Each gospel writer begins from a different viewpoint and with a unique agenda. John begins as a philosopher, presenting the the ultimate truth, the Word, Who existed from the beginning. He writes so that “...you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). His target audience are unsaved Greeks (thus logos, the Greek word for “word”, an important term in Greek philosophy).

Luke starts as a historian, giving a detailed account of the story of Jesus, the Son of man. He writes to the Romans (as seen by the title “most excellent” that he gives to Theophilus in Luke 1:3, indicating a Roman of rank), presenting Jesus as the Son of man.

Mark writes as an evangelist, presenting the “gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). He brings a message of action calling his readers to respond in action by believing that Jesus the Servant (Mark 10:45) saves.

Matthew writes as a Jewish scribe. He is the only one to start his gospel with a family tree, reflecting the Old Testament Scriptures and Jewish tradition (particularly, Genesis and Chronicles). He writes to convince Jews that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah they’ve been waiting for. This explains why Matthew quotes from the Old Testament more than any other gospel writer. Just to give you an idea, the word “fulfill” is found 16 times in this book (1:22; 2:15, 17, 23; 3:15; 4:14; 5:17, 33; 8:17; 12:17; 13:14, 35; 21:4; 26:54, 56; 27:9), different forms of the word “prophet” are found 45 times (Matt 1:22; 2:5, 15, 17, 23; 3:3; 4:14; 5:12, 17; 7:12, 15, 22; 8:17; 10:41; 11:9, 13; 12:17, 39; 13:14, 17, 35, 57; 14:5; 15:7; 16:14; 21:4, 11, 26, 46; 22:40; 23:29, 30, 31, 34, 37; 24:11, 15, 24; 26:56, 68; 27:9), and the book “contains no fewer than sixty-five references to the Old Testament, forty-three of these being direct verbal citations.”¹ If Jesus is the Son of God in John’s gospel, the Son of man in Luke’s gospel, and the Servant in Mark’s, then He’s the King in Matthew’s.

1:1a The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah...

Genesis 5:1 uses the exact same phrase. The word “record” is the word “biblos” and the word “genealogy” is the word “genesis.” Biblos is where we get the word “Bible” from and genesis is how the first book of the Bible got its name which means “beginning.” Matthew starts by drawing his readers’ minds back to the bible of Jesus’ line, that is, the record of His family tree.

In Jewish culture, lineage was a big deal. To not know your lineage would be like walking around without a Social Security number or a drivers’ license. If this was important for the common Jew, how much more important it would be for the Messiah of the Jews! That’s why when the Pharisees and Sadducees shows up to get baptized, John the Baptist said, “You brood of vipers! Don’t show up and think you can get into the kingdom of heaven because you say, ‘We have Abraham for our father’” (Mat 3:7-9). They thought that because Abraham was their great grandaddy, they had God’s approval. They trusted their lineage to save them. In a sense, their family tree had become their god. Later on in John 8:39 the Jews let Jesus know that they had it together together spiritually because, “Abraham is our Father!” This why Luke’s ascending genealogy traces the family line of Jesus from Adam but Matthew’s descending genealogy traces it from Abraham. Luke records the genetic line of Jesus to Mary but Matthew records the legal line of Christ through Joseph, for the promise of an everlasting kingdom was to be passed from David to Solomon (2 Sam 7:12-16), not David to Nathan.

The Jews were not surprised to see Matthew start his account of Jesus’ life with a family tree. But Matthew did something with this family tree that would have shocked any right-minded Jew. He included outsiders, harlots, prostitutes, adulterers, idol-worshipping foreigners, and murderers. That was unconventional. Even to include the names of women in the family tree was unconventional. But it taught a truth that we cannot afford to miss...

1:1b ...the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Introducing the family tree, Matthew lists the two most important figures: David and Abraham. David and Abraham stood out from all the other people in the genealogy not because they were particularly gifted or carried an impressive resume, but because God gave special promises to both of them. Through Abraham’s line, God promised to create a great nation (Gen 12:1-3; Gen 15:18-21). Through David’s line, God promised to turn that nation into a great kingdom. After Abraham, God narrowed things down with the David who came from the tribe of Judah and promised David a future king from his line who would rule over the nation of Israel forever (2 Sam 7:12-16). This explains why no one in this genealogy (save Jesus) is recognized by his title except for David: “Jesse was the father of David the king” (Mat 1:6). Through his three sets of fourteen (Mat 1:17) Matthew is shows the founding, rise, and decline of the kingdom of David which unveils a desperate need for a Messiah who could achieve what Abraham and David could never have achieved on their own.

By reading the Old Testament Scriptures the Jews could see that a special “anointed one” (the word for Messiah) would rise up and fulfill God’s promises (Gen 49:10; Num 24:17; Deut 18:15-19; Isa 11:1-4; Zech 14:1-9). So Matthew starts off by letting his readers know that Jesus from ghetto-town Nazareth is the direct descendant of both Abraham and David.

1:2 ...Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

These four men take up most of the book of Genesis and the first three are referred to all through Scripture as the “fathers” of Israel whose God was Yahweh. God is frequently identified through the Old Testament as being the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex 3:6; Ex 3:15-16; Ex 4:5; 1 Kings 18:36; 1 Chron 29:18; 2 Chron 30:6), for before their time God did not reveal Himself in such a special and direct way as He did to these three men

Note that God likes to pick the second child, contrary to traditional culture where the oldest son is seen as the strength of the father. God picked Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, and Judah over Reuben (Gen 49:8-10). This is a rich reminder that God’s choosing does not depend on the strength or ways of humans, but solely on His grace and mercy. 1 Chronicles follows this same genealogy (1 Chron 1:28; 1 Chron 1:34; 1 Chron 2:1). It seems that Matthew sat with the Septuagint version of 1 Chronicles and carefully plucked out the names that related directly to Jesus’ line and traced the connection.

1:3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram.

How traditionally clean and safe it would have been for the line to continue through a happily ever after marriage of Judah and his wife! But instead, Perez is conceived when Judah sleeps with his Canaanite daughter-in-law, Tamar, who poses as a prostitute (Gen 38). A quick reading of Genesis or any Jewish book from ancient times shows that it was not customary to include the names of women in pedigrees. But Matthew lists five: Tamar the Canaanite who posed as a prostitute, Rahab the hooker, Ruth the idol-worshipper, Bathsheba the adulteress, and Mary the one who people thought was a whore. God uses the ugliest reputations as mirrors of His perfect grace. 1 Chronicles 2:1-9 also tracks this genealogy.

1:4 Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon.

Aaron the brother of Moses married Amminadab’s daughter, Elisheba (Ex 6:23). Nashon the son of Amminadab (and brother of Elisheba) led Judah’s tribe when Israel camped in the wilds of Mt. Sinai (Num 1:7). It was Nashon’s son, Salmon who married Rahab the harlot. 1 Chronicles 2:9-11 tracks this same line.

1:5 Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse.

Again, instead of continuing the Messianic line through a safe and traditional marriage, God includes Rahab the harlot in the line of the Messiah (Josh 2; Josh 6) and brings forth Ruth the Moabitess from an idol-worshipping, child-sacrificing nation so despised and hated that Boaz has to command his own workers to leave her alone so that she wouldn’t get robbed and raped (Ruth 2:8-9; Ruth 2:15). God Himself would not allow a Moabite to worship God in the temple down to the tenth generation (Deut 23:3). These were the people who refused to give Israel any water or food when the Israelites left Egypt (Deut 23:4) and who hired Balaam to curse them (Num 22-24; Deut 23:4). One wonders how many Jewish scribes were willing to admit this reality: the line of the Messiah comes through Ruth a Moabitess! 1 Chronicles 2:11-13 parallels this genealogy and Ruth 4:18-22 tracks this exact line from Perez all the way to David.

1:6 Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah.

Again, God rejects the firstborn (Eliab) and in this case picks the eighth son of Jesse, David (1 Sam 16:10-11). Instead of continuing the line through the product of David’s first wife Michal (1 Sam 18:27) or his second wife Abigail (which by itself reads like a classic tale filled with suspense, treachery, heroism and romance, 1 Sam 25:39-42!), God continues the line through Bathsheba, a name one cannot read without remembering David’s grievous errors of adultery and murder. When a Jew reading Matthew’s first chapter read “Bathsheba” he would think “adultery” and when he read “Uriah” he would think “murder.” These sins of David were so grievous in the eyes of Israel that the scribe who penned 1 Chronicles completely left out this dark part of David’s life although he tracks the same family line in 1 Chronicles 2:13-15 and 1 Chronicles 3:5. The chronicler has no genealogical duty to mention names like “Bathsheba” and “Uriah”, so he apparently included it to remind the reader that even through ancient scandals that read like a soap opera, God can bring salvation to lost people.

1:7 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa.

Solomon’s life represented the classic story of someone who follows God in his youth and rejects Him in his old age. Rehoboam’s life was the mark of the splitting of the kingdom (1 Kings 12), a split so deep that Israel would never recover her past glory, and still has not even to this day.

Abijah and Asa were spiritually mediocre prophets (1 Kin 15:3; 2 Chron 13:8; 2 Chron 14:2; 2 Chron 16:12), not on fire nor outright rebellious—sort of like flavorless yogurt. 1 Chronicles parallels this record in 1 Chronicles 3:5 and 1 Chronicles 3:10.

1:8 Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah.

Jehoshaphat broke this trend and honored the Lord (2 Chron 17:3-4) unlike his son Joram (also called “Jehoram”) who walked in the ways of Ahab (2 Kin 8:18) and murdered all his brothers (2 Chron 21:4). Matthew skips Ahaziah (2 Kin 8:25-27), Jehoash (2 Kin 12:1, also known as Joash, 2 Chron 24:1), and Amaziah (2 Kin 14:1; 2 Chron 25:1) and jumps to Uzziah (also known as Azariah, 2 Kin 15:1), the king of Judah who started out faithful but fell when his heart grew proud and died a leper, quarantined in a shack all by himself (2 Chron 26:3-21). 1 Chronicles records the same family line in 1 Chronicles 3:10-12 and does not leave out the three missing names in Matthew’s record.

To skip a few generations was not strange or unethical in Israel’s culture, nor was it considered false to say that Joram was the father of Uzziah, even though he was technically Uzziah’s great, great, grandfather.

1:9 Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.

Jotham honored God in his reign (2 Kin 15:34; 2 Chron 27:2), but his son Ahaz rejected God (2 Kin 16:2; 2 Chron 28:1) and all Judah suffered severe loss at the invasion of Israel during his reign (2 Chron 28:5-8). It was during his rule that God promised a child born of a virgin (Is 7:10-14), and sent Assyria to take Israel, the northern kingdom into exile (2 Kin 17). In stark contrast to Ahaz’ wicked rule, Hezekiah his son led a reign that will last forever in the annals of Judah’s history. He restored temple worship (2 Chron 29), re-instituted the Passover (2 Chron 30), wreaked havoc on idol worship (2 Chron 31), and marked history as a man who “trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him” (2 Kin 18:5). The parallel genealogical record can be found in 1 Chronicles 3:12-13.

1:10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah.

Manasseh proved to be as wicked as his father was godly, being the first Judean king to participate in child sacrifice (2 Kin 21:6) other than Ahaz his grandfather (2 Kin 16:3). He did turn to the Lord in his later years, doing a reversal of Solomon’s life (2 Chron 33:12-13; 2 Chron 33:23). Amon led an evil rule cut short by assassination from his own servants (2 Kin 21:19-23; 2 Chron 33:21-25), but Josiah his son lived for God like no king before him demonstrated unprecedented conviction over the law of God (2 Kin 22:8-13) by covenanting before God to follow Him with all his heart (2 Kin 23:1-3), by making war on idolatry (2 Kin 23:4-20), and by re-establishing the Passover (2 Kin 23:21-27). The parallel genealogy is in 1 Chronicles 3:13-14.

1:11 Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

Matthew skips Josiah’s son Jehoiakim (2 Kin 23:34) and moves to Josiah’s grandson, Jeconiah (referred to as “Jehoiachin” in 2 Kings 24:6 and 2 Chronicles 36:8-9 and “Coniah” in Jeremiah 22:24). Because God forbade any of Jeconiah’s descendants from sitting on the throne of David (Jer 22:30) how could Jesus of Nazareth be the promised Messiah? But Jesus of Nazareth was not the true descendant of Jeconiah, for God was His father, not Joseph, thus, He still fulfills the promise as the Son of David through David’s son, Nathan (Luke 3:31), and yet remains the legal heir of Solomon through Joseph, his legal father. Jeconiah, the last king of Judah before the exile under Babylon, was evil to the bone and consequently suffered a three month and ten day reign (2 Chron 36:9). The parallel genealogical record is found in 1 Chronicles 3:14-16 and does not leave out Jehoiakim’s name like Matthew does.

1:12-15 After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim and Achim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob.

From here on we have less and less historical record of the men listed after the exile of Judah, and 1 Chronicles carries Judah’s line no further than Zerubbabel (an indication that the Chronicles were probably written in Zerubbabel’s day or soon after). Some places in the Old Testament identify Shealtiel as the father of Zerubbabel, the Babylon-born Jew who led the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 3:2; Ezra 5:2; Neh 12:1; Hag 1:1; Hag 2:23), just as Matthew does. But 1 Chronicles identifies Zerubbabel as the son of Shealtiel’s brother, Pedaiah (1 Chron 3:17-19). Perhaps Shealtiel adopted Zerubbabel his nephew much like Mordecai raised his cousin, Esther (Esther 2:7). The Bible tells us nothing about the rest of the men in this line other than the fact that through their line came Jesus the Messiah.

1:16 Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

Jacob was likely a carpenter like his son Joseph, since in his day it was common for the son to adopt the profession of his father. Here we find the only break in the line of Jesus, and the break is a strange one. Up to this point every man is “the father of” someone else. But Matthew says it differently when it comes to Jesus. He writes, “...by whom Jesus was born.” Until Jesus, every child in the family tree was conceived by the mother and father. But Mary conceives Jesus without Joseph’s help. To an outsider this would indict her with adultery and even Joseph was ready to divorce her secretly, lest he marry an unfaithful woman (Mat 1:19). The Jews viewed Jesus as the product of whoredom (John 8:41). But God intervened and told Joseph that the child was not the product of any sin on Mary’s part, but of God’s plan for the salvation of Israel: a conception by the Holy Spirit (Mat 1:20).

1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

It is unlikely that only eleven generations fill the 400 year time span from Zerubbabel to Jesus and impossible for the man Ram to fill up the 430 years of slavery (Ex 12:41) during Israel’s stay in Egypt (Hezron marks the beginning of Israel’s slavery in Egypt [Gen 46:12] and Amminadab marks the end of it [Exodus 6:23[). Likewise, more than three generations would be needed to fill up the four century gap from Rahab to David. Because Matthew left out at least four men in his record that we know of (Ahaziah, Jehoash, Amaziah, and Jehoiakim), it makes sense that he did the same in these three other stretches of time so that he could conclude with his pattern of three sets of fourteen generations, a total of 42 generations.

It was not uncommon for Jewish scribes to abbreviate pedigrees and only include the better known individuals. Not only this, but Matthew is more interested in Christology than chronology.² Matthew’s goal was not to pen an exhaustive list of Jesus’ line but to but to reveal three eras of the Messianic dynasty, which find their fulfillment in the person of Jesus the Messiah.

Two motives can be seen behind Matthew’s genealogical approach. First, just like the point of his book, Matthew writes to prove that Jesus of Nazareth is in the line of Abraham and David. The Jews knew the Old Testament and no man could hope to be the Messiah unless he came through this line. Matthew did not need to include every man in the family tree to make this point, so he lists only the best known characters, people whom his readers would recognize.

Second, Matthew writes to prove that humanity could never accomplish what God alone could and would do through Jesus the Messiah. Matthew breaks this pedigree into three sets of fourteen generations:

Abraham to David - pre kingdom period
David to Babylon - kingdom building period
Babylon to Messiah  - kingdom declining period

William Hendriksen provides helpful commentary:   

In the first set of fourteen “we are shown the origin of David’s house; in the second, it’s rise and decline; in the last, its eclipse. Yet, even an eclipse need not be total, neither does it mean extinction. Or, to change the figure, a tree is hewn down, but its stump remains in the ground. In the present instance, out of this stump a twig shoots forth, and that twig become a great tree (cf. Isa 11:1; Rom 15:12). In David the family of Abraham attained royalty (note verse 6a: “David the king). At the deportation to Babylon this royal power was lost. In Christ it is restored, only in a far more glorious sense.”³

Matthew counts Jeconiah as the last man in the second group and the first man in the last group of three, thus we have: Abraham-David, Solomon-Jeconiah, Jeconiah to Messiah.

In spite of the many outstanding men of God in this family tree, not one was holy or worth enough to bring forth the nation and kingdom that God promised Abraham and David. This simple outline demonstrates that in spite of all of Israel’s efforts, a once glorious kingdom only ended in dust. But through this line God was now bringing forth Jesus, the Messiah, who would some day raise up an everlasting kingdom, unassailable and eternal.

How foolish it was for the Jews to confide in a line peppered with wicked people like Joram, Ahaz, and Amon! Or a line peppered with godly people who had tarnished reputations like Judah, Rahab, Ruth, and Mary. Matthew makes it clear that salvation does not come from family trees or spotless reputations but from Jesus Christ the Messiah. As Paul says in Philippians 3:1-8, no amount of human achievement or holy lineage will save a soul. Salvation is by Jesus Christ alone.

Many of these people who fell in the line of the Messiah were also saved by the Messiah!.The sin of Judah’s lust would be paid for by the ultimate product of that lust. The sin of David’s adultery would ultimately be forgiven by the fruit of that adultery for had he not married Bathsheba, Solomon would never have been born. 

Endnotes

1. M.G. Easton, Easton's Bible Dictionary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996, c1897).

2. William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew in New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1973), 109. 

3. Ibid., 116.