The account of the genealogy of Jesus (Mt 1:1-1:1)

“This book recounts

The genealogy

Of Jesus,

The Messiah Christ,

The son of David,

The son of Abraham.”

 

Βίβλος γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ υἱοῦ Δαυεὶδ υἱοῦ Ἀβραάμ

 

This gospel is the only one of the four gospels that calls itself a book (Βίβλος).  Thus, more contemporary translations have used the term ‘an account’ rather than a book, which appears 10 times in the New Testament.   Clearly, this is about the genealogy of Jesus (γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ).  The Greek word for genealogy means origins, like the Greek word for the origins of the world in the first book of the Bible, Genesis.  Then there is the Greek term that we all familiar with “Christ,” (Χριστοῦ), which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Messiah,” or “The Anointed One.”  This author clearly states at the beginning of this book that it will be about Jesus the expected anointed Messiah, Christ.  This Jesus was the son of David (υἱοῦ Δαυεὶδ) and the son of Abraham (υἱοῦ Ἀβραάμ).  Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one, had Jewish ancestry as a son of Abraham.  He also had a royal Hebrew lineage as a son of David.  Unlike the Gospel of Luke, this genealogy does not start with the more universal Adam, but with the first Hebrew or Israelite, Abraham.  Clearly, Jesus was Jewish.