The Son of David
and heir to the throne
As I wrote in yesterday’s post, my plan is to write daily Bible study posts:
“I’ll start with the first pericope of the Book of Matthew and work my way forward through the text, one pericope per day.”
That starts with this post!
Let’s start by framing the passage a bit. The Book of Matthew in the New Testament is one of the Bible’s four canonical Gospels, which are accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus. Its author, also known as Matthew the Evangelist, was one of Jesus’s twelve apostles.
The New International Version presents the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew with the pericope header of “The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah.” The scripture itself opens with the following verse:
“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:”
Matthew 1:1 NIV
Matthew then traces Jesus’s parentage from his father Joseph to King David and then to Abraham.
As Thomas Nelson explained in The King James Study Bible:
By tracing Jesus’ ancestry back to King David, through the line of Davidic kings, Matthew connects Jesus with His royal heritage. The genealogy here is that of Joseph, Jesus’ legal father, whereas the genealogy of Luke 3:23–38 is that of Mary, His actual parent, showing His bloodline back to David. The author’s purpose is to show that the messianic promises made to David’s line are fulfilled in Jesus. Son of Abraham: He is also the fulfillment of the covenant promises to Abraham, the forefather of the Jews (cf. Gen. 12:3 ; 13:15 ; 22:18 ). Since Matthew is writing primarily to Jewish readers, he naturally begins by emphasizing Jesus’ Jewish parentage.
Nelson refers to Joseph as Jesus’s “legal father” and not his “actual parent” because of the virgin birth of the Messiah. According to Nelson:
As the husband of Mary, he was Jesus’ legal father and the one through whom He had a right to David’s throne. Every emphasis of the text at this point reinforces the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ.
In tomorrow’s post, I’ll discuss the next pericope: “Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son” (Matthew 1:18-25 NIV).