The
book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. - American Standard
Version (ASV)
The record of the origin of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. - Mounce Reverse Interlinear New Testament (MOUNCE)
This is the family history of Jesus the Messiah. He came from the family of David, who was from the family of Abraham. - Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
The historical record of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: - Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
This is a record of the life of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. - International Standard Version (ISV)
I can’t even begin to recount the number of times I have attempted to put into writing the things I have learned over the many years that I have struggled to follow Jesus along the path he laid out before me. Ove the years one book in the Bible has played a central role in my efforts to learn more about Jesus, and to live for him. That book is the Gospel According to Matthew. For me it has been a mission to glean as much understanding as I could from Matthew, in the hope that it would become easier to make sense out of everything else. Little did I realize that, ever after over fifty years, I am still learning new things, and gleaning new insights, from this now faithful companion. I don’t know if I’ll be any more successful at putting my thoughts into writing than the many failed attempts of the past, but I’ll never know if I don’t at least try, so here goes nothing.
I can’t help but believe that one of the greatest errors made in this great movement we call “Christianity,” has been the tendency for us to view the Apostle Paul as the real founder of our faith. Yes, we absolutely understand that Jesus is the Head overall, but the majority of all the nitty-gritty doctrine and such comes from Paul. One unfortunate result of this has been to relegate the Gospel accounts into the background, rolling them out for special occasion like Christmas and Easter. It has even reached the point where all that stuff between Bethlehem and Calvary isn’t all that important anymore. It’s not as if they have much to say about us being saved and going to Heaven, do they?
This has led to some rather extreme interpretations of Paul’s writings because he can’t properly be understood outside the context of the Gospels. This has also resulted in Paul himself being pulled out of his historical, sociological, political, and religious context and roots. Of equal alarm is the long, long effort to strip Christianity itself of its Jewish roots, some even going so far as to deny that Jesus himself was Jewish. Sadly, those efforts to strip out our Jewish roots led to periods of extreme brutality and violence being directed by Christians against the Jewish people.
One result of all those efforts to push the Gospels to the sidelines, and to strip Christianity of its Jewish roots, was that a vacuum was created that had to be filled with some means of helping us understand what the rest of the New Testament, outside of the Gospels, meant. So, into that yawning gap strode the Greek philosophies, particularly Platonism, Epicureanism and Stoicism. The end result has been that most of our understanding, our theology, and our doctrine, has become based on Greek philosophic ideas of heaven, hell, the afterlife, and even the meaning of what Jesus accomplished on the Cross. The Jewish context and understanding have been almost completely obliterated, which is where this study of Matthew’s story of Jesus comes in. Matthew specifically tells the story within the whole context of Israel’s story, which is where it properly belongs.
Of course, the first difficulty we run into as we begin reading Matthew’s Gospel is that he doesn’t begin in the same manner that a normal storyteller would, or does he? The British theologian, N.T. Wright, sums it up in this manner:
"So why did Matthew write this book? Clearly, to draw out the manifold ways in which the story of Jesus of Nazareth brought the long and prophecy-laden story of Israel to its God-ordained goal. This would mean simultaneously offering a manifesto for Jewish believers to retain their allegiance to their ancestral scriptures and controlling narrative, and outlining the way in which they should also embrace the new world in which Jesus had been revealed as Israel's Messiah and as the Emmanuel, the living embodiment of Israel's God. This would also mean effectively offering an apology, before the watching Jewish world, for following Jesus, presenting this as the fulfilment of Israel's heritage, the true form of loyalty to Israel's calling and hopes. Most Jewish groups, after all, were struggling with this kind of question at the time." - N.T. Wright, "The New Testament in Its World".
The point is, not only is what we find in this book the story, the history, of Jesus’ birth, acts, sufferings, death, and resurrection, but the entire story, the entire history of Israel is also his story and his history. This is key to our understanding of what is to follow because this is quite clearly telling us that Jesus’ is part of, and the continuation of, Israel’s story. These stories, these histories, cannot be separated without losing the true meaning of both, which is, in a nutshell, the story of God’s faithfulness.
The record of the origin of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. - Mounce Reverse Interlinear New Testament (MOUNCE)
This is the family history of Jesus the Messiah. He came from the family of David, who was from the family of Abraham. - Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
The historical record of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: - Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
This is a record of the life of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. - International Standard Version (ISV)
I can’t even begin to recount the number of times I have attempted to put into writing the things I have learned over the many years that I have struggled to follow Jesus along the path he laid out before me. Ove the years one book in the Bible has played a central role in my efforts to learn more about Jesus, and to live for him. That book is the Gospel According to Matthew. For me it has been a mission to glean as much understanding as I could from Matthew, in the hope that it would become easier to make sense out of everything else. Little did I realize that, ever after over fifty years, I am still learning new things, and gleaning new insights, from this now faithful companion. I don’t know if I’ll be any more successful at putting my thoughts into writing than the many failed attempts of the past, but I’ll never know if I don’t at least try, so here goes nothing.
I can’t help but believe that one of the greatest errors made in this great movement we call “Christianity,” has been the tendency for us to view the Apostle Paul as the real founder of our faith. Yes, we absolutely understand that Jesus is the Head overall, but the majority of all the nitty-gritty doctrine and such comes from Paul. One unfortunate result of this has been to relegate the Gospel accounts into the background, rolling them out for special occasion like Christmas and Easter. It has even reached the point where all that stuff between Bethlehem and Calvary isn’t all that important anymore. It’s not as if they have much to say about us being saved and going to Heaven, do they?
This has led to some rather extreme interpretations of Paul’s writings because he can’t properly be understood outside the context of the Gospels. This has also resulted in Paul himself being pulled out of his historical, sociological, political, and religious context and roots. Of equal alarm is the long, long effort to strip Christianity itself of its Jewish roots, some even going so far as to deny that Jesus himself was Jewish. Sadly, those efforts to strip out our Jewish roots led to periods of extreme brutality and violence being directed by Christians against the Jewish people.
One result of all those efforts to push the Gospels to the sidelines, and to strip Christianity of its Jewish roots, was that a vacuum was created that had to be filled with some means of helping us understand what the rest of the New Testament, outside of the Gospels, meant. So, into that yawning gap strode the Greek philosophies, particularly Platonism, Epicureanism and Stoicism. The end result has been that most of our understanding, our theology, and our doctrine, has become based on Greek philosophic ideas of heaven, hell, the afterlife, and even the meaning of what Jesus accomplished on the Cross. The Jewish context and understanding have been almost completely obliterated, which is where this study of Matthew’s story of Jesus comes in. Matthew specifically tells the story within the whole context of Israel’s story, which is where it properly belongs.
Of course, the first difficulty we run into as we begin reading Matthew’s Gospel is that he doesn’t begin in the same manner that a normal storyteller would, or does he? The British theologian, N.T. Wright, sums it up in this manner:
"So why did Matthew write this book? Clearly, to draw out the manifold ways in which the story of Jesus of Nazareth brought the long and prophecy-laden story of Israel to its God-ordained goal. This would mean simultaneously offering a manifesto for Jewish believers to retain their allegiance to their ancestral scriptures and controlling narrative, and outlining the way in which they should also embrace the new world in which Jesus had been revealed as Israel's Messiah and as the Emmanuel, the living embodiment of Israel's God. This would also mean effectively offering an apology, before the watching Jewish world, for following Jesus, presenting this as the fulfilment of Israel's heritage, the true form of loyalty to Israel's calling and hopes. Most Jewish groups, after all, were struggling with this kind of question at the time." - N.T. Wright, "The New Testament in Its World".
The point is, not only is what we find in this book the story, the history, of Jesus’ birth, acts, sufferings, death, and resurrection, but the entire story, the entire history of Israel is also his story and his history. This is key to our understanding of what is to follow because this is quite clearly telling us that Jesus’ is part of, and the continuation of, Israel’s story. These stories, these histories, cannot be separated without losing the true meaning of both, which is, in a nutshell, the story of God’s faithfulness.
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