Christmas

2 Christmas
Exploring the text

Matthew’s birth narrative begins in the same way that the genealogy began. Unfortunately this is masked in the English translation. Matthew 1.1 begins ‘a book [or record] of the genesis of Jesus the Messiah’ and Matthew 1.18 ‘the genesis of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way’ (my translation). This indicates that Matthew is doing the same thing in two different ways. The genealogy tells you how we got to this point, that it was the right time for God to act and that Mary fitted well into the story of God’s salvation, a story also peopled by Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. The birth narrative in 1.18 –25 tells how this act of salvation took place. Matthew further links the two, reaching in 1.16 the end of the genealogy by mentioning first Joseph, then Mary, then Jesus, and in 1.18 reversing that pattern by mentioning Jesus, then Mary and finally Joseph...