Bible Study On: Book of Matthew Chapter 1
by Russell J. Schmidt
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
1) The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:
2) Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.
3) Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram.
4) Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon.
5) Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse,
6) and Jesse begot David the king.
David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.
7) Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa.
8) Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah.
9) Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah.
10) Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah.
11) Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.
12) And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel.
13) Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor.
14) Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud.
15) Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob.
16) And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.
17) So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.
Christ Born of Mary
18) Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
19) Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.
20) But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
21) And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
22) So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:
23) “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
24) Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife,
25) and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.
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Welcome to Plain Bible Truth Ministries Bible Study on the book of Matthew. This book is authored by Matthew, who was one of Jesus' twelve disciples. Before Jesus called him to be one of His disciples, Matthew was a hated tax collector. But, like the other eleven, he was touched by Jesus in such a way, that his life was changed.
He dedicated the rest of his life to following and then fulfilling Jesus' ministry. After seeing Jesus crucified, Matthew, like all the other disciples, must have been confused and had some reservations about Jesus being who He said He was. Jesus did tell all the disciples what was going to happen throughout His ministry, but one could not have imagined it ending as horrific as it did.
I believe what followed, is one of the biggest proofs of Jesus being whom He said He was. After seeing Jesus resurrected, not just Matthew, but all the remaining disciples (Judas, the betrayer, committed suicide after realizing what he had done, just for money), went out and preached, boldly, the Good News of the Gospel.
Now I ask you, who in their right mind, would go out and risk death by crucifixion and preach about the truth of Jesus, if they knew it to be a lie? It is believed that all the apostles, except for John, was executed in some form for their belief in Jesus, not one of them recounted their story to save his own life. The apostle John spent his remaining years in a prison on the island of Patmos and most likely died there.
The book of Matthew, is one of the four Gospel's that is dedicated to telling us the life and ministry of Jesus. The commentary that I provide here, is my view that I have learned over the years from studying the Bible as well as receiving revelation knowledge through the Holy Spirit. It is true what Jesus said in Matthew 7:7, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."
If you truly seek Jesus with all your heart, you will not be disappointed. As He did with me, He will fill you with knowledge. I know I shouldn't be amazed, but I am, that I am able to do what I do here at Plain Bible Truth Ministries. Other than just reading my Bible and observing other ministries, throughout my 15 years since accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I have no biblical training and no prior experience in writing. They are both a gift through the Holy Spirit. Praise God!
So, I hope that this first installment on my commentary on Matthew, will help you to see the truth and understand with clarity, what Jesus meant to both you and me and all mankind. And that by accepting Him as your Lord and Savior, you will have more than you could possibly ever dream for!
I will be using, for the most part, the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible. I may, throughout these commentaries on the Bible, use other translations for clarity, when necessary. I will make clear when I am using a translation, other than NKJV.
Book of Matthew, Chapter One
Verses 1-17:
The Genealogy of Jesus...
The first sixteen verses of this chapter, is dedicated to the genealogy of Jesus. That is the family tree, if you will, of the line of descendants, starting with Abraham and ending with Jesus. Verse 17, tells us that, in all, there were 42 generations from the time of Abraham until Jesus arrived.
There are two genealogies given for Jesus in the New Testament. This one in Matthew is the first and Luke gives the second genealogy in His account of Jesus' life on earth. If you read both genealogies, you will find that they are
not the same. At first glance, a skeptic will think he has a valid contradiction
to cast a shadow on the Bible's validity. But, not so fast!
When you examine these two genealogies and trace the lineage of both,
you will find that both are legitimate. The genealogy that Matthew uses is from
Abraham to Jesus as mentioned above. Luke on the other-hand, traces the lineage of Jesus, from Jesus back to Adam.
Both genealogies are the same when you go from Abraham to David, but are totally
different from David to Jesus.
Despite their differences, the early Church accepted both as legitimate genealogies. The difference seems to come because Matthew traces the genealogy of
Joseph, whereas Luke traces the ancestry of Mary. In biblical times it
was legally customary to trace a genealogy through the father's line; but remember,
Jesus was the Seed of the woman, not the seed of the man. Joseph was not Jesus' biological
father, which would make it understandable for Luke to view Jesus' genealogy this
way.
Verses 18-25:
The Birth of Christ...
Matthew doesn't go into a whole lot of detail, but he starts out in verse 18, saying, that Mary and Joseph were betrothed. "Betrothed", means to be engaged. Now, in the culture of their day, to be engaged was not as meaningless as it is today. Today, people are engaged to someone one day, and in a few days can be engaged to someone new without a blink of an eye.
In the days of Joseph and Mary, engagement was a big deal, if you were engaged, you were already considered married, but not legally allow to live together or have sexual relations until the actual marriage ceremony takes place. If an engagement were terminated, it's not like today, where you just give back the ring and your done with it. An engagement breakup in their day required an annulment. They would have to go before the Jewish leadership and give a reason for the end of the relationship. Could you imagine that requirement today in our society?
In this same verse 18, Matthew quickly let's us know that, before they had sexual relations, in other-words, before they were married, Mary became pregnant. Matthew actually states that, "she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." The phrasing of the wording here, and comparing it to the only other account of Jesus' birth in Luke chapter one, we can surmise that Mary didn't tell Joseph, before she was showing, that she was pregnant. She also, most likely, didn't tell him of the encounter with the angel Gabriel either, that we read of in Luke's version.
Luke's version describes the encounter with the angel Gabriel as appearing to Mary to tell her that she is going to conceive the Christ child. Gabriel also told her that Elizabeth, her relative, is already with child and in her sixth month. After her encounter with Gabriel, we assume this encounter happened in the evening because it continues in Luke, that Mary arose and quickly and went into the Hill country, to the city of Judah, to visit Elizabeth. This tells us that she probably didn't even tell Joseph she was leaving. Maybe she just left word with him through someone else, but she certainly didn't tell him before she went that she was pregnant.
Most likely, she wasn't even sure herself if she had yet received
the immaculate conception. Anyway she ran off, probably a little scared and confused, even thou I'm sure she
felt the presence of God with her. Remember, although the Bible does not tell us, Mary, most likely was just a teenager. In those days people were married at a very young age.
In verse 19, after finally finding out about Mary being pregnant, you could just imagine the thoughts that ran through Joseph's mind. In those days, and even today in the Middle East, if a woman was found pregnant before marriage, she not only disgraced herself, but also her family. The Jewish law of her day demanded that she be stoned to death for such a violation of the law. It continues by saying that Joseph "being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly." What this is saying, there is no doubt that Joseph must have been angry and disgusted by this turn of events. The Scriptures do not say, but we would assume Mary eventually pleaded her case to Joseph, explaining what had happened.
Now, the verse says that he didn't want to make a public example out of her. Joseph knew what could happen to Mary, although he was going to break off the engagement, he had no intention of letting the community stone her. The Scriptures do not say exactly how he was going to do it, but he wanted this to be secret. He didn't want Mary to be stoned.
Verse 20 says, "21) But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21) And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.' 22) So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23) 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which is translated, 'God with us.'"
It's interesting that Matthew gives greater detail on Joseph's encounter with an angel than Luke, but Luke gives more details on Mary's encounter with Gabriel, the angel. Matthew does not mention the name of the angel, just that an angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream. In the case of Mary she must have been awake, because she actually spoke with Gabriel, as far as Joseph is concerned, Matthew does not give any details that would lead us to believe that Joseph spoke with the angel who appeared to him.
With that said, it was a powerful encounter, because Joseph awoke the next morning and married Mary. Now, we don't know the time between this encounter and when they actually got married, but one would assume that knowing what he knew that next morning and the encounter with the angel which I'm sure never happened to him before, Joseph probably wanted to get to Mary right away to tell her what had happened. The encounter just solidified Mary's story to Joseph, because now Joseph had a story of his own to tell.
I could imagine Joseph feeling a sense of guilt and remorse for not believing Mary and I'm sure he apologized for not believing her. As we finish with chapter one, it concludes telling us Joseph did not know Mary until Jesus was born. Just in case you weren't sure, what that means is he did not have sexual relations with her, he obviously did know her.
This concludes our study of Matthew chapter one, please bookmark us, and come back often and continue to study with us.
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