The genealogy in 1:1-17 sets the stage. Throughout, the pattern is “A was the father of B, B was the father of C.” But at the very end, v. 16 reads: “Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born”. Someone reading Matthew for the first time would have to wonder why he didn’t just write, “Joseph was the father of Jesus.” Also, the mention of Mary would call to mind the mention of the four other women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba) in the genealogy. As we have seen in my previous article, in each case where the mother was mentioned there was something irregular or scandalous about those unions. The presence of these four women in the genealogy prepares the reader to expect something unusual about Jesus’ birth when Mary's name appears.
Marriage Customs
V. 18 lays out the crux of the problem: “His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, but before they began to live together she was found to be with child – through the Holy Spirit.”
To understand the irregularity of Jesus’ birth, it is important to understand the marriage customs at the time. Marriage occurred in two steps. First, there was the formal exchange of consent before witnesses. This was followed some time later by the bride moving into the groom’s home. This gave the husband time to prepare a dwelling for his bride.
Translations of v. 18 may say “betrothed” or “engaged” but neither Greek nor English has the adequate terminology to explain that according to Jewish law, Mary and Joseph were married from the time that they exchanged consent, even though they had not yet moved to the second stage of living together.
The explanation that Mary was pregnant “through the Holy Spirit” is for the benefit of the reader. In the story, Joseph was not privy to that information. As far as he knew, his wife was pregnant by another man. Matthew informs us that Joseph was both “an upright man” and “was unwilling to shame her.” In other words, he did not want to publicly accuse her of adultery, but neither could he accept the child as his own and sweep Mary’s supposed transgression under the rug.
Joseph the Dreamer
So Joseph’s compromise was to divorce her “quietly,” whatever that meant. Neither the divorce nor Mary’s pregnancy could be kept secret. But before he could proceed with his plan, he was visited in a dream by an angel who told him that the child was begotten through the Holy Spirit. Joseph was instructed to take Mary into his home and name the child Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins.”
The story has echoes in the OT. The genealogy already told us that Jacob was the father Joseph, just as the patriarch Jacob in Genesis was the father of a different Joseph. In Genesis, Joseph had a series of dreams foretelling the future which he was able to use to his advantage to save his people in a time of famine. So, too, this Joseph will have dreams that occur at crucial moments.
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Joseph’s Dream by Gaetano Gandolfi (1734-1802)
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By naming the child, Joseph will become the legal father of Jesus. It was obvious who the mother of a child was, but to establish paternity, Jewish law required a man to give testimony since most men would be reluctant to claim to be the father of a child that was not theirs. Thus Matthew explains how Jesus became son of David (through Joseph’s acknowledgement of paternity) and son of God (through the Holy Spirit).
The name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Yeshua, which is a shortened version of Yehoshua (Joshua), which means “YHWH helps.” Yeshua is very similar to the Hebrew word for “salvation.”
Prophetic Fulfillment
Joseph did exactly as instructed and Matthew gives us the first of several formulaic citations of prophetic fulfillment. All that he had just described had been done to fulfill what a prophet – in this case, Isaiah – said long ago:
“Behold, the virgin [parthenos] shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.” (Mt 1:23)Matthew appears to be quoting Isaiah 7:14, but it is not an exact quotation from the Hebrew of the Masoretic Text:
“Behold, the young woman [‘almah] is with child and shall bear a son, and she shall name him Emmanuel.” (Is 7:14, MT)In language, the quotation is closer to the Greek translation of the OT:
“Behold, the virgin [parthenos] shall conceive, and shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel.” (LXX)The main differences are that Matthew, following the Septuagint (LXX), uses the word “virgin” and says “they shall name him” instead of “she” (MT) or “you” (LXX).
In the context of Isaiah, the prophet is giving a sign of reassurance to King Ahaz of Judah who feared a coalition of Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel. Isaiah announces the birth of a child – presumably a child of the king’s – who will not have reached the age of reason before both attacking kingdoms will be in ruins. The name Emmanuel means “with us is God.”
This is not a prophetic prediction of the messiah, nor of a virgin birth. The Hebrew ‘almah means “young woman” and the Greek translates it as parthenos. While parthenos does have a technical meaning of virgin, it is also a term used to describe a young woman. Matthew definitely understands it in its technical sense because he clarifies in v. 25 that Joseph did not have sexual relations with Mary after taking her into his home.
Matthew stresses that “they” shall refer to Jesus as Emmanuel, “God with us.” The “they” to which he refers is “his people” whom he will save from their sins. Moses was also a savior of his people, the Hebrews. But for Jesus, “his people” will be all the nations of the world. But whereas Moses saved his people from bondage to Pharaoh, Jesus will save his people from bondage to sin.
This episode foreshadows the conclusion of Matthew’s gospel which closes with the words of the post-resurrection Jesus to his disciples, “I am with you always to the end of the age” (28:20). Thus the enduring presence of God’s spirit in Jesus which was made known by an angel to Joseph, would be spread to all the nations until the end of time through the preaching of the apostles.
Now this I understand very clearly.
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