Building Jesus: Matthew 1:1-17

Matthew 1:1 - The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham

This undistinguished verse is the start of the New Testament. If you grew up in church, you know that Matthew starts with a fairly lengthy (but not comprehensive) genealogy of Christ, from Adam through Mary and Joseph. Reading through the list of names here isn't all that exciting, particularly if you don't look up the names, but I do think there are some interesting insights to be found.

I. The Genealogy Question
Looking at verse 1 in a couple different translations, I noticed that "genealogy" was sometimes translated differently, as “history” or “works.” Looking up the original word shows that both of these are legitimate translations, which suggests that Matthew 1:1 may be an introduction for more than just Chapter 1. If it is read as “works” or “history” instead of genealogy, it can be seen as an introduction for the entire book of Matthew, since the book itself tells the story of Christ.

Since I don't believe the ordering of the books of the New Testament was inspired, this next observation is primarily literary, but I found it interesting anyway: Taken even more broadly, Matthew 1:1 can be read as a forward to the entire New Testament. The only requirement is showing that the New Testament is structured around Christ. Broken down into a classical narrative structure, this is easily defended. I see the simplified structure of the New Testament thusly:

Exposition – Christ is born, political and spiritual settings established
Rising Action – Christ begins ministry, recruits disciples, makes enemies by shaking up status quo, Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem
Climax – Christ's enemies arrange to have him arrested, tried, and eventually crucified.
Falling Action – Christ rises from the dead, appears to disciples, ascends t Heaven to send the Holy Spirit to continue His work.
Denouement/Resolution – Christ's disciples spread the Gospel and recruit new followers, expanding Christ's doctrines into practical everyday life.

II. The Relationship Metaphor
While a few of the names in the list are notable, familiar even to non-Christians (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers of Israel; Rahab of Jericho, the first Gentile in the list, who protected Joshua's spies; Ruth and Boaz; several kings, including David, the man after God's own heart), but mixed in are several people of whom we know little to nothing--Salmon, Shealtiel, Zadok, Matthan, etc. In fact, their only importance in the narrative is that they are in Jesus' line, related to the dramatic center of the New Testament.

In the same way that these people acquire historical significance from their historical relationship to Christ, Christians acquire their spiritual significance from their spiritual relationship to Christ. Seen in this light, Christ's genealogy serves as a powerful metaphor for “the least of these”, those forgotten by the world who are nevertheless important, irreplaceable members of Christ's spiritual family.

This is already getting fairly long, so I'll finish up my analysis of Matthew 1 in my next post.

Introduction: Blogging the New Testament

Introduction: Why Blog the New Testament?

I have no idea if anyone will actually be reading this. I'm not alerting anyone that I'll be updating this blog after months of inactivity, and I'm not sure the content I'm actually updating with will interest anyone but me. It may not even be intelligible.

So why even try to blog the entire New Testament? Well, first off, I should confess that I've shamelessly stolen the idea of blogging the Bible from Slate's David Plotz. I admit, I've only read a couple of Plotz's dispatches, but the idea intrigued me. What better way to experience the Bible than to dig into it like I would any other piece of literature? As a Christian, the Bible obviously holds a different attraction for me than for Plotz, a non-practicing Jew, but the concept seems to translate. Read the Bible (or in my case, the New Testament) and write down my thoughts as they come to me. If possible, edit them into a readable form. It's a win-win for me; I get a bulk of material to write and write about, and I get more intimately acquainted with the Bible on both a personal and intellectual level.

So why only the New Testament? I initially planned to try writing about the entire Bible, but abandoned that idea (for now) for two reasons. One, the Old Testament is a lot longer than the New Testament. In my Bible, the Old Testament is 1,057 pages long, with the New is only 300. As difficult as sticking to any sort of long term project is for me, starting off blogging a book longer than War and Peace seemed to guarantee failure.

Secondly, the New Testament seems to me to be more practical for my purposes. Although the Old Testament is vital for fully understanding the new, the New Testament contains a lot more advice for daily living, particularly given my views of the authority of the Old Testament in the life of the believer, an issue I may or may not tackle later on, depending on my mood. The other reason the NT seems more practical is because avoiding the Old Testament avoids many of the issues that Christians tend to get caught up in at the expense of other, more important issues.

I have no interest (or the knowledge necessary to) debate Creation or the minutiae of Old Testament law. I may have something to say that would be useful to someone (even myself) about day-to-day living or the literary aspects of the NT; I doubt I'm going to add anything new to these age-old debates. I'd rather spend time on things that interest me.