Matthew 1:1-16
1 This is the record of the family names of Jesus Christ, a descendant of David, a descendant of Abraham: 2 Abraham fathered Isaac. Isaac fathered Jacob. Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez fathered Hezron. Hezron fathered Ram. 4 Ram fathered Amminadab. Amminadab fathered Nahshon. Nahshon fathered Salmon. 5 Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab. Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth. Obed fathered Jesse. 6 Jesse fathered David, the king. David fathered Solomon by the wife of Uriah. 7 Solomon fathered Rehoboam. Rehoboam fathered Abijah. Abijah fathered Asa. 8 Asa fathered Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat fathered Jehoram. Jehoram fathered Uzziah. 9 Uzziah fathered Jotham. Jotham fathered Ahaz. Ahaz fathered Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah fathered Manasseh. Manasseh fathered Amon. Amon fathered Josiah. 11 Josiah fathered Jehoiachin and his brothers when Israel was carried away to Babylon. 12 After Israel was carried away to Babylon, Jehoiachin fathered Shealtiel. Shealtiel fathered Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel fathered Abiud. Abiud fathered Eliakim. Eliakim fathered Azor. 14 Azor fathered Zadok. Zadok fathered Achim. Achim fathered Eliud. 15 Eliud fathered Eleazar. Eleazar fathered Matthan. Matthan fathered Jacob. 16 Jacob fathered Joseph, Mary’s husband. Mary gave birth to Jesus, the one called the Messiah.
The Family Record, 1:1-17 (Luke 2:23-38).
[1] Jews knew the history of the fathers. The Jews were expecting the Messiah. Messiah is a Jewish name that means “the anointed one.” Kings were anointed with oil (1 Samuel 16:12-13; Psalm 84:9). Oil was poured over their heads. This showed they were chosen to be king. Christ is the Greek word for “the anointed one.” Christ and Messiah have the same meaning. The Messiah would be anointed by God for His work of salvation (see Luke 4:18-19).
Matthew mentioned that Jesus was a son of David and a son of Abraham. God promised Abraham that He would bless all nations through his family (Genesis 12:3; 22:18). Jesus, the Messiah, was the fulfillment of that promise (Acts 3:24-25; Galatians 3:14-16, 29). All people can be blessed through Jesus. God also told David that his throne would last forever (2 Samuel7:12-13, 16, 29; 23:5; Psalm 89:3-4, 29-37). Jesus, a son of David, built a spiritual kingdom that will remain until the end of time (John 18:36; 1 Corinthians 15:24).
Matthew 1:17-25
17 There was a total of 14 generations from the time of Abraham until David’s time. There were 14 generations from the time of David until Israel was carried away to Babylon. And there were 14 generations from the time when Israel was carried away to Babylon until the time of the Messiah.
18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ occurred: Mary, the mother of Jesus, was engaged to be married to Joseph, but before they were married, it was discovered that she was pregnant (by the Holy Spirit)! 19 However, Joseph, her husband-to-be, was a fair man; he did not want to disgrace her. So he decided to quietly call off the marriage. 20 He was thinking deeply upon these things when, suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, descendant of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. The baby inside her comes from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son. You will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. 22 The Lord spoke about this through the prophet Isaiah. All these things occurred to make this come true
23 ‘Listen! The virgin will be pregnant and give birth to a son. They will name him Emmanuel [Isaiah 7:14] (which means, God is with us).’ [Isaiah 8:8] When Joseph woke up from sleeping, he did as the angel of the Lord had ordered him to do; he took Mary to be his wife. 25 He did not have sexual relations with her, until she gave birth to the little boy. Joseph named him Jesus.
[2-17] Matthew began the list of family names with Abraham. Both men and women are in the list. The reason for the family record was to show that Jesus was a relative of Abraham and David (the family line of the Messiah). Matthew made it very clear that Jesus was a son of Abraham and David. Jesus wasnot really Joseph’s son. Jews believed a child received his birthright through the father. Therefore, it was still important that Joseph be of the family of Abraham and David.
Birth of Jesus, 1:18-25 (Luke 1:26-35; 2:1-7).
[18] Joseph’s and Mary’s families had agreed for them to be married. Mary became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. This means that Jesus did not have a man as a father. Although Mary became pregnant, she was still a virgin. This was a miracle, an act of God. After she gave birth to Jesus, she and Joseph did have other children (Matthew 13:55-56). She did not remain a virgin (see Matthew 1:25).
[19] An engaged woman could be stoned if she were unfaithful (Deuteronomy 22:23-24). She could also be given divorce papers (Deuteronomy 24:1-4; Mark 10:4). Joseph thought Mary had had sex with a man. He decided not to marry her. Joseph did what a righteous man would do. He acted according to the law. He was also kind in his treatment of Mary.
[20-21] An angel of the Lord explained this matter in a dream. God from time to time did speak to men in dreams. Joseph did not need the dream explained. Even though He spoke to men in dreams, God wanted His people to rely on His word for teaching (Jeremiah 23:28; 27:9; 29:8-9; Hebrews 1:1-2).
Jewish names had meaning. We have seen that Messiah and Christboth mean “the anointed one” (Matthew 1:1-2). The name Jesus is Greek for the Jewish name Joshua. Jesus means “Jehovah (God) is salvation.” His name showed that He would save His people from their sins. Many Jews did not understand this. They only wanted to be saved from Roman colonial powers.
[22-23] Matthew said that Isaiah wrote about these things 800 years earlier (Isaiah 7:14). The name Emmanuel means “God is with us.” This was a way of saying that Jesus was God in the flesh (see John 1:1, 14; Philippians 2:5-6). Matthew wrote his Gospel to the Jews. He proved that Jesus was the Messiah from their own Scriptures.
[24-25] Joseph did not have sex with Mary until after Jesus was born. Literally, he did not “know” her. In the Old Testament, “to know” means to know in a sexual way (see Genesis 4:1). After Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary lived as husband and wife. They had other children (Matthew 12:46; 13:55-56; Mark 6:3).
Matthew 2:1-6
2 1 Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a town in Judea, during the time of King Herod the Great. Some wise men from the east traveled to Jerusalem. 2 They asked, “Where is the one who was born to be king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and we came to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed. Everyone else in Jerusalem was too. 4 He gathered all of the most important priests and teachers of the law from the people and asked them where the Messiah would he born. 5 They answered, “In the town of Bethlehem in Judea, because this was written by the prophet Micah: 6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, you are surely not the least important among the leading towns of Judea, because a Leader will come out from you, He will shepherd my people, Israel.’ ” Micah 5:2
The Visit of the Wise Men, 2:1-12.
[1] Bethlehem was near Jerusalem. It was only about eight kilometres south. Luke explained why Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7). King Herod the Great had been appointed king by the Roman government. We do not know what country the wise men came from. We do know that they were not Jews. There is no reason to believe these men were kings. The Scriptures do not say how many there were. Similar men can be read about in Daniel 1:20; 2:2. They were important men in the eastern world.
[2-6] Evidently, when Jesus was born, a special star appeared in heaven. The wise men read the sign in the sky, but the Jews did not notice. The heavens and earth can declare God’s glory and power (Psalm 19:1). But God did not communicate His will through them. He told His will through His Son (see Hebrews 1:1-2). The news of the newborn king troubled Herod. He was a powerful, wicked man. He wanted so much to be king that he killed his own children so they could not be king. The new king was a threat because he was a king by birth. Herod had only been appointed. Priests and teachers of the law knew the Scriptures about the Messiah. God’s Word (Micah 5:2) gave them the answer as to the location of this king’s birth —Bethlehem
Matthew 2:7-15
7 Then, in secret, Herod called for the wise men. From them he added up the exact time when the star appeared. 8-10 “Go, search very carefully for information about the child. When you find him, report to me, so that I, too, may come to worship him.” After they had listened to the king, they left; Herod sent them to Bethlehem. Suddenly, the star which they had seen in the east was leading them. When they saw the star, they were very, very happy. It finally stopped above the place where the child was. 11 They went into the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother. They bowed down to worship him. They opened their treasures and brought him gifts—gold, perfume, and precious spices. 12 But God used a dream to warn them that they should not return to Herod. So they returned to their country by a different road. 13 After they had gone, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Joseph in a dream. The angel said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I speak to you again. Herod is about to begin searching for the child to kill him.” 14 So, Joseph got ready. He took the child and his mother at night and left for Egypt. 15 He stayed there until Herod died, to make what the Lord God had said through the prophet come true:
“I called My Son out of Egypt.” Hosea 11:1
[7-12] Herod needed to know how old the new king was. He needed to know when the wise men first saw the star. He pretended to only want to worship the child. His true desires are seen in Matthew 2:16-18. Jesus was born in a stable (see Luke 2:7). When the wise men arrived, Jesus and His parents were living in a house (Matthew 2:11). The gifts they brought were gifts for a king. Gold was very valuable. Perfume (frankincense) was a substance that smelled good. It was used by the Jews in their worship (Exodus 30:34-38; Leviticus 2:1-2, 14-16; 6:14-15). Precious spices (myrrh) were used in medicines and perfumes. They were also put on dead bodies to prepare them for burial (see John 19:39-40).
The Flight to Egypt, 2:13-18.
[13-15] An angel gave Joseph specific instructions to save Jesus. Egypt was about 325 kilometres away. At that time, there were many Jews living in Egypt. God called the family back only after Herod died (Matthew 2:19-23).
Matthew 2: 16-23
16 When Herod realized that the wise men had made a fool out of him, he was very angry. He ordered his men to kill all the little boys in and around the town of Bethlehem—the boys who were two years old or younger (the exact time which Herod had figured out from the wise men.) 17 Then what God had said through Jeremiah the prophet came true: 18 “A sound was heard in the town of Ramah, crying and loud screaming. Rachel is crying for her children: She will not let anyone comfort her, because the children are dead.” Jeremiah 31:15 19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Joseph in a dream in Egypt. 20 The angel said, “Get ready! Take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. The people who were trying to kill the child have died.” 21 So, Joseph got ready. He took the child and his mother and entered the land of Israel. 22 Joseph heard that Herod Archelaus was ruling Judea, instead of his father, Herod the Great. Joseph was afraid to go back there, but, in a dream, God told him to leave for the land of Galilee. 23 So, he went and lived in a town called Nazareth, so that what God had said through the prophets would come true: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
[16-18] When the wise men did not return, Herod knew that he had been fooled. He became very angry. To kill Jesus, he had to guess the age of the child (Matthew 2:7). This terrible killing of babies had been spoken about by Jeremiah hundreds of years before (Jeremiah 31:15).
God Calls His Son Home, 2:19-23 (Mark 1:9; Luke 1:26).
[19-20] The angel, in a dream, told them to return. For ”dreams,” see Matthew 1:20-21.
[21-23] Herod was dead. When Joseph and Mary returned, they found that a son of Herod the Great, Archelaus, was the new ruler. This caused Joseph to be afraid. Archelaus proved to be as evil as his father. Galilee was the northern part of Palestine. The name came from Lake Galilee. Herod Antipas was the ruler there. Many Gentile (non-Jew) people lived in that area. Joseph and Mary settled in the town of Nazareth. This had been their home before Jesus was born (Luke 2:4). Matthew mentioned that the prophets said, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” The source of this prophecy is not known. It is possible Matthew referred to prophecies such as Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5 and Zechariah 3:8. These Scriptures spoke of the Messiah as a “branch.” The Hebrew word Nazareth means “branch.”
Matthew 3:1-6
3 1 During those days, John (the one who immersed people) was preaching in the desert in the land of Judea. 2 He said, “Change your hearts! The kingdom of heaven is very near!” 3 This is the man whom God talked about through the prophet Isaiah: “There is a voice crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the Lord’s road. Make His paths straight.’ ” Isaiah 40:3 4 John always wore clothes made of camel hair. He had a leather belt around his waist. He ate grasshoppers and wild honey. 5 People from Jerusalem and all over the land of Judea and all the area around the Jordan River continued coming to John. 6 They were admitting that they had sinned. John immersed them in the Jordan River.