Matthew's prologue
Matthew's prologue
▸ ± Mt 1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
| Generation of Jesus Christ
Matthew starts his gospel with the answer to his riddle. He will list forty-one generations in the genealogy of Jesus, then say there are forty-two. Where is the last one? The mystery generation are those whom he will call brother, sister and mother. Though Mark has the saying that those who do his will shall be called such, he could not include it as a riddle since he did not yet see that the literal history of Israel was itself a parable and riddle. Matthew will use the literal history as prophecy and show how Israel acted out the parable of Christ in many ways. This is the book of the spiritual family of Jesus as he lived among them and taught them. |
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| Son of David
The theme of Matthews's book is the Kingdom of Heaven. He has chosen this part of the prologue as a callback to Ecclesiastes 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Compare 'word's of the preacher' with 'book of the generation of Jesus Christ'. Jesus is the Preacher, being the incarnate Word of God. Ecclesiastes contains wisdom of the earthly kingdom and Matthew contains wisdom of the heavenly kingdom adding to the prophetic pattern of Two. David is a type of Christ, and so both books refer to Jesus as king in Jerusalem, though Matthew does so at the end of his book with the sign posted on the cross. |
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| Son of Abraham
During the time between Mark's gospel and Matthew's, the Hebrew church has come to realize that their history is a parable of Jesus. This is in fulfillment of what God had told them: De 28:37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb [parable], and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee. As Matthew continues with the genealogy, he establishes four titles of Jesus from the genealogy. Even the record of his kin is a prophetic riddles to which Matthew eludes. He does not write a scholarly work crossing all of his t's and dotting his i's but the messenger delivering the gospel to churches can preach through it, since Hebrew boys were taught the scripture well. |
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| Mark included
There are very few teachings in Mark that are not included in Matthew. Effectively Matthew could be seen as Mark (edition 2) with new material added. As we run into these we will discuss plausible reasons from the theme and purpose why they may have been left out. This does not intimate that they are not true, but that at the time of Matthew, they were no longer the focus of teaching within the church. |
