Five dreams and a genealogy (Matthew 1-2)

Episode 233: Five dreams and a genealogy

Matthew 1-2

The genealogy of Jesus Joseph

1 ¹ The book of the generation of Jesus Christ.

^2-16 Abraham was the father of Isaac … and Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Jesus’s mother, Mary.

The birth of Jesus

¹⁸ When Mary was engaged to Joseph, she was impregnated by the Holy Ghost.

¹⁹ Joseph decided to quietly put Mary away.

²⁰ But an angel appeared to him in a dream, saying,

Go ahead and marry her. The Holy Ghost impregnated her. She’ll have a baby boy. Name him Jesus.

Gaetano Gandolfi's Joseph's Dream, c. 1790

²² All this was done to fulfill the prophecy, saying, "A virgin will conceive and have a son named Emanuel."

²⁴ When Joseph woke up from his sleep, he took Mary as his wife.

²⁵ But he didn't have sex with her until Jesus was born.

The wise men

2 ^1-2 Jesus was born in Bethlehem during the reign of Herod the Great. During this time wise men from the east came, saying,

Where is the baby who will become the king of the Jews?

We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.

^3-4 When Herod heard about the wise men, he asked the priests and scribes where Christ would be born.

⁵ They told him he would be born in Bethlehem of Judea, according to the prophet.

⁸ Then he sent the wise men to Bethlehem, saying to them,

Go and find the child. When you have found him, tell me where he is so I can come and worship him.

⁹ So the wise men left Jerusalem, and the star went before them, until it stood over the place where the child was.

¹¹ The wise men came to the house where they saw the child with Mary, his mother.

They entered the house, fell down and worshiped him, and presented gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

¹² The wise men were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they left for their own country by another way.

The flight to Egypt

¹³ After the wise men left, an angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying,

Take the baby and his mother to Egypt, because Herod is going to try to kill him. I'll tell you when it's safe to come back.

¹⁴ So Joseph took the baby and his mother and left for Egypt and stayed there until Herod died.

¹⁵ This was to fulfill the prophecy saying, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."

Herod murders the infants in Bethlehem

¹⁶ When the wise men failed to return, Herod ordered the slaughter of all the children in and around Bethlehem from two years old and under.

^17-18 The killing of the infants in Bethlehem fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremy, saying,

In Rama there was a voice of great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children.

The return from Egypt

¹⁹ When Herod died, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to take the child and his mother back to Israel.

Daniele Crespi's painting of an angel speaking to Joseph, 1620s

Moving to Nazareth of Galilee

²² But when Joseph heard that Archelaus reigned in Judea after his father's death, he was afraid to go there. God warned Joseph in another dream to go to Galilee instead.

²³ Joseph and his family settled in Nazareth to fulfill the prophecy saying, "He shall be called a Nazarene."

A few more words about this episode

Matthew: The gospel of Matthew is anonymous. The author doesn't claim to be named "Matthew", but later, in the second century, someone decided that it was written by the tax collector who is mentioned in Mt 9:9 and 10:3.
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ (1:1): The New Testament begins in the most boring way possible: a genealogy.; But at least it's only 17 verses, rather than nine chapters, like the beginning of 1 Chronicle's.; The genealogy claims to be Jesus's but it is actually that of Mary's husband, Joseph. (See 1:16) This is strange since its purpose (if it has a purpose) is to show that Jesus is a descendant of David, and therefore meets one of the qualifications of being the Messiah. (2 Sam 7:12-13) But if the Holy Ghost is the one who got Mary pregnant (1:25, Luke 1:35), Jesus isn't David's "seed" and didn't "proceed out of his bowels."; It's a boring genealogy like we are told to avoid in 1 Tim 1:4 ("Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies") and Titus 3:9 ("Avoid foolish questions and genealogies").; Jesus's genealogy is also given in Luke 3, which differs from Matthew's in many irreconcilable ways.; One of the interesting features of Matthew's gospel is the inclusion of four women in the genealogy. Women are rarely mentioned in biblical genealogies, and yet Matthew includes four -- all of which have sexual activities that would have been considered scandalous at the time. Tamar (1:3) disguised herself as a prostitute in order to have sex with her father-in-law, Judah; Rahab (1:5) was a prostitute who took in Joshua's spies; Ruth (1:5) seduced her relative Boaz; and Bathsheba (1:6) committed adultery with David. The women are also (with the possible exception of Bathsheba) non-Hebrews.; Was Jesus the son of David?
A virgin will conceive and have a son (1:22): This is the first of the twelve fulfillment citations in the gospel of Matthew. These are distinctive of Matthew, and they always say something like: this happened to fulfill something spoken or written by a prophet.; The "prophecy" here was from Isaiah 7:14 and it was not a prophecy but a sign, with the sign being that a young woman (not a virgin) had born a son. The son was probably meant to refer to Hezekiah. (The "virgin" thing here was due to a mistranslation of the Hebrew word "almah" in the Septuagint.)
Jesus was born in Bethlehem (2:1): The birth narrative is only found in Matthew and Luke. Luke says that Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth and traveled to Bethlehem while Mary was pregnant, whereas in Matthew, their hometown seems to be Bethlehem.

During the reign of Herod the Great (2:1)

Herod the Great died in 4 BCE. So, according to Matthew, Jesus was born before 4 BCE. (Luke disagrees, saying he was born ten or so years later, while Quirinius was governor.)
When was Jesus born?

Bethlehem of Judea, according to the prophet (2:5)

The prophet that the priests were referring to was Micah. (Micah 5:2)

They presented gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (2:11)

Notice that in Matthew, Jesus was born in a house, not a stable or manger (cf. Luke 2:7) And the number of magi is not specified, although there were three gifts.

The wise men were warned in a dream (2:12), God appeared to Joseph in a dream (2:13), an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream (2:19), God warned Joseph in another dream (2:22)

Matthew (like God) is a big believer in dreams.
What the Bible says about dreams

Out of Egypt I have called my son. (2:15)

This is from Hosea 11:1, where "son" refers to Israel, not Jesus.

The killing of the infants in Bethlehem fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremy (2:17-18)

Jeremiah 31:15 refers to the Babylonian captivity, as is clear by reading the next two verses (16 and 17), and, thus, has nothing to do with Herod's massacre.

God warned Joseph to go to Galilee (2:22)

God decided that Joseph shouldn't return to his home in Bethlehem, but rather go about 150 kilometers north to Nazareth in Galilee - adding another four days or so to their already long journey back from Egypt.

He shall be called a Nazarene. (2:23)

There is no prophecy in the Hebrew Scriptures about the Messiah being called a Nazarene. But maybe the author was referring to Narzarites - who don't drink wine or cut their hair. (Num 6:1-27) Samson was perhaps the most famous Nazarite. (Jg 13:5-7)

The was because Herod Archelaus ruled in Judea after his father, Herod the Great, died in 4 BCE.