Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 1:1 - 1:1

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 1:1 - 1:1


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

v. 1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

This is the title, or caption, which Matthew places at the head of his book. The entire Gospel is a book of the generation of Jesus Christ in the sense which the Jews usually attached to the expression in similar connections, meaning an account of the chief events in a person's life, more or less briefly related, Gen_5:1; Gen_6:9; Gen_37:2; Gen_2:4; Num_3:1. The evangelist offers a history of the birth, acts, suffering, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the first verses are a genealogy in the most restricted sense of the term, as presenting a table of Christ's legal forefathers through His foster-father Joseph, rightful heir of the kingdom, the thought most interesting to Jewish Christians. Matthew calls Jesus the Son of David, the king of the Golden Age of the Jewish people, to whose family the promise of the Savior was at last restricted, 2Sa_7:12-13; Psa_89:3-4; Psa_132:11; Isa_11:1; Jer_23:5. Christ was prophesied under the very name of "David," Eze_34:23-24; Eze_37:24-25. "Son of David" was the official title which the Jews applied to the expected Messiah, Mat_9:27; Mat_12:23; Mat_21:9; under this designation they had been led, by prophetic authority, to expect Him. But it would also arouse the attention and hold the interest of Christians of Jewish descent to know that the Christ whom Matthew proclaimed was the son of Abraham, for they knew that the father of their race had received the promise of the Lord: "In thee and thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," Gen_12:3; Gen_18:18; Gen_22:18. "For this reason he refers only to those two fathers, Abraham and David, since to these two alone the promise of Christ was made in these people. Therefore Matthew emphasizes the promises to Abraham and David, because he has a definite intention with regard to this nation, in order that he might influence them, as heirs of the promise, in a charming manner, to accept the Christ prophesied to them and to believe that this man was Jesus whom they had crucified."