Matthew 1: The Genealogy of Jesus Christ | Bible Chapter by Chapter
By Noah Marshall
Chapter summary
Matthew opens his Gospel with a family tree. In three sets of fourteen generations he traces Jesus from Abraham, through King David and the exile to Babylon, down to Joseph, "the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ". Then the story turns to Joseph himself: he discovers that Mary, his betrothed, is pregnant, and as a righteous man he plans to end the engagement quietly. An angel tells him in a dream that the child is conceived by the Holy Spirit, that he is to be named Jesus because he will save his people from their sins, and that this fulfils Isaiah's prophecy of Immanuel, "God with us". Joseph wakes, does exactly as he is told, takes Mary home as his wife, and names the boy Jesus.
Matthew 1 (World English Bible, Catholic edition)
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob became the father of Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron. Hezron became the father of Ram. 4 Ram became the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon. Nahshon became the father of Salmon. 5 Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse. 6 Jesse became the father of King David. David the king became the father of Solomon by her who had been Uriah’s wife. 7 Solomon became the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam became the father of Abijah. Abijah became the father of Asa. 8 Asa became the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat became the father of Joram. Joram became the father of Uzziah. 9 Uzziah became the father of Jotham. Jotham became the father of Ahaz. Ahaz became the father of Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh. Manasseh became the father of Amon. Amon became the father of Josiah. 11 Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12 After the exile to Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel became the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim. Eliakim became the father of Azor. 14 Azor became the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim. Achim became the father of Eliud. 15 Eliud became the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan. Matthan became the father of Jacob. 16 Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the exile to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying away to Babylon to the Christ, fourteen generations.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. 20 But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.”
22 Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,
23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child,
and shall give birth to a son.
They shall call his name Immanuel,”
which is, being interpreted, “God with us.”
24 Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself; 25 and didn’t know her sexually until she had given birth to her firstborn son. He named him Jesus.
Scripture text: World English Bible (Catholic edition), public domain. Source: ebible.org (eng-web-c).
Reflection: God writes himself into a real family
Most of us skim genealogies. A list of "became the father of" feels like the bit of the Bible you push through to get to the story. But Matthew put this list first on purpose, and if we slow down it turns out to be one of the most quietly radical pages in Scripture.
Start with what the list claims. Jesus is "the son of David, the son of Abraham". To a first-century Jewish reader that is a thesis statement. God had promised Abraham that through his offspring all nations would be blessed, and he had promised David a son whose throne would last for ever. Matthew is saying, before a single miracle is told, that those promises have landed in a particular person. The Catechism puts it simply: God called Joseph to take Mary as his wife so that Jesus, "who is called Christ", would be born into the messianic line of David (CCC 437). Christianity is not a set of timeless ideas floating above history. It is the claim that God kept his word inside history, in a family you could trace.
Then look at who made the list. Matthew names four women before Mary: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and "her who had been Uriah's wife", Bathsheba. Their stories involve deception, a Canaanite city, a Moabite foreigner, and King David's adultery and a murder he arranged. An ancient writer trying to polish a royal pedigree would have quietly dropped them. Matthew deliberately puts them in. St John Chrysostom, preaching on this chapter in the fourth century, drew out the point: Christ was not ashamed of the sins and the outsiders in his own ancestry, because he came precisely to take our wounds on himself. The family tree of the Saviour already looks like the Church he would found: saints and sinners, insiders and foreigners, all carried forward by grace.
The second half of the chapter belongs to Joseph, and he says not a single word. He is called "a righteous man", and we see what that means in practice. Faced with what looks like betrayal, he refuses to shame Mary in public. Then, when God makes his will known, he simply gets up and obeys. Many of the Fathers loved Joseph for exactly this hidden, wordless faithfulness. He is the first person in the New Testament to receive the news of the Incarnation, and his response is action, not argument.
The angel gives the child two names. "Jesus" means, as the Catechism notes, "God saves" (CCC 430), and the reason is given straight away: "he will save his people from their sins." And Isaiah's "Immanuel" means "God with us". Put those together and you have the whole Gospel in a sentence: God has come to be with us, in order to save us. Matthew will close his Gospel with the same promise from the risen Lord: "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
Verse 25 sometimes raises a fair question from Protestant friends: if Joseph "didn't know her sexually until she had given birth", doesn't that imply he did afterwards? The Church has long answered no. St Jerome, writing against Helvidius, showed that the biblical word "until" speaks to what happened up to a point and makes no claim about what came after; Scripture uses such phrasing elsewhere: Michal "had no child to the day of her death" (2 Samuel 6:23), which hardly means she had children afterwards. The Church teaches Mary's perpetual virginity (CCC 499), and explains that the "brothers" of Jesus mentioned later in the Gospels are close relatives, in keeping with Semitic usage (CCC 500). Matthew's focus here is narrower and plainer: Joseph was not the biological father, and the child was "of the Holy Spirit" (CCC 497).
Living it this week
Take ten minutes with your own family story: the parts you are proud of and the parts you would rather leave out. Then bring the whole of it to God in prayer, the way Matthew brought Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba into the line of Christ. Nothing in your story is beyond his reach. And if there is something God has been nudging you to do, try Joseph's way: less debating, more quiet obedience.
A closing prayer
Lord Jesus, son of David and son of Abraham, you did not disdain a family of sinners and strangers. Be Immanuel for me today: God with me in my history, my weakness and my hopes. Give me the quiet, ready faith of St Joseph, so that when you speak, I rise and do what you ask. Amen.
Next in the series: Matthew 2.
