Matthew’s Patterns

I did a big post on Reddit the other day, so I’ll try and do a quicker version here.

Matthew 1 and 2 set up patterns, so that Matthew can then point out the differences in Jesus’ case.

First Matthew talks about “The record” (biblos, not biblios, meaning a papyrus record) “of the genesis of Jesus Christ,” and then proceeds to talk all about which male ancestor begat (egannesen) which other male ancestor. All the female ancestors mentioned have the added phrase “ek tes [female name],” which in the horse world would be “out of [female name].”

There’s an exception with Solomon, who is “ek tes tou Ouriou,” meaning “out of Uriah’s one.” (Meaning the unnamed Bathsheba, who was Uriah’s wife.) The word “wife” isn’t used. It’s possible that we’re supposed to remember that Bathsheba is also compared in a parable to a pet ewe lamb that belonged to a poor man (Uriah), and who got taken and eaten by a rich man (David). There’s a paschal and Eucharistic meaning to this, too.

The women in Matthew’s genealogy list are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and “Uriah’s.” As many have noted, two of these women are foreigners who married into Israel. Tamar extrabiblically is said to have been an Aramean; or that she was a daughter/descendant of the Aram who was a descendant of Abraham’s brother Nahor, and thus a Mesopotamian. (The latter idea is big in the Book of Jubilees and the Testament of Judah, which are non-Biblical Jewish literature.) One Jewish literary source even identified Tamar as a daughter of Shem/Melchizadek! (The Targum of Ps.-Jonathan.)

Anyway… then we come down to Jesus, and He isn’t “begat” by any listed male. The genealogy says that Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary (ton andra Marias), which is almost the exact opposite of calling Bathsheba “tou Ouriou”. Then it says, “Out of her” (ek hes) “was begotten” (egennethe) “Jesus who’s called Christ” (Iesous ho legomenos Christos).

Weird, eh?

In Matthew 1:18, the text adds that the child in Mary’s womb was “out of the Holy Spirit” (ek Pneumatos Hagiou). Holy Spirit is in neuter gender, but the “ek” is the same used for the feminine ancestors in the genealogy. So that’s kinda weird and pattern-breaking, too.

The “take” that Joseph is told not to be afraid about is the verb “paralambanou,” which means “to receive near” and originally meant “to take by the hand.” It can also mean “to take as a close friend or associate” or “for a disciple, to memorize and internalize the teaching of one’s master.”

Joseph is shortly told by the angel to “take the child and his mother” to Egypt, using the same “paralambanou” verb. And a little later, the Devil “takes” Jesus to the highest part of the Temple roof, using the same word “paralambanou.” So… yeah. This word gets used a lot, and the marital use isn’t its thing.

Joseph in the OT also advised his brothers to “take” their families and their dad to Egypt, btw.

One interesting bit is that Matthew changes the Scriptural reference to Isaiah a bit, or he knows a different version. The Hebrew says, “And she shall call his name Emmanuel,” while the LXX translation says, “And you [King Ahaz] shall call his name Emmanuel.” But St. Matthew quotes Isaiah as saying, “And they”, probably referring to Mary and Joseph. So St. Joseph does have an important part in the story, and by naming Jesus, he acknowledges him legally as his son in the marriage (adopting him), and hence as a male member of the House of David.