The First Verse in The New Testament
The first verse, of the first book of the New Testament, the gospel of Matthew, opens up by getting straight to the point. Jesus is the promised Messiah (Christ), son (descendant) of David and son (descendant) of Abraham.
So we have Jesus being regarded as:
- Messiah (Christ)
- son of David (descendant)
- son of Abraham (descendant)
The Messiah, which is the Hebrew equivalent of the word Christ, is the title for the Anointed king of Israel. For example in 2 Samuel chapter 1, before David was King, he referred to King Saul as the Lord’s anointed. The original Hebrew calling him “Yehovah’s mashiyach” (messiah). David becomes king in the following chapter, receiving the title mashiyach.
Matthew reinforces this massive statement by first tracing Jesus’ lineage. The lineage is important because there are some covenants out of the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) that God established with specific people. These two specific covenants are EVERLASTING.
The genealogy here is divided from Abraham to David, from Solomon to the Exile, and from the Exile to Jesus. This genealogy ends with Joseph, who is Jesus’ legal father, but not biological father (Jesus did not have a biological human father).
Put simply, tying Jesus to his father Joseph and ancestors Abraham and David in this manner shows Jesus’ right to claim the lineage of David, and therefore capable of fulfilling God’s promise regarding the throne of David. Let’s see how…
8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
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16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.[c] Your throne shall be established forever.’”17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
2 Samuel 7:8-13, 16-17 ESV
Here are the key aspects of the Davidic covenant:
- begins by reinforcing the Abrahamic covenant
- God will establish Israel in “their own place” to dwell in, peacefully, forever. (2 Samuel 7:10–11)
- House of David, and throne of David established FOREVER (2 Samuel 7:11–16)
Here are the key aspects of the Abrahamic covenant:
- Abraham will be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:3-4)
- made specifically to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants (Genesis 17:8; Psalm 105:6–11)
- Although God’s covenant promises are carried through specific descendant lines (Isaac, not Ishmael Genesis 15:1-4, Jacob, not Esau Genesis 25:29-34), the covenant promises also include MANY nations, not just Israel (Jacob’s line). (Genesis 21; Genesis 27)
- regards the “land of Canaan” with specific boundaries laid out by God (Genesis 15: 18-21)
- Blog Post – The Land of the Promise
- unconditional, one-sided covenant established by God while Abraham slept (Genesis 15: 12, 17)
- EVERLASTING covenant
Keep these two covenants in mind as we keep making our way through Matthew.
Matthew describes the details surrounding the birth of Jesus.
Here are the key aspects of his birth:
- Biological Mother is Mary, legal Father is Joseph, to whom Mary was betrothed at the time of Jesus’ conception.
- Conceived by the Holy Spirit (God)
- Angel appears to Joseph and reassures him that Mary’s pregnancy is not due to sexual relations with another man. (Matthew 1:20)
- Name for the child, “Jesus” or Yeshua, given to Joseph by the angel. Joseph names Jesus accordingly.
- Matthew states that the virgin birth happened in this manner to fulfill what Isaiah the prophet said.
So what are the implications of these key aspects listed?
Let’s first look at the complicated situation of his parents’ lineages. Both parents are descendants of David, but Joseph was also more specifically a descendant of David’s son, Solomon. This is an important detail, which Bible.org unpacks for us. I’ll provide a direct quote:
“During King David ‘s residence at Hebron, while he was as yet only the king of Judah, six sons were born to him. Of these, three appear to have died in infancy – we don’t know. Of the other three, Amnon was murdered by Absalom, Absalom was killed while in rebellion against his father, and Adonijah, having attempted to usurp the throne, was put to death by Solomon. The right of succession to the crown was secured to the sons of David born after he was enthroned king over all Israel. The children that were born to David after he was crowned king over all Israel are also enumerated – 1 Chronicles 3:1-9; of these we only need to mention Nathan and Solomon. Solomon succeeded his father as king, but Nathan was older than Solomon, and on that ground might have contested Solomon’s right of succession. That there should be no cloud upon Jesus’ title to the ‘throne of David’ God ordained that Mary should be a direct descendant of David through Nathan, the ‘legal heir’ to the throne. But Jesus had no right to David’s throne through Mary, for she was not in the ‘Kingly Line’ of descent through Solomon. How then was Jesus’ right to David’s throne to be brought about?
Only by marriage.
MARY married (after conception) a man who could not be the natural father of Jesus, because of a taint or defect in his ancestry. Joseph was a lineal descendent of David through the ‘Kingly Line’ of Solomon, but in that line there was one Jechonias (Matt. 1:11,12) called in Jeremiah 22:24-30, Coniah, of whom God said: “no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the ‘Throne of David’ and ruling anymore in Judah.”
So we see that Joseph could not be the ‘natural’ father of Jesus for no descendant of his could sit on the Throne of David and ‘prosper’. this is another reason for the Virgin Birth. The marriage of Joseph and Mary made Jesus the adopted son and legal heir of Joseph. The title, unaffected by the curse pronounced upon Coniah, was thus conveyed to Jesus, in whom there centers through both Nathan and Solomon, exclusive right to the “Throne of David”.
Matthew is writing to Jews, who trace descent through the father. However, if Joseph would have been Jesus’ natural father, he would have been disqualified from the throne due to Joseph’s ancestor Jeconias, also known as Coniah (Jeremiah 22:24-30). This is why in Luke 3, we have Mary’s ancestry listed. We know this because Joseph’s father is Jacob (Matthew 1:16), but Luke puts Joseph under Eli (or Heli). This Eli is presumed to be Joseph’s father-in-law, Mary’s father. In connecting with Mary’s ancestry, we now have an uninhibited line to David. Remember that the Davidic covenant was to David’s son. Nathan, being the oldest, had the right to the throne, but yet Solomon was the one who sat on the throne instead. Jesus’ claim to the throne is a redemptive factor to the line of Nathan.
One could argue that there still lies an issue if the Jewish lineage is recognized through the fathers. Apparently, the book of Numbers provides us with some legal rights to resolve this issue.
According to the Torah, when a daughter is the only heir, she can receive her father’s inheritance as long as she marries within her own tribe. We don’t have record of Mary having brothers. As a result, since both Mary and Joseph are of the tribe of Judah, Joseph can legally pass the rights to the throne from Mary to Jesus, and bypass his own ancestral disqualification.
Now let’s look at the issue with Jesus’ name. The angel said,
“… you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:21 ESV
But yet it’s to fulfill a what Isaiah the prophet said in Isaiah 7:14, which states,
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (which means, God with us).
Matthew 1:23
The fulfillment was not in the name, but in the role. The role of God with us. The other fulfillment was the virgin conception. The word here in Hebrew is almah which, in its biblical use means a young woman. The modern common usage of the word “virgin” is someone who has not had sexual relations. Both cases apply to Mary, as Joseph did not “know” (have sex with) her until after she had given birth to Jesus (Matthew 1:25).
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Resources & Related Posts:
Forum Post | Who is the Jewish Messiah?
Oxford Biblical Studies | Genealogy of Jesus
Bible Gateway | Encyclopedia of the Bible | Genealogy of Jesus Christ
Jews for Jesus | The Genealogy of the Messiah
PDF – The Covenant Promises of God
Blog Post – The Christian’s Responsibility to the Jewish People