Bible in one year 1/1/2022 Matthew 1-3
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Authorship
Matthew,
who was surnamed Levi (Mark2:14), was a Jewish tax collector (publican) for the
Roman government (Matt.99). Because he collaborated with the Romans, who were
hated by the Jews as overlords of their country, Matthew (and all publicans)
was despised by fellow Jews. Nevertheless, Matthew responded to Christ’s simple
call to follow Him. After the account of the banquet he gave for his colleagues
so they too could meet Jesus, he is not mentioned again except in the list of the
twelve (Matt.10:3; Acts1:13). Tradition says that he preached in Palestine for
a dozen years after the resurrection of Christ and then went to other lands,
but there is no certainty of this.
Date Although the gospel has sometimes been dated in the 80s or 90s, the fact that the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.70 is viewed as an event yet future (24:2) seems to require an earlier date. Some feel that this was the first of the gospels to be written (about50), which others think it was not the first and that it was written is the 60s.
Contents Important sections in Matthew are the Sermon on the Mount (chapter5-7), including the Beatitudes (5:3-12) and the Lord’s Prayer (6:9-13); the parables of the kingdom (chapter 13), and the Olivet discourse concerning future events (Chapter24-25). The theme of the book is Christ the King, and the outline reflects that theme.
Chapter 1 A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the
son of David, the son of Abraham:
Abraham was the
father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his
brothers, ….Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father
of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father
of King David…(vv.1-6)
After the exile to
Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of
Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azoz, Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of
Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the
husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. (vv.12-16)
Thus there were fourteen generations in
all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and
fourteen from the exile to the Christ. (v17)
Jesus Christ. The name “Jesus” is from the Greek. (And Latin) for the Hebrew “Jeshua” (Joshua), which means “the Lord is salvation”. “Christ” is from the Greek for the Hebrew Meshiah (Messiah), meaning “anointed one”. Son of David was a highly popular messianic title of the times. The genealogy is here traced through Joseph, Jesus’ legal (though not natural) father, and it establishes His claim and right to the throne of David (1:6). The genealogy in Luke 3:23-38 is evidently that of Mary, though some believe it is also Joseph’s by assuming that Matthan (Matt.1:15) and Matthat (Luke 3:24) were the same person and Jacob (Matt.1:16) and Heli (Luke3;23) were brothers (one being Joseph’s father and the other his uncle).
Jeconiah.
Jehoiachin, king of Judah, who was taken
into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C. In the Heb., Jeremiah contracted “Jeconiah”
to “Coniah” (Jer. 22:24,28;37:1). A curse was pronounced on Coniah that none of
his descendants would prosper sitting on the throne of David. Had our Lord been
the natural son of Joseph, He could not have been the natural son of Joseph; He
could not have been successful on the throne of David because of this curse.
But since He came through Mary’s lineage, He was not affected by this curse.
Of whom
The word is feminine singular, indicating clearly that Jesus was born of Mary only
and not of Mary and Joseph. It is one of the strongest evidences for Jesus’
virgin birth.
Jesus Christ birth: the announcement of the birth
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came
about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they
came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because
Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public
disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. (Matt.2:18-19)
But after he had considered this, an angel
of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not
be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is
from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the
name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matt.2:20-21)
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord
had said through the prophet: “the virgin will be with child and will give
birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel –which means. “ GOD WITH US.” (vv.22-23)
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel
of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no
union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.(vv.24-25)
Although Joseph and Mary were not yet married,
so sacred was the period of engagement, or betrothal, that they were by custom
considered as if married (cf.Gen.29:21;Deut.22:23-30). Consequently, Joseph’s
only recourse seemed to be to “put her away”, which meant to give her a bill of
divorcement, a certificate saying, in effect “This woman is not my wife; I am
not her husband” (Hos.2:2). But it took angel of Lord appeared to him in a
dream and told him not to afraid to take Mary home as his wife. Joseph received
the vision and did obey the commands of the Lord.
Chapter 2 the adoration of the baby
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea,
during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where
is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and
have come to worship him.” (Matt.2:1-2)
Bethlehem. The town is five miles S. of Jerusalem. King Herod. This was Herod the Great, whose family, though nominally Jewish, was in reality Edomite, and who was king, with Roman help, from 40-4 B.C. He built the Temple in Jerusalem that Christ knew. Magi. These wise men from the east were experts in the study of the stars. Tradition says that were three and that they were kings, but we do not know for certain.
“When King Herod
heard this he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called
together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them
where the Christ was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “ for
this is what the prophet has written: “ But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, and by no means least
among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd
of my people Israel.” (Matt.2:3-6)
Then Herod called
the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child.
As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” (Matt.2:7-8)
When they saw the star, they were
overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary and
they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasured and presented him with
gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream
not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.(Matt.2:10-12)
Teachers,
or scribes, who belonged mainly to the party of the
Pharisees, functioned as members of a highly honored profession. They were
professional students and defenders of the law (scriptural and traditional),
gathering around them pupils whom they instructed in the law. They were also
referred to as lawyers because they were entrusted with the administration of
the law as judges in the Sanhedrin. (Matt.22:35). A ruler. (Micah 5:2). An earthly king, though a supernatural one,
is meant. Verse 12 to the house…the
child. These words need not indicate that the wise men came some time after
the birth of Christ. The family would naturally have moved into a house as
quickly as possible after Jesus was born, and child can mean a newborn
(John16:21). The early church Fathers understood the gold to be symbolic of
Christ’s deity the incense, of His purity and the myrrh, of His death (since it
was used for embalming).
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to
Joseph in a dream. “ Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape
to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the
child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the
night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had
said through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son. ( vv.13-15).
When Herod realized
that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to
kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and
under. Then what was said
through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping
and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be
comforted, because they are no more.” (vv.16-18)
After Herod died an
angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “ Get up take the child and his mother
and go to the land of Israel for those who were trying to take the child’s life
are dead.” So he got up took the child and his mother and went to the land of
Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his
father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he
withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called
Nazareth.
So was fulfilled
what was said through the prophets, “He
will be called a Nazarene.”(vv.19-23).
In verses17-18 a
quotation of Jer.31:15, which depicts the wailing at the time of Israel’s
exile. That calamity and Herod’s new atrocity are viewed as part of the same
broad picture. Since Matthew was writing to those with Jewish background, he
sued more quotations from the O.T. than the other gospel writers. There are
ninety-three such quotations in Matthew, forty-nine in Mark, eighty in Luke,
and thirty-three in John.
Archelaus.(v.22) On the death of
Herod the Great, the Romans divided his kingdom among his sons: Archelaus
(Judah and Samaria), Antipas (Galilee and Perea), Philip (NE Palestine).
Archelaus was a bloody king and, worse in the eyes of Rome, ineffective. He was
removed by Caesar Augustus in A.D.6 and banished to Gaul.
He
will be called a Nazarene. (v.23) Probably a synonym for “ contemptible” or “
despised” since Nazareth was a most unlikely place for the residence of the
Messiah (cf.Isa.53:3; Ps.22:6).
Chapter 3 Christ
Jesus’ baptism
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the
Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
near.” This is he who was
spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in
the desert, ‘prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” (Matt.3:1-3)
The Desert of Judea.(v.1) A barren wasteland extending along the W. shore of
the Dead Sea. Repent (v.2) Repentance
is a change of mind that bears fruit in a changed life (v.8) Kingdom of heaven. This is the rule of
heaven over the earth. The Jewish people of Christ’s day were looking for this messianic
or Davidic kingdom to be established on the earth, and this is what John
proclaimed as being “at hand.” The rejection of Christ by the people delayed
its establishment until the second coming of Christ (Matt.25:31). The character
of the kingdom today is described in the parables of Matt.13.
“But when he saw
many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said
to them: “You brood of vipers! Who
warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with
repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, “we have Abraham as
our father.’…
Pharisees. (v.7) The
Pharisees were the most influential of the Jewish sects at the time of Christ.
Though holding orthodox doctrines, their zeal for the Mosaic law led them to a degenerate,
through strict, outward observance of both the law and their equally
authoritative (in their own eyes) interpretations of it. They knew the Scriptures
(Matt.23:2), tithed (Luke12:40), fasted (Matt.9:14), prayed (Mark.12:40); but
they were also hypocritical (Matt.23;15), self-righteous (Luke18:9), and the foremost
persecutors of the Lord(Matt.9:3).
Sadducees.(v.7) The Sadducees, whose membership came largely from the
priesthood and upper classes, where the anti-supernaturalists of Christ’s day.
They denied the truth of bodily resurrection, of future punishment and reward,
and of the existence of angels (Acts23:8). Though they upheld the written Law
of Moses, they were opposed to the oral traditions observed by the Pharisees.
They were the party of the high –priestly families of Jerusalem with direct interests
in the apparatus of Temple worship and generally collaborated with the Roman
rulers. They opposed Christ as vigorously as the Pharisees and were condemned
by Him as severely, though not so frequently (Matt.16:1-4,6).
We have
Abraham as our father.(v.9) The common
teaching of that day said that the Jews participated in the merits of Abraham,
which mad their prayers acceptable, helped in war, expiated sins, appeased the
wrath of God, and assured a share in God’s eternal kingdom. Consequently the
people were startled when John and Jesus preached the necessity of personal
repentance.
“I baptize you with water for
repentance, But after me will
come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.(v.11)…Then
Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John…as
soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven
was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on
him. And a voice from heaven said, “this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am
well pleased.” (vv.13,16-17)
Baptize. (v.11) Baptism is a form of identification. John’s baptism was a sign of an individual’s acknowledgement of his need of repentance for the remission of his sins. When Jesus was baptized by John (v.15) He identified Himself with John’s message of righteousness (though, being sinless, He Himself needed no cleansing from sin). The baptism with the Holy Spirit, predicted here, identifies members of the Body of Christ with Christ, the risen Head of that Body (1 Cor. 12:13). Christian baptism is identification with the Christian message and the Christian group. And with fire. Probably a reference to the judgments associated with the return of Christ.(v.12; Mal.3:1-5;4:1-3) In verse 16-17 this is the first clear expression of the concept of the Trinity. The descent of the Spirit upon Christ was for special power at the beginning of His public ministry.
Bibliography,
Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie Study Bible (NIV).Chicago,
IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986.
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