Matthew 1:2-17 The Genealogy of Jesus

Matthew 1:2-17 The Genealogy of Jesus

Posted on December 14, 2003 Posted By: Bevans Welder Categories: Audio, Matthew, Text

Matt 1:2-17 The Genealogy of Jesus CLICK ON TITLE FOR AUDIO

This lesson is about the additions to and the subtractions from the Genealogy of Jesus.

ADDITONS

Although Jesus was a Jew and the line of men from Abraham to Joseph were all Jews, there are five Gentile women that were included in the line. Below is a simple table listing the Gentile women, their husbands, and their nationalities.

Verse Gentile Wife Husband Nationality O.T. Reference
1:3 Thamar Judas Canaanite Genesis 38
1:5 Rachab Salmon Amorite Jos 6:25; Ruth 4:21
1:5 Ruth Booz Moabite Ruth 4:9-10
1:6 Bathsheba David Hittite 2 Sam 12:10, 24
1:7 Naamah Solomon Ammonite 1 Ki 14:21
The inclusion of Gentile wives is significant because it shows that Gentiles were to be included in New Testament salvation. Although “salvation is of the Jews” and Jesus only came “unto the  lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Gentiles were prophesied to be saved, as well. In Rom 15:8-12, Paul quoted from 4 Old Testament passages confirming Gentile salvation: Ps 18:49, Deut 32:43, Ps 117:1, Is 11:10. Furthermore, Jesus’ bride, the church, is made up of a combination of Jews and Gentiles (Rom 1:16, Acts 15:6-11).
SUBTRACTIONS

In the line of the kings from David to the Babylonian captivity, there are three kings missing from the genealogy. They are the ones in v.8 between Joram (Jehoram) and Ozias (Uzziah or
Azariah). The reason they are missing is that a corruption in the seed resulted from intermarrying into Ahab’s line. Ahab was the king of Israel and God wanted to keep the ten northern tribes of Israel separated from the two southern tribes of Judah.

Now look at the genealogy from Jehoshaphat to Uzziah (a condensed genealogy of these kings is found in 1 Chr 3:10-12):

  • Jehoshaphat – 2 Chr 21:1
  • Jehoram – 2 Chr 21:1, also called Joram
  • Ahaziah – 2 Chr 22:1 (missing in Matt)
  • Joash – 2 Chr 24:1 (missing in Matt)
  • Amaziah – 2 Chr 25:1 (missing in Matt)
  • Uzziah – 2 Chr 26:1, also called Azariah in 2 Ki  15:1

Jehoshaphat married into Ahab’s family (2 Chr 18:1). He married Athaliah, the daughter of Omri, the sister of Ahab (2 Ki 8:26-27). And, thus, the house of Israel and the house of Judah were strongly joined (2 Chr 20:35-36, 2 Chr 19:1-2). So strong was the tie that Jehoshaphat was even called the “king of Israel” near the end of his reign (2 Chr 21:2). Furthermore, his son, Jehoram, married the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (2 Chr 21:6) and “walked in the way of the kings of Israel.” Omri, Ahab and Jezebel were the wickedest rulers that  Israel ever had (1 Ki 16:22-33) and their influence was strongly felt in Judah.

So, the reason that God skipped three generations of kings after Jehoram was to remove the iniquity of this intermarriage and joint rule between the kings of Israel and Judah. As God said in the Old Testament, he would visit “the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation (Ex 20:5, Num 14:18).

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