A Great Cast—Where’s the Plot?

~ Matthew 1 – Like Reading a Phone Book? ~

The Old Testament begins with Creation—an immensely important foundation for what follows. The New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ—an equally important foundation for all that follows.

Is the first chapter of Matthew dull, boring, and unimportant? Absolutely not! Matthew 1:1-17 provides the blood line of Jesus Christ. (Luke 3:23-38 provides the blood line of His mother Mary.)

The “begats” (King James Version) of Matthew are one of the most important parts of the Bible. One could define the Old Testament as “the family history of Jesus Christ.” The historic blood line from Adam to Jesus Christ is documented in Matthew 1. The New Testament credibility stands or falls on the accuracy of this genealogy.

The genealogy can be divided into three groups of fourteen. The first group, Abraham through King David, was a period of theocratic rule (God was considered the supreme authority). The next group following David until the Babylonian captivity (King Solomon into the time of Jechonias) was a period monarchial rule (authority was in an individual). The final group, Jechonias through Jesus Christ, was a time of hierarchical rule (multiple levels of rule determined by rank / level and topic).

From a historical standpoint it is helpful to realize that the genealogies were kept in the temple, and when Titus destroyed the temple in 70 A.D., the genealogies were lost. However, when Jesus was making His claim of being a descendant of David and a descendant of Abraham, the genealogies were still there, and although His enemies questioned just about everything else, they never questioned Jesus’ genealogy. The reason is obvious—the genealogies proved that the Lord Jesus was who He claimed to be as a far as His ancestry was concerned. He is the son of David, and He is also the son of Abraham. He came in that line which God said would produce the Messiah. Matthew begins by declaring this fact in the very first verse of his Gospel.

The Jews of the period never questioned that Jesus Christ was the son of David and therefore could be the Messiah. They did question whether or not He was God in the flesh dwelling among mankind.

CONTEMPLATE: Why are four women listed in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus Christ?