The Line Of Succession
THE LINE OF SUCCESSION
MATTHEW 1:1-17
God overruled Jesus’ family tree to fulfill his promises.
The opening phrase binds the Gospel narrative which follows securely to the Old Testament; as Genesis 5:1 introduces “the book of the generations of Adam,” the Evangelist does the same for the second Adam. He is, however, not concerned to present him as the second Adam (contrast Luke 3:38) so much as the son of Abraham (and so fulfiller of the divine promises regarding Abraham’s offspring; cf. Genesis 22:18) and, more particularly, as the heir to David’s throne. The line from David to Joseph probably marks the legal succession rather than biological descent (in some instances “father” may be used in a formal sense); in Luke 3:23-31 the line from David to Joseph coincides with Matthew’s in Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, but otherwise deviates from it completely.
The genealogy from Abraham to Zerubbabel can be constructed from Old Testament records; the sources for the links between Zerubbabel and Joseph have not survived. But it was no exceptional thing in those days for a family to preserve its genealogical registers for many generations. The schematic arrangement of the genealogy in three groups of 14 (1:17) depends on the omission of certain names eg three between Joram and Uzziah (1:8: cf. 1 Chronicles 3:11f.) and one (Jehoiakim) between Josiah and Jechoniah (1:11; cf. 1 Chronicles 3:15f.). The four women mentioned in the genealogy—Tamar the Canaanite (1:3), Rahab of Jericho (1:5; her marriage to Salmon is not elsewhere recorded), Ruth the Moabite (1:5) and Bathsheba, widow of Uriah the Hittite (1:6)—are all Gentiles: it is thus indicated that the blessing brought by the Son of David is not restricted to one race only (cf. 4:15; 8:5-13; 15:22-28; 28:19).
Notes The variant reading in 1:16 which a footnote in earlier editions of the RSV reproduced on the authority of “other ancient authorities” is actually found in one manuscript of the Old Syriac Gospels, and nowhere else; the footnote is omitted in editions from 1962 onwards. 1:17: It may be no more than a coincidence that 14 is the numerical value of the three letters making up the name “David” in Hebrew.