The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 16

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEvV. EXPOSITION. CHAPTER I. written read also the Old Testament in Greek, and so were in no confusion. The Vers.1-17.-JESUS THE CHRIST BY HOMAN first verse of tbe Go3JJel is doubtless in- ANCESTRY, (Parallel passage: Luke iii. tended as a preface tc what is contained in 23-38.) vcrs. 2-17. It is, indeed, true that the phrose, "the book or the generation" (/31/3>..os Ver.1. 1-The book of the generation. As "f<VE<reoa, equivalent to upl,er tol•doth, Gen. St. Matthew was writing only for Jews, and v. I), might in itself point rather to events they, by reason of their Old Testament pro- and works connected with the active Ii re of phecies, looked for the Messiah tc be born him whose namo it precedes (er. the nse of of a certain family, he begins his Gospel tol•doth in Gen. v. l ;vi.9; x.l ;enn ii. 4, with a pedigree of Jesus. In this he men- et al.), and thus might refer to the whole of tions, by way of introduction, the two points eh. i. (Kiibel), or even the whole of the to which his countrvmen would have special First Goepel (Keil); yet the addition of the r~ard-the descent of Jesus from David, the Bon of David, the Bon of Abraham, by snm- founder of the royal line, him in whose mariziug the genealogy, limits the reference descendants the Ruler of Israel must neces- of ver. l to this alone. Observe (1)that sarily (2 Sam. vii. 13-16) be looked for; the same word ("t•ve<ru) recurs in ver. 18 ; anrl also from Abraham, who was the head but being without /3(/3>..os, has a slightly of the covenant nation, and to whom the different meaning; (2) that the word trans- promise had been given that in his seed all lated "generation" in ver. 17 is "f<V<", and the nations of the earth should bless them- means a single stratum of hnman life. The eel ves (Gen. xxii. 18; xii. 3). After this evangelist nses the no.me Jesus Christ here ho proceeds to fill up the intervening steps 11s a proper name, customary in later Chris- in the genealogy. The spelling of the tian circles (er. John i. 17, and especially names in the Authorized Version accords tho traces of development from l Cor. xii. 3 with the Greek, and so varies from the Old and Rom. x. 9 to Phil. ii. 11). "Christ" is Tesh\mcnt orthography; but for the sake of not usecl in its sib'Ilification of "l\Iessio.h." the English reader it is certainly advisable or "Anointed," till ver. 17, where it would to clo what he.a been done in the Revised bo better rendered "the Christ." Version, viz. to conform the spelling to that Ver. 2.-Abraham begat lse.ao. Frnm of the Old Testament, and, where the Greek Abraham to David the genealogy in St. varies much, to put that form in the mnrgin. Matthew 11grees with that in Luke iii. In It is better to write Rahab than Rachab, and the other two sections, from Solomon to Bltealtiel than Salathiel. Those who rend Zerubbabel, and from Zerubbo.bel to Christ, the Greek Gospels when these were first there is some difficulty in accounting for the variations, which a.re oonmderable. The 1 For the exposition of vers. 1-17 I am natural descent of each son from his fo.tlwr greatly indebted to the manuscript not~~ of is emphnsized by the repetition of the word the Iluv. J. Rawson Lumby, D.D., Noms1nn "begat" o.t every sto.ge (cf., however, vcr. 8, Professor of Divinity at Cnmbridge,- note) till wo come to Jesus, anti !hen the A. L W. phrll8o is varied, "Jo,cph tho husband of .IU,.TTHEW, JI  2 TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S1'. MAT'l'IIEW. [on. 1. 1-26..