Matthew’s Gospel has a specific audience: Jewish converts to Christianity. As we read through this gospel for the next twenty-eight weeks, we need to remember the particular Jewishness of it, which appears in the references to the prophet throughout the book, as well as in the various places where the author shows that Jesus followed the Law of Moses, the six hundred thirteen mitzvahs (or commandments) given throughout the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.
The Gospel opens with the genealogy of Jesus, beginning not with Adam, the first human created, but with Abraham, the first of the Hebrew people. This genealogy is separated into three sections: from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonian Exile, and from the Exile to the birth of Jesus. Each of these sections contains fourteen generations. In Hebrew numerology, the number fourteen points toward the doubling of completion and perfection; the fourteen generations of each section of the genealogy help us to see the perfection of Jesus and the completion of God’s work in him.
Of special note in the first section is the inclusion of three women: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. Women’s names would not normally have been a part of a genealogy at a time when a patriarchal society saw women as having a lesser role in life. One of the traditional prayers of Judaism offered to the Lord by the head of a family at the beginning of the day goes, “Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has not made me a woman, a gentile, or a slave.” For Matthew to have included three women, all of questionable reputation, also shows us Jesus’ desire to redeem all people. Even in this genealogy, we see a glimpse of the countercultural nature of Jesus’ life, mission, and ministry.
Following this account of Jesus’ ancestry, Matthew offers his account of Jesus’ nativity, beginning with the moment at which Mary was found to be pregnant. Joseph, as her betrothed, would have traditionally had two ways of handling this revelation: he could have quietly divorced her, which would have forced her to return to her father’s house where she would have lived as an outcast, or he could have publicly labelled her an adulteress, which would have resulted in her being stoned to death by the people of their town. God intervened by sending an angel to Joseph in a dream to explain the situation. Joseph responded by taking Mary as his wife and naming her son “Jesus,” which is the Greek version of the name “Yeshua” (or “Joshua” in English). “Yeshua” means “the Lord is Salvation.”