The art is from Dall-E AI, and while it is theologically ok, there might be things that don’t belong to that century, like Josephs’s nice clothes rack, nightstand, and book. Thank you!
Let’s be honest. If you’ve ever started reading the Bible with gusto—maybe as a New Year’s resolution—Matthew 1 might have felt like a speed bump. A whole list of who “begat” whom doesn’t exactly feel like a gripping story. But if you’ve ever skimmed over the genealogy of Jesus, you might be missing one of the most profound introductions in all of scripture. This lineage isn’t just about names—it’s about promises, history, inclusion, and ultimately, hope.
The Audience: Why Matthew Starts with a Family Tree
Matthew—also known as Levi—was a Jewish tax collector, educated and likely from a priestly family. He wrote to a Jewish audience who deeply valued prophecy and heritage. To them, a lineage wasn’t filler; it was evidence. Matthew didn’t explain the prophecies because his audience knew them. What he offered instead was a “highlight reel” proving Jesus was the fulfillment of everything foretold, not a sudden divine detour.
The Message: God’s Plan Was Never Random
The genealogy in Matthew breaks down into three distinct groups of 14 generations each, which in Jewish tradition represents completeness. Starting from Abraham, through David, into exile, and then ending with Joseph, the “husband of Mary,” the structure echoes the intentional, long-game strategy of God. Jesus didn’t arrive as a surprise—he was always part of the plan.
Who Made the List: A Lineup of the Unexpected
This lineage isn’t just a who’s who of Jewish history. It includes the faithful and the flawed—kings, shepherds, prostitutes, and even non-Jews. There’s Rahab, a prostitute; Ruth, a Moabite; David, a king who failed as a father. This diverse cast underlines a key truth: Jesus came for everyone. The inclusion of these figures isn’t just historical; it’s deeply theological.
Joseph: The Quiet Hero
Joseph doesn’t get enough credit. Betrothed to Mary and discovering her pregnancy, he plans to end things quietly to protect her. But when an angel intervenes, he listens, accepts, and becomes part of God’s redemption plan. His lineage gives Jesus legal and prophetic authority, even though he wasn’t his biological father. Joseph’s quiet obedience is a model of faithfulness.
Prophecy and Fulfillment: Why It Still Matters Today
We live in an age that doesn’t wait on prophecy. But this chapter reminds us that God fulfills His promises, even when the timeline feels unbearably long. Matthew’s Jewish audience waited hundreds of years for the Messiah. Today, we still wait—for healing, restoration, answers—and this passage is a gentle whisper: “God hasn’t forgotten.”
Real Life Takeaways
- Heritage Matters: Our past may be messy, but God uses all of it.
- Faithful Waiting: Even in silence, God is at work.
- Everyone Belongs: The Gospel isn’t just for the righteous or religious; it’s for all of us.
- God Keeps His Word: The lineage proves that even promises made thousands of years ago are still kept.
Conclusion: A Line of Hope
Matthew 1 isn’t a snooze-worthy list—it’s a love letter to humanity. Every name in that genealogy tells a story, each one showing us that God is faithful. If you’ve ever wondered whether your story matters in the big picture, Matthew 1 answers with a resounding yes. Just like those names, your life is part of something much bigger—God’s long, loving rescue mission.
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“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”
Transcript
Absolutely! Here’s your transcript from TBISS: Matthew 1, edited for grammar, punctuation, and paragraph breaks. The content remains completely intact—just cleaned up for readability.
Transcript: Matthew 1
What’s with the lineage in the Bible? That’s what we’re going to talk about today in Matthew 1.
Hi everyone, this is Jill from the Northwoods. I’m so glad you’re here. Together, we’re going to learn about the Bible one chapter at a time.
Matthew 1 starts off with what I call the “begats.” I get eye-rolly about the begats because you’re starting off—maybe it’s a brand new New Year’s resolution—and you think, “We’re going to read the Bible, we’re going to learn everything about it!” Then the very first thing you hit is “this person begat that person.” By the way, “begat” is a word from the King James Version, but it’s basically a lineage of people.
And I’m like, “Oh, why are we doing this? This is so boring. What does this have to do with anything? I don’t understand it.” So either you skim over it, or maybe you stop your brand new resolution right there. But it turns out it’s very important—and very important to the Jewish audience that Matthew was speaking to.
His name was Matthew, but his real name was Levi, which means he was probably a Levite. That means his parents were educated, maybe in the priestly class, and he was as well. He was educated. He understood Judaism.
Matthew is written to a Jewish audience. You can tell because it hints back toward prophecy. It’s like a highlight reel of why Jesus is not a new turn. God didn’t suddenly decide to go in a different direction. What Matthew is trying to point out is that there were prophecies going all the way through history, and Jesus is the fulfillment of those prophecies.
Jewish people were expecting these prophecies to come true. Matthew doesn’t explain the prophecies—he lists them, indicates them, shows how they were fulfilled—because he knew he didn’t have to explain them to his audience.
He’s trying to show that Jesus is part of the same plan that God had from the very beginning—through Abraham, Isaac, Moses, King David—through all of the history. Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that was expected.
A lot of the idea that it was written by Matthew comes from church history. The original church had apostles who were alive, so they would have known at least a little bit. There’s no reason to think it wasn’t accurate.
Matthew also talks a lot about money, taxes—things he would have known a lot about because he was a tax collector. It was something of interest to him.
There’s no signature at the very end. He never identifies himself in the story. But it would have had to be someone like the apostle Matthew—someone who was there, who saw everything that Jesus did and had experience of what went on and what happened.
I think when all of us do some kind of talk—YouTube channel, podcast (I have four podcasts)—you think in your head: “Who is my audience?” Matthew was talking to the Jewish believer who was maybe expecting someone entirely different. Maybe this could have been his parents or relatives. That might have been the audience he had in mind, but he’s speaking to those people.
He became a tax collector, and we know that because Jesus called Matthew from his tax-collecting booth. Tax collectors were not liked—they still aren’t. Not only do people not like paying taxes, but in this particular case, it was even worse.
Tax collectors themselves were notorious. If you owed two coins for the temple tax and were a little late, the tax collector might say, “Throw in an extra coin, and I’ll overlook your lateness.” They had a terrible reputation for being criminals and extortionists. They weren’t the kind of people you wanted to hang out with.
As someone who went from a priestly class to a tax collector, people probably thought poorly of Matthew and were shocked that Jesus invited him in.
Matthew was educated. He wrote in Greek but probably knew how to read Hebrew for religious practices. He likely spoke Aramaic like most people at that time. The Greeks sacked Israel around 330 BC, and then Rome overtook the Greek Empire. But Greek remained a common language everyone understood.
Interestingly, in the show The Chosen, they made Matthew neurodivergent—someone who can’t easily relate to others but is smart, takes detailed notes, and understands what’s happening. So he understood what was going on during Jesus’ life.
We’ll learn more about Matthew as we get further into the Gospels. We know Jesus called him to follow—and Matthew did.
The reason it got written down is that the apostles thought the end of the world was coming in their lifetime. They were in their 20s when Jesus died (around age 30), and the Gospels were written somewhere in the 50s. So they were in their 40s or 50s and getting older. People didn’t live long back then. They realized if they didn’t write it down, the firsthand accounts would disappear. So they started writing urgently.
They had traveled around, telling stories in person, from church to church. But now it needed to be written. We know this happened before 70 AD when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and burned it to the ground. That destruction isn’t mentioned, so the Gospels had to have been written before it.
John was the last apostle to die, around 90 AD, after being exiled on Patmos. He was released and then wrote the Gospel of John.
The church legacy, from church to church, followed throughout history. A priest once told me there are church fathers whose mentorship traces all the way back to the apostles, even Timothy. That’s not biblical text, but tradition—and there’s little reason to think it’s wrong. Tradition likely preserved some real details accurately.
Let’s go back to Matthew 1.
The lineage explains how we got to Jesus. We went through the Old Testament: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When you grow up Jewish, those patriarchs are mentioned all the time. You’d often say, “Our fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” They’re important names in the Jewish faith.
Abraham was told he’d be given land and become a great nation. He and his wife were old, too old to have children. But they had Isaac. God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac—but stopped him at the last second. That hinted at what God would later do Himself.
Jacob was promised many things but had a hard time doing things God’s way. Still, God fulfilled His promises.
Then we go to David and Solomon. David was a great king and a terrible parent. Solomon was a great king who also did terrible things. But God loved them and used them.
This lineage ends in Joseph—not as Jesus’ father, but as Mary’s husband. Jewish lineage passed through fathers—property, inheritance, occupation. Joseph was a craftsman, so Jesus would have inherited that.
We’ll learn more about Mary’s lineage in Luke.
People knew the Messiah would come through David’s line. The prophecies said so—”the root of Jesse.” That’s why the genealogy matters.
Matthew doesn’t explain all this because his audience already knew it. That’s why it seems boring to us. But as we go through the Old Testament, we’ll see who these people were.
Greeks or Romans wouldn’t care about lineage, but Jewish readers would recognize the messianic prophecies being fulfilled.
These people in the lineage had hardships, triumphs, failures. Some were poor, some rich, some righteous, some not. Even a few prostitutes are in there—people who did terrible things. And some, like Ruth, weren’t even Jewish.
That shows Jesus came to save everyone—not just Jews, not just the rich or righteous. This lineage includes all of us.
If a Roman king made a lineage, he’d include only the most impressive names. Jesus’ list includes the forgotten and broken—because His story is everyone’s story.
Many people in that line had no idea they’d be part of the Messiah’s story—like Rahab, who helped Joshua.
Matthew breaks the generations into three sets of 14. Seven is complete in Jewish tradition; 14 means very complete.
The first set: creation to David.
The second: David to exile.
The third: exile to Joseph.
That’s 42 names—Jesus is the 49th. The next year is the 50th—Jubilee.
In Jewish law, Jubilee is the year debts are forgiven. Jesus is the ultimate Jubilee—our debt to God is forgiven in Him.
Most of this story takes place in northern Israel. Mary was from Nazareth, Joseph from Bethlehem. That’s why he returned there for the census—his tribal home.
The Messiah was supposed to come from David’s land. Another prophecy fulfilled.
Mary and Joseph were betrothed—a binding relationship. Ending it was like divorce. They couldn’t live together or be alone without a chaperone until after marriage.
Joseph found out Mary was pregnant and decided to separate quietly. Public exposure could have led to her death. But he was a good man. The Hebrew word is “sadi,” meaning righteous, holy, maybe even a rabbi. He didn’t want to shame her.
Then the angel came in a dream and told him: Mary’s baby is from the Holy Spirit. He’ll be called Jesus—Yeshua—the one who saves.
This fulfills Isaiah 7:14: A virgin will bear a son, and He will be called Emmanuel—God with us. In Hebrew, “El” means God. In Greek, Matthew uses parthenos, which literally means virgin.
Joseph believed. He took Mary as his wife.
Matthew doesn’t include the nativity story, but we know Herod died in 4 BC. Jesus was likely born between 6–4 BC, probably in the summer—when shepherds would be out in the fields.
What matters is that Jesus was born in a time and place foretold by prophecy—not by chance. This was always the plan.
What I want to meditate on is this: God has a long view. Even when things seem silent, like during the 400 years before Jesus, He’s still at work.
I’ll pray about that today. About the hope we can lose, thinking God’s forgotten us. But He hasn’t. He’s still fulfilling every promise.
And I’ll share that with others: God keeps His word. He always has.
Email the podcast at [email protected]
“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ or https://biblemapper.com/index.html
