Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham.
The New Testament opens not with a sermon but with a family register. Its first line names the person the whole book is about: Jesus Christ, tied to two names every Israelite knew. Why begin with a genealogy at all? And why name David before Abraham, when the list that follows runs the other way?
The opening words are a heading, not yet the list. The ESV reads "the book of the genealogy"; older translations read "the book of the generation," the wording the writers below use. It echoes a phrase readers of the older Scriptures already knew:
This Gospel begins with two Greek words, "Biblos geneseos" — the book of the generation. It matches a similar Old Testament expression found often in the Scriptures (Genesis 6:9, etc.)… You can call the first verse in Matthew a heading for the genealogy that follows.
Only one other line in the Bible carries that same title, and the contrast between the two is the point:
In all the many names and generations in the Bible there are only two "books of generations" — "the book of the generation of Adam," and "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ." In the first (Genesis 5) we read over and over again, "and he died" (Enoch is the exception). We need not spell it out — death spread to all men. But in "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ" (Matthew 1) the sovereign mercy of God would include the names of four women who otherwise would have no claim to be there: three of them were open wrongdoers, and one was a stranger to God's people. It is a testimony to the whole world of God's abounding grace.
Matthew's first move answers the first question a Jewish reader would raise.
God does not only meet the Jew with these proofs from prophecy, miracle, life, and doctrine. He begins with what a Jew would and must demand — the question of genealogy. Even then Matthew's answer is of a divine kind. "The book," he says, "of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." These are the two chief landmarks a Jew turns to: royalty given by the grace of God in the one, and the original holder of the promise in the other.
The first title ties Him to Israel's royal line.
David was the great head of the kingdom, the one in whom the true line of Messiah's throne began. Saul was only the human king Israel wanted for a while, out of their own will. David was the king God chose, and this verse names him as the forefather of the Lord's Anointed — "the Son of David." So the opening words prepare us for the whole of the Gospel.
The second title matters most when the first is refused.
As Son of David He is King of Israel. As Son of Abraham He is not necessarily King at all. But He has a promise of the widest blessing, given on the principle of faith to all the families of the earth. So Israel's rejection of Him, and the delay of the kingdom promised to David that followed, do not hinder it. That only affects how the promise is expressed, not the fact of it. It may even find a higher expression, as it has in Christianity.
The list that follows runs from Abraham to David, but the title reverses them. Commentators explain the reversal differently. One reads it as God's rights coming first:
In this "book of generations" the Lord Jesus comes first as "Son of David" and then as "Son of Abraham." That is a different order from the line of succession that follows. God's throne rights must be upheld first; then His promises in grace and mercy can be handed out.
Another reads kingship as the means by which the older promise is kept:
David is put before Abraham, because the promises to Abraham will only be carried out in full by establishing royalty in David.
Matthew puts the genealogy first. Luke places his much later, and for a reason.
Luke was writing to the Gentiles. They could not be expected to care as much, or in the same way, about His ties to the Messiah's line. But once they had learned something of who Jesus was, it would be very interesting to see His family line as man, and to trace Him back to Adam, the father of the whole human family.
- Book — The Bible holds only two "books of generations": Adam's, where name after name ends in death, and Christ's, which opens the New Testament and takes in four women who had no claim to be there.
- Title — The verse is the heading over the list that follows. It names the two landmarks a Jewish reader looked for: David and Abraham.
- Throne — "Son of David" gives Him the royal line God Himself chose, the founding of Messiah's throne.
- Nations — "Son of Abraham" carries blessing for all the families of the earth. Israel's rejection could delay how that promise shows, but not undo it.
- Order — David comes before Abraham, though the list runs the other way. Writers read this either as God's throne rights coming first, or as kingship being the way the promise is kept.
Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Juda and his brethren;
The genealogy proper begins here. Three generations pass in a single line, and then the frame widens: Judah is not named alone, but with his brothers. Why does the list start with Abraham? Why does Judah carry the line? And why name the other sons at all, when only one of them is needed?
Matthew does not work backwards from Jesus to His ancestors. He starts at Abraham and moves forward, and that starting point carries meaning.
Abraham is the one entrusted with blessing, and so the genealogy begins with Abraham. Since the descent conveys title, the stream runs down through the centuries. Luke reverses the order, and that gives a very different meaning: the stream runs back. The style and manner of Scripture are important, and not only its statements. We can miss what is said by not paying attention to how it is said.
Judah was Jacob's fourth son, not his first. The line runs through him because of a promise his father Jacob made long before: rule would stay with Judah until Shiloh — the Messiah — came.
He was the fourth son of Jacob and Leah, and the head of the tribe that bears his name, which means "praise." Judah was the one who advised selling Joseph rather than taking his life. So his descendants, the Jews, handed the Lord over to the Gentiles. He sinned in the matter of Tamar his daughter-in-law; he was ready enough to have her punished, until it came out that he was guilty too. This traces the terribly corrupt history of the family God chose for Christ to be born from. Though not the eldest son, he began to take a chief place in the family... When Jacob blessed his sons, the predictions show that the royal line was centred in Judah. The sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh came. Genesis 49:8-12. From Judah sprang David and a long succession of kings.
Some older English Bibles spell the name here as "Judas." It is the same man (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The line only needs Judah to run from Jacob to Jesus. His eleven brothers add nothing to it. So why does Matthew name them?
This comprehensive notice, "Judah and his brothers," seems to be important, and in more ways than one. It does not fit the idea that in this part of the chapter Matthew is just copying the records kept by the Jews. We may be sure that men never register things in this fashion. Yet it fits this Gospel exactly. It gives prominence to the royal tribe from whom the Messiah came (Genesis 49:10). At the same time it reminds the most favoured that God had not forgotten others who had long been out of sight, now that He is giving the genealogy of His Messiah.
The words "and his brothers" do more than count heads. They carry a memory of sin.
The phrase "Judah and his brothers" reminds us of Judah's sin and his brothers' sin in selling their own brother, and everything connected with it.
The names are not decoration. Read forward from Abraham, they trace a line that runs downward — until God steps in.
The genealogy in Matthew speaks of decline. It brings out corruption, ruin and hopelessness. It begins with Abraham. As it names generation after generation, it sets before us the shameful history of Israel: their unbelief, their turning away, and the judgments that followed. At last it becomes all dark and all hopeless as far as Israel is concerned. Sarah indeed stands as a picture of the nation. Like her womb, the whole nation was dead: no hope, all ruin and corruption. But God can bring life from the dead.
This careful listing is also legal proof.
The Spirit of God, with accurate and legal precision, shows that the Babe is none other than the promised Seed of David.
- Downward. Matthew runs the line forward from Abraham, because that descent conveys title. Luke runs it the other way. The direction itself carries meaning.
- Chosen. Judah was the fourth son, yet the line runs through him. Jacob's blessing left the sceptre with Judah until Shiloh came, and David and a long line of kings sprang from him.
- Stained. The same Judah advised selling Joseph, and he sinned with Tamar. Commentators read "and his brothers" as a reminder of that shared crime.
- Remembered. The brothers add nothing to the legal line, and no ordinary record-keeper would list them. they are there because God had not forgotten others long out of sight, even as He gave His Messiah's genealogy.
- Reversed. Generation by generation, the line runs down into ruin and hopelessness. That is exactly where God brings life from the dead.