Resources on Matthew's Geneaology (Mat. 1)

Today’s New Testament reading is the geneaology of Jesus in Matthew.  Thankfully, I do not need to write much about this as I fear the New Testament scholars might have a field day with me.  (In seminary, I learned something about possible gematria in the passage, something about the theories of why these women are included (foreigners?), and something about the inverting of Abraham and David at the beginning.  But, I never read widely enough to know if any of that was standard fare in Matthew scholarship).  Anyway, Mark Goodacre has saved me because he has a couple of resources on the NT Gateway dealing specifically with this passage.  If you’re reading this passage today, here are two questions to think about and be aware of when you’re checking out the resources:

  1. Why these four women in Jesus’ geneaology?
  2. What’s up with the number 14?

The resources on New Testament Gateway can be found HERE.  The resources are in alphabetical order with one of them by Waetjen and the other by Witherington.  If you want to read more on the women in the geneaology, you might also want to check out the article by Kopas.

3 Comments

  • And when you’re reading don’t forget to double-check Matthew’s math and see whether there really are 14 generations in all 3 groups. 😉

    • I read a bit about that yesterday. Do you think the discrepancy was intentional? Or, do you think Matthew just wasn’t much for math? Or, is there some kind of text critical reason given?

  • I think it is simply that “14” was about the number’s symbolism rather than mathematical accuracy. Since Matthew drops some names that are part of the genealogy in Chronicles in order to get 14 in the second grouping, it seems clear to me that there being “actually, literally, mathematically 14” is not his top priority. 🙂