TEXT: Matthew 1:1 – “The book of the genealogy of Jesus
Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham…”
In the New Testament, 2 books trace the genealogy of Jesus, and two
don’t. We can see why, when we
understand why the authors wrote what they did.
Matthew wrote to the Jewish mind (Religious) about the Messiah King.
Mark wrote to the Roman mind (Pragmatic) about the Servant Redeemer. Luke wrote
to the Greek mind (Idealistic) about the Perfect Man, and John wrote to the world
about the Son of God., So when you consider this, Matthew has a genealogy because
someone wants to know the background of the one coming to the Throne as King.
Mark does not have one, because no one really cares about the background of a
servant. Luke wrote to prove He was the perfect man, therefore he included a genealogy
of His physical lineage. Finally, John wrote that Jesus was God and God has no
parentage.
Even then, we notice that the two genealogies have similarities and
differences. Luke goes back to
Adam and Matthew goes only back to Abraham. From Abraham to David they are consistent but diverge at
this point. Luke traces
through Nathan, while Matthew traces through Solomon.
That’s because Luke traces Mary’s line – while Matthew trace’s
Joseph’s line. The reason is
fairly simple – remember who they are writing too.
A.T. Robertson wrote “Apparently in Matthew we have the actual
genealogy of Joseph which would be the legal pedigree of Jesus according to
Jewish custom. In Luke, we apparently
have the actual genealogy of Mary which would be the real line of Jesus which
Luke naturally gives as he is writing for the Gentiles.”
For the Jew, Matthew wants to establish Jesus’ legal right to the
throne. That comes through father. While Luke is tracing His full
lineage by Mary – establishing the Virgin Birth.
The genealogies are important – particularly in that day. When the nation returned from
captivity, we find in the book of Ezra this statement: “These sought their
listing among those who were
registered by genealogy, but they were not found; therefore they were excluded from the priesthood as
defiled.” (2:62)
Genealogies were carefully kept – probably stored in Jerusalem. They
were possibly destroyed in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed.
You see, if one wanted to discredit Jesus’ claim at this time, they
could check the public records. Matthew was establishing the validity of what he
was writing.
Over the next three days, let us look at the preview, the overview,
and the review in the first 17 verses of chapter 1.
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