It has been on my heart to do a study on book of Matthew as it relates to the Hebrew scriptures (aka Old Testament - a term that I do not favor because it makes those scriptures seem seem obsolete).
The good news (or gospel in olde English if you prefer, a word shortened from good spell which means glad tidings or good news) of Matthew was written primarily to a Jewish-Christian audience, probably between 70 and 80 AD to those followers of Yeshua who were scattered after the fall of Jerusalem.
Matthew's primary purpose was to demonstrate that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of David; and the initial fulfillment of Yahweh's promises to Israel (although some of those promises are yet to be fulfilled... more on this in later posts).
UPDATE: I have decided to put the New Covenant scriptures in red and the corresponding Hebrew scriptures in blue throughout this series.
Who was Matthew? In Hebrew, the name is Mattityahu, meaning gift of Yahweh, a name that we do not find in the Hebrew scriptures. However, the name is prominent in the account of the Hasmoneans in the apocryphal books of the Maccabees. Mattityahu was the patriarch of the Levitcial Hasmonean family who led the fight against Antiochus Epiphanes in the 160s BC. This evil Greek ruler sought to destroy Judaism, and the Hasmoneans helped defeat him, leading to the festival of Hanukkah. However, being Levites, the Hasmoneans were not qualified to be kings of Israel. The king had to be from the line of Judah. But without the military successes of the Hasmoneans, there would have been no future king Messiah.
It is interesting that new covenant writer and disciple Matthew was most likely also a Levite, the ones who served at the temple. Our Matthew (also known as Levi) had fallen away from his Levitical roots and become a tax collector, hated by his countrymen. He was one of the later-added disciples; we don't see him added to the pack until Matthew 9.
Let's jump in.
Matthew 1:1 says, The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Messiah), the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Stop.
Today, most Jews will not pick up a new testament and read it, because they have been conditioned to believe that it is an antisemitic book that wants to destroy them. But I have heard testimonies from people who have started with the book of Matthew and are blown away at the opening line. Son of David, son of Abraham? This resonates with the Jewish psyche. The text continues with more lineage, and verse 17 wraps it up by saying, So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah fourteen generations.
Whoa. This passage screams Messiah.
Since Hebrew letters are also numeric, the name David equals 14. David David David! Many Jews know that the Messiah must come from the line of David, according to the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7, where Yahweh says to David in verses 12-13: 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. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (This promise is reiterated in Psalm 89:3-4, 132:11, Isaiah 16:5, and Jeremiah 33:17).
In context, David wanted to build a house for Yahweh, but instead, Yahweh told David, no, I'm going to build a house for ME from YOU and your lineage.
Okay, so this passage is shouting the concept of Messiah. But not so fast.
I read an article by a rabbi who said that the genealogy in Matthew demonstrates the opposite, that Yeshua could not have come from this lineage, and to that I say, you are correct, sir.
Verses 11 and 12 mention a guy named Jeconiah (aka Jehoiachin and Coniah) in the lineage. However, this dude had his bloodline cursed in Jeremiah 22:30, which says, speaking of Coniah, Thus says the LORD: write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.
Oops.
Yahweh doesn't lie, so what gives? The answer is that we see the line of Joseph here, the husband of Mary. Joseph was Yeshua's legal father by adoption, but he was not Yeshua's blood father. Jeconiah's bloodline would not sit on the throne, just as Jeremiah prophesied.
The very next verse confirms this. Now the birth of Jesus Christ (Messiah) took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Not Jeconiah's bloodline.
We now have a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, which declares, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (meaning God with us). In fact, Matthew quotes this prophecy in verse 23.
(Chapter 3 of the book of Luke gives the genealogy of Yeshua on His mother's side, and goes all the way back to Adam. When verse 23 says that Joseph was the son of Heli, the Greek grammar is missing the article, which indicates that Joseph is Heli's son-in-law. Also, if you compare the two lineages, you will notice some converging and diverging, which probably has to do with Levirate marriages, when a woman's husband dies and his brother is required to take her as wife and give her a child that carries on the name of the dead husband. It is shown in as customary in Genesis with the story of Tamar and Judah, and became codified as part of the law in Deuteronomy 25:5-6.)
Anyway, to say that Joseph was quite surprised at the news of Mary's pregnancy is an understatement. The next verse says that he planned to divorce her quietly (not publicly) and not shame her, probably because he loved her. Deuteronomy 22:23-24 tell us that if a man lies with a betrothed virgin they both must be publicly stoned to death.
By the way, betrothal in those days was as binding as marriage, even though the marriage had yet to be consummated. Some say that betrothal was harder to get out of than the actual marriage itself. It's probably why Lazar Wolf was so angry when Tevye broke the agreement he'd made with Lazar Wolf to marry his daughter in the best musical ever written, Fiddler on the Roof.
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| Tevye and Lazar Wolf making a marriage deal. Without her permission, I might add. That never goes well. |
Moving on... so as Joseph was considering his options, an angelic messenger came to him in a dream, calling him Joseph, son of David, and convincing him to take Mary as his wife because the child conceived is from the Holy Spirit.
The next verse doesn't make much sense unless you understand the Hebrew behind it. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. In English, you cannot see the meaning or purpose of the name. But let's splash in a little Hebrew: You shall call his name Yeshua (God is salvation) because he will yasha (save) his people from their sins.
Chapter one wraps up with Joseph obeying the Lord, taking Mary for his wife, and then... he knew her not until she had given birth to a son. Later on, Joseph did know his wife in the biblical sense and they had at least six more children, according to Mark 6:3. So Mary was a virgin only for her firstborn and not the rest of her children, contrary to some traditions.
For part 2, click here.
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