value reading is inference: Matthew never states it, and the fourteens may simply be a memory structure.
Isaiah 7:14. Isaiah's sign had a first hearer in the eighth century BC, and who the original child was is debated.
Isaiah 7:14. Isaiah's word ʿalmah means “young woman”; the pre-Christian Greek translation read it parthenos, “virgin,” and which sense the prophet intended is disputed.
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.