The genealogy as History or Theology
The genealogy is a stratagem used extensively in the ancient world in establishing the legitimacy of rulers and the claims of teachers and philosophers. The most important genealogies are found in Genesis and in Chronicles. [Genesis 4:17 – 26 , 4:17-24, 4: 25-26, 10: 1-32, 11:10- 32, 46: 8-37.]
Up to the nineteenth century, the genealogies in Matthew’s Gospel and elsewhere were generally accepted at face value as historical family trees. However when the German scholar Wellhausen proved that the name lists in the Book of Genesis and in the Pentateuch generally were later accretions to the text and that they lacked the antiquity of the ancient texts, the scholarly world began to examine all such lists, including that in Matthew’s gospel. Raymond E. Brown8, has written in his magisterial work, The birth of the Messiah, “They generally belonged to the latest stratum and were useless as sources for early Israelite history.”9 He also writes that genealogies are generally written as validation of the political and property claims of some family member.
“To establish identity and to under-gird status, especially in relation to the offices of priest and king. The writers attempted to prove that a claimant had inherited the greatness of some far-distant relative. Jesus is said here in Matthew to be the legitimate inheritor of the faith of Abraham and the royal status of David.10
The genealogy in Matthew is obviously contrived and cannot be said to be historically correct. This contrivance involves telescoping the actual generations so that they appear to form three equal parts (Abraham to David to Exile to Messiah). There is very deliberate attempt here to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s providential plan for the world. Jesus arrives as the Messiah in a seventh age. The first six ages of Israel’s history are represented in the two sets of fourteen generations listed in the genealogy. There have been six sevens already and the seventh seven will be the age of the Messiah. Hence, Jesus the Christ is the fullness of the divine providence in Israel. The Seventh Day is the Day of the Lord, the seventh seven is all the more sacred.
Matthew’s pattern of three sets of 14 generations is patently artificial; to get his fourteen generation from David to the Exile he passes over in silence some of the kings of Judah. He appears to have been influenced by current apocalyptic thought which cast world history in periods of seven, in other words, ‘weeks of years’. For Israel’s history Matthew counts two weeks of generations (2 x 7 = I4 generations), from Israel’s beginnings in Abraham to its highpoint in King David, two more weeks from its high point to its low point in the disaster in the Babylonian captivity, and two further weeks during its ascent to its goal, Jesus the Messiah. Jesus Christ thus begins the seventh period, the period of perfection and fulfillment.”11
One must appreciate the purpose of Matthew in including a genealogy in the Gospel, especially at the very beginning of the Gospel. In biblical scholarship, this is called examining the mindset of the author.
This is not simply historical information, this is theological stake-claiming
Genealogies are far more statements about relationships in recent times than records motivated by antiquarian interest or historical curiosity. Therefore, the interpreter must look to the present function of the genealogy in the domestic, political-legal, or religious sphere.”12
Jesus is the Messiah who was expected. Jesus has every right to be considered as that Messiah, since he has all the criteria that a messiah should have- he is Jewish, he is of a royal line of David.
The one whom Christians proclaim as ‘Messiah’ can be correctly claimed to be ‘Son of David’. That Jesus the Christ came at the right time is suggested by the threefold sequence of fourteen generations….”13
We, as readers of the twenty first century, examine the text with a wholly different set of criteria. We look for empirical truth and historical accuracy. We criticize the style and the content with the post-Scientific age mentality with which we have grown up. The real test, though, will be to appreciate the mentality of the original author, and his attempt to relate to his original audience, a Jewish-Christian congregation and the greater Jewish audience.
The place of Joseph, son of Jacob
In Matthew’s Gospel Joseph is a Son of David, Father, patriarch, disciple and a just man.
Son of David
“The sonship of David will be a special theme in Matthew’s first Chapter, for not only is the Davidic theme lucidly clear in the genealogy, but it reappears in the angelic appearances to Joseph who is addressed as the Son of David. It is imperative in Matthew’s mind that Joseph, a Davidid, accepts Jesus as his son.”14
Father;
Joseph’s participation in the Matthean narrative is vital. His agreement makes it possible for the child to be called a child of David, and thus a child of Abraham. Joseph must be seen to name him, thus claiming the child as his own, so that Jesus is authenticated as Jewish.
Disciple
Joseph, like Mary in Luke’s Gospel, is a true disciple, allowing God to use him for God’s purposes, never insisting on his own dignity or opinion. He says nothing at all in Matthew’s Gospel, but his acceptance of the instruction of the angelic visitors is reminiscent of Mary’s line, “Be it done to me according to thy word.”
Patriarch
Modern scholars agree that the Infancy Narrative in Matthew emphasizes the role of Joseph as the new patriarch. He is deliberately modeled and compared to the Joseph of Genesis, even to the point that the Matthean genealogy says that his Father was a man called Jacob. This man Joseph is a man of many dreams, (1:20, 2:13) just as the young Joseph of Genesis was. (Gen 37: 5-11) In fact, the angry brothers of Joseph call him a ‘dreamer’ when they see him approaching them in the wilderness and they decide in their resentment to kill him for the arrogance he has shown. (Gen 37: 18)
Just Man
The Joseph of Matthew’s Gospel is also a man of pity and compassion, deciding not to shame Mary, but to accept her as his wife. Notice that Joseph decided to be merciful to Mary before the angel appeared to him in a dream. This compassion reminds us of the attitude of the patriarch Joseph in his dealing with his brothers who had tried to kill him. “Joseph acted out of mercy, not out of ritual obedience in the cause of conventional piety. Joseph’s motive was to cooperate in channeling the power of God, not to preserve or pile up personal power.”15
“Out of Egypt have I called my Son”
This carving of the slaughter of the innocents is found on the Choir screen at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. This incident is recorded only by Matthew. It is certainly a parallel story with the slaughter of the male children of Israel by order of the Pharaoh in Exodus 1: 15, 16.
Those children of Israel lived in Egypt because Joseph has invited his Father, Jacob and his brothers to come down to Egypt to avoid the famine. Moses was one of the children, and by God’s grace, he escaped the massacre. Thus, one could say that Jesus, in being brought down to Egypt by a man called Joseph, is walking in the footsteps of Moses.