Matthew 1:1-2

New Catholic Bible

Footnotes

1. Matthew 1:1 Who was Jesus? Where did he come from? The prologue of Matthew’s Gospel immediately confronts us with this question. The author has not simply gathered up some scattered recollections to complete his album on the life of Christ; rather, from the very first moment he is transmitting the Church’s testimony of faith.
2. Matthew 1:1 To the ancients a genealogical tree was not only a set of data on one’s civil status but also a manifestation of one’s membership in a community and the importance of ancestry (Gen 5:1-11; Ex 6:14-24; 1 Chr 1–9; Ezr 2:59-63). The genealogy of Jesus is drawn up with special care; it is perhaps somewhat artificial, but it is quite solemn. In bringing Jesus on the scene, the entire history of the nation is recapitulated. He is the son of Abraham, in whom all the nations shall be blessed (Gen 18:18); he is the son of David, to whom the future of the people was entrusted (2 Sam 7:13-14); in other words, he is the one who will carry out God’s plan for Israel and the entire human race; he is the One Sent, the consecrated of God (Messiah, Christ).
   The opening sentences of the Gospel are thus a “Book of Genesis,” an account of the new beginning of humanity and the world (Gen 2:4; 5:1). Luke will carry the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam himself (Lk 3:23-38). In Matthew’s list Joseph plays a well-defined part: it is by means of him that Jesus is given a de jure place in history. But at this point the Gospel unexpectedly avoids the phrase “the father of” (“begot”), and Joseph is simply the husband of Mary. The entire mystery of Jesus’ origin is already stated in these few words.
3. Matthew 1:1 Christ: is the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Messiah,” which means “anointed,” that is, consecrated. Priests were anointed (Lev 4:3, 5; 16:15); so were kings (1 Sam 10:1 [Saul]; 16:11 [David], etc.), so much so that the reigning monarch was sometimes given the title of “Messiah,” or “Anointed One” (see Pss 2:2; 89:38; etc.). The name “Jesus Christ,” which at this point was still an alternative for or associated with “Jesus of Nazareth,” is already to be found in the initial preaching of the apostles (see Acts 3:6).