What is the purpose of Matthew’s Genealogy?

Short version - The Gospel of Matthew is the opening of the New Beginning, as is written in Matthew 11:13: "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John." His Genealogy is the ultimate example of the reliable proverb: "If you want a job done well, you have to do it yourself."

I’m not foolhardy enough to put words into God’s mouth, so the best words I can find for myself to make sense of what is beginning to unfold in the Greatest Story Ever Told is,

“I’ve given you your chance. You’re not as good as that con-artist Satan has deceived you into believing. You’ve failed. You’ve suffered enough. I’m coming to rescue you, Myself.”

God opens the last part of the Narrative with a declaration of how Faithful and Merciful He is. That should set the mood for reading the Bible.

Long Version - The wood and the trees

There is so much petty argument about the Genealogies in the Gospels.

A previous post, HOW MANY GENEALOGIES DOES JESUS HAVE? shows that both the one in Matthew and the one in Luke are valid genealogies of David’s two sons, Solomon and Nathan.

And Nathan’s is the authoritative one.

But what is the purpose of Matthew’s genealogy?

This figure shows Matthew’s genealogy compared to the records in Chronicles.

It can be seen that it is a genealogy of the Jews. Abraham, the first Jew, was a Gentile. The green highlights are the discrepancies between the record of the Chronicles and the Holy Spirit’s list in Matthew.

Why don’t they match? Surely that’s another error in the Bible. No. It is up to the Holy Spirit to decide who to eradicate from Christ’s biological lineage. The reasons for the omissions are contained in the Old Testament.

If you are interested, they are there to find. If you’re not interested … … Some surprising names are Manasseh, Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah. The reasons are included in the Narrative if you are so inclined.

Some family secrets are kept in the closet

• Adam, who had a personal, one-on-one relationship with Yehovah Elohim, sold his soul to the Devil because he didn’t believe what God said on those sublime afternoon strolls.

  
  

• Abraham, who believed Yehovah, could not redeem what Adam had sold for nothing.

  
  

• Neither could Samson, the physically strongest mere mortal. (OK. He’s not in the Genealogy.)

  
  

• Nor could David, the man after God’s own Heart. David had sinned (murder), and the line of Kings behind him were truly wicked, even the best was bad, yet Yehovah remained true to His Promises. That is an encouragement to all who profess the Name of Jesus.

  
  

• Then came Solomon, the wisest mere mortal, who made a dog’s breakfast of it all.

  
  

The women in Matthew’s Genealogy

Matthew does something radically unusual for an ancient Jewish genealogy: he includes women, five of them. Leaving Mary aside for a while, they all come from the wrong side of the tracks.

• Tamar (Genesis 38) began a line of bastards.

• Rahab (Joshua 2; 6) was a lady of negotiable virtue.

• Ruth (Book of Ruth) came from the wrong family.

But these were the only successes in the list.

Haven’t you missed one?

That intriguing woman is “The wife of Uriah” (2 Samuel). Everyone with a smidgen of Biblical knowledge (or watched the 1951 Susan Hayward/Gregory Peck movie) knows that Uriah’s wife was Bathsheba.

However, the Holy Spirit did not show her the courtesy of giving her a name; names are very important in the Bible, so there was more going on there than meets the eye. But that’s something you can cogitate on for yourself.

The subliminal message

God opens the next part of the Narrative with a declaration of how Faithful and Merciful He is.

° Satan is a con-artist.

° Humanity could not look after itself.

° Immanuel was necessary.

° Christmas is the new beginning promised in Jeremiah 31:33 & 32:40.

GOD DID NOT FORGET. IF THAT IS NOT A REASON TO CELEBRATE, WHAT IS?

But Mary can’t be ignored

Mary and Joseph would end up in Bethlehem regardless of which Genealogy you favour; both Jacob (Matthew) and Heli (Luke) lead them there. So Mary was in the line of David by both Blood and Marriage.

In Bethlehem, she was amongst family. Yet no one would (repeat, ‘would’, NOT ‘could’) find room for her, even though she was with child, supposedly the epitome of social status for a Jewish woman.

Why would that be?

The post ILLEGITIMATE SKELETONS IN MESSIAH’S FAMILY CLOSET shows that Mary was a gutsy girl.

Someone to be admired.

Not worshipped.

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The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime. If you have seen something you like, I encourage plagiarism. So, always check everything I say first, then please re-cycle, re-brand, re-structure, re-issue, re-label, or regurgitate in any manner you please. No need to acknowledge me because it is the Holy Spirit Who holds the Intellectual Rights.

All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)

© ネ Brad Banardict