Holman New Testament Commentary - Matthew

Stu Weber, Max Anders

• Publisher: Holman Reference
• Year: 2000
• Print ISBN: 9780805402018
• eBook ISBN: 9781433674198
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Commentaire biblique

One in a series of twelve New Testament verse-by-verse commentary books edited by Max Anders. Includes discussion starters, teaching plan, and more. Great for lay teachers and pastors alike.

Matthew 1–2

The King Arrives

I. INTRODUCTION

“I'm My Own Grandpa”

II. COMMENTARY

A verse-by-verse explanation of these chapters.

III. CONCLUSION

An overview of the principles and applications from these chapters.

IV. LIFE APPLICATION

Rightful Heir to the Throne

Melding these chapters to life.

V. PRAYER

Tying these chapters to life with God.

VI. DEEPER DISCOVERIES

Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.

VII. TEACHING OUTLINE

Suggested step-by-step group study of these chapters.

VIII. ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

Zeroing these chapters in on daily life.

“There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.”

Helen Keller

In these first chapters Matthew identifies Jesus as Messiah-King through his lineage, birth, and childhood. Matthew's record of Jesus' genealogy shows that Jesus is the sacrificial Son of Abraham, a legitimate descendant of David, and the rightful heir to the messianic throne. The events surrounding Jesus' birth and childhood prove him to be the promised Savior.

The King Arrives

I. INTRODUCTION

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“I'm My Own Grandpa”

We have all heard that old song-spoof at one time or another. It seems that a widow remarried. Her grown daughter later married her new husband's father. Each couple had a child. The song distorts it from there:

This made my dad my son-in-law,
my daughter was my “mother,” cause she was my father's wife.
Father's wife then had a son,
he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter's son.
My wife is now my mother's mother,
now if my wife is my grandmother,
then I'm her grandchild …
as husband of my grandmother,
I'm my own Grandpa.

But for all the giggling in it, the song does have a sting. Too often modern families are pulled apart. Like eggs unceremoniously scrambled in a frying pan, we are tossed about in the crucible of modern life. The heat and pain of divorce, dysfunction, and abandonment leave many of us with little idea who we are, or where we have come from.

But somewhere down deep inside we want to know. For some people it is a deep yearning. For others it is a healthy curiosity. Somehow we understand that at least part of who we are can be explained by our roots.

That yearning helps explain the incredible popularity of Alex Haley's Roots, the most popular miniseries in the history of television. For years, Haley, an African-American descendant of slaves, traveled thousands of miles across several continents to gain insight into his identity.

In recent years there has been a phenomenal surge of interest in genealogy. Today we find numerous books on the history of family names: how to discover your ancestors, how to write for official records, how to trace your pedigree, and how to search for your ancestry around the world.

There was no such “missing ancestry” problem in first-century Israel. Every Jewish citizen who cared to know could determine exactly who his or her ancestors were. These facts were all meticulously recorded and maintained in the temple records at Jerusalem. Lineage and careful records were important to a people determined to maintain their identity in the midst of the turmoil of the ancient world.

Those records were all the more important when it came to identifying the royal line of the ancient Hebrew kings. If lineage was important to anyone, it was especially so in the royal family.

We find such a lineage in Matthew 1. We might paraphrase verses 1-17 as “Hear, O Israel! Here is your king! Jesus, son of Joseph, is the only living legal heir to the throne of Israel. The records prove it. And if you have got a problem with it, check it out. The lineage is indisputable. This is Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews!”

II. COMMENTARY

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The king Arrives

MAIN IDEA: Jesus is identified as Messiah-king through his lineage, birth, and childhood.

The King's Amazing Pedigree (1:1-17)

SUPPORTING IDEA: Jesus' lineage proves him to be both the sacrificial Son of Abraham and the sovereign Son of David

1:1. It is fitting that the first verse of the first book of the New Testament, Matthew 1:1, identifies Jesus as the Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. These few words sum up the culmination of the entire Old Testament, and in them are the seeds from which the New Testament plan will grow. The long-awaited, promised Messiah, the restorer of God's kingdom and the redeemer of his people, is Jesus himself. This is Matthew's central message, his purpose for writing his book.

In his first verse, Matthew made an amazing claim. At the time he was writing, many Jewish readers would have been skeptical about the idea that the man Jesus was indeed also the promised king or Christ. After all, he was merely a carpenter from a backwoods province, and they wanted a king just like other worldly kings—politically connected, militarily powerful, and personally charismatic, with all the accompanying pomp, circumstance, and credentials.

1:2-17. Jesus had credentials all right. Overwhelmingly so. But he was not interested in “pomp.” As Exhibit A to substantiate Jesus' claim to the throne, Matthew presented Jesus' pedigree—the genealogy linking Jesus by blood to both Abraham and David (1:1-17). Because the promised Christ must be descended from both of those key historical figures, the documentation of Jesus' lineage was critically important. When it comes to kings, people want to know just where they come from. These first seventeen verses may at first seem a little boring. But they were not to Matthew's audience—first-century Jews! So put yourself in the place of the first readers. Look up the names listed here. Recall their stories. And worship the God who authors such creative grace!

These lists serve a practical purpose. In a day before the man on the street had his own copy of the Bible, people had to rely on memory and oral history. So Matthew traced Christ's genealogy in three sets of fourteen generations. The three sets are broken down into those generations: (1) before the monarchy, (2) during the monarchy, and (3) after the fall of the monarchy to Babylon. He did not mention every single ancestor, but traced the generations in systematic, memorable terms. If the reader wanted more detail, it was available through the temple records. But Matthew's undeniable point was that Jesus of Nazareth is legal heir to the throne of Israel! The king is on the scene.

Note one more memorable fact. In the course of tracing the generations, Matthew tossed in a few surprises to help his readers begin to see the mercy and grace of God. He included no less than four women in the lineage, a highly unusual approach for a Jewish genealogy! And some of them are Gentiles! From the outset, Matthew used indisputable documentation to show the first-century Jewish mind that even Gentiles are included prominently in this kingdom of the new covenant.

The King's Amazing Birth (1:18-25)

SUPPORTING IDEA: The circumstances and events surrounding Jesus' birth prove him to be the promised savior.

1:18. As Matthew launched the account of Jesus' birth, note that he was careful to highlight the title Christ—the title he used in the preceding passage that demonstrated Jesus had the right to claim deity. Watch for Matthew's use of this title throughout his Gospel. His purpose in writing was to make the case for Jesus as the promised king.

To understand the significance of some statements in this passage, it is necessary to understand the Jewish marriage customs of the day. The bride and groom went through a period of betrothal or engagement. In that culture and time, betrothal was virtually as binding as marriage. In this waiting period, Mary was found to be pregnant. Matthew was careful to protect the virtue of Mary and the supernatural origin of Christ.

Why is it so important that the Christ, the promised king, be born to a virgin? The virgin birth is more than a miracle to draw attention to the unique nature of this child. Because Mary was a virgin, only God could have been the father of Jesus, making Jesus the one and only God-Man in all the universe. God's plan would have been impossible if Jesus had been anything less.

1:19. A betrothed couple was as good as married, and breaking off the relationship was seen as divorce, even though the couple had not yet been married. It also helps us gain a better perspective of the emotional state of Mary and Joseph when we realize that she was probably in her teens at the time of these events. The minimum marriageable age in Israel was twelve for women and thirteen for men. To remain unmarried as late as one's twenties may have been cause for social embarrassment.

1:20-21. Imagine having to deal with the responsibility of parenting the promised Messiah at such a young age! We should let the faith of these two “kids” be an example to us. Mary, initially fearful of being an unwed mother, accepted God's revealed intentions for her. And Joseph, initially not all that sure himself about the “virgin birth,” was originally thinking divorce, albeit quietly and with no public scandal. But when Joseph was approached by God through the angel, he accepted his role and did precisely as he was instructed by God. He kept Mary a virgin until after Jesus was born, after which their normal marital relations produced other children who were the half-brothers of Jesus. And Joseph, as the legal heir to the throne, named their son “Jesus” as he was told. Mary and Joseph learned that the only way to follow God was to “trust and obey” his word. The character of these two young adults reminds us that God fulfills his purposes by using people of strong character and unquestioning obedience.

The name Jesus chosen by God for his Son (1:21) was, in that day and for centuries before, a common name with special meaning. Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Joshua, meaning “Yahweh is salvation...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Editorial Preface
• Holman Old Testament Commentary Contributors
• Holman New Testament Commentary Contributors
• Introduction to Matthew
• Matthew 1-2: The King Arrives
• Matthew 3-4: The King Is Introduced
• Matthew 5: The King Speaks His Heart (Part I)
• Matthew 6: The King Speaks His Heart (Part II)
• Matthew 7: The King Speaks His Heart (Part III)
• Matthew 8-9: The King Demonstrates His Authority
• Matthew 10: The King Delegates His Authority
• Matthew 11-12: The King Faces Opposition
• Matthew 13: The King Reveals a Secret
• Matthew 14-15: The King Broadens His Ministry … Reaching Beyond Israel
• Matthew 16: The King Turns Toward the Cross
• Matthew 17: The King Reveals His Glory
• Matthew 18: The King Explains Christian Personal Relationships
• Matthew 19-20: The King Approaches the Final Battle
• Matthew 21-22: The King Puts the Hypocrites in Their Place
• Matthew 23: The King Pronounces Judgment on the Hypocrites
• Matthew 24: The King Foretells the Future
• Matthew 25: The King Challenges His People
• Matthew 26: The King Marches Downward to Death and Upward to Victory
• Matthew 27: The King Sacrifices Everything for His People
• Matthew 28: The King Commissions His People
• Glossary
• Bibliography