Now the birth of Jesus Christ was thus His mother, Mary, that is, having been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of [the] Holy Spirit.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But Joseph, her husband, being [a] righteous [man], and unwilling to expose her publicly, purposed to have put her away secretly;
Matthew moves straight from a genealogy to a crisis in one home. Mary is expecting a child, and the man engaged to her must decide what to do. The verse calls Joseph "just." It then shows him choosing the quietest way out. How do those two things fit together?
The verse calls Joseph her husband, though the wedding had not yet happened. Jewish custom explains why.
The Jews saw this as just as binding as marriage. Only a divorce could end it. The law gave certain rules about an engaged woman (Exodus 21:8-9; Deuteronomy 20:7; Deuteronomy 28:30). Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, was engaged to Joseph. He thought about divorcing her quietly, but the angel of the Lord told him the truth about her condition.
Matthew names Joseph as her husband. One writer explains what hung on that legal link.
Two family lines came down unbroken to those days — the house of Solomon and the house of Nathan. Mary stood for Nathan's family, and Joseph for Solomon's. Naming Mary without her link to her husband would have left no legal right to the throne of David. The Messiah had to be born not merely of a virgin, nor of a virgin daughter of David, but of a woman legally joined to Joseph — in the eye of the law, really his wife. Yet if Joseph had been the real father, there could have been no Saviour at all.
The Greek uses one word for Joseph's wish and another for his settled decision. The distinction is visible elsewhere in the New Testament.
They occur together in Matthew 1:19: Joseph, not desiring to expose Mary publicly, purposed to have put her away secretly. The same pair appears in 1 Timothy 5. Of the younger widows who are not put on the list, verse 11 uses the first word: their desire is to marry. Verse 14 uses the second word for Paul's deliberate judgment and will that they should marry: "I will therefore."
So the second word marks a resolve, not a mood. Joseph had settled on a course.
His uprightness did not let him ignore what he believed had happened. It also shaped how he would act.
At first it was thought that a great sin had been committed. Joseph was a man of honourable principles, as the Scripture explains, so he decided to separate himself from it at all cost to his own feelings. Yet he would do it privately, to avoid causing unnecessary pain and scandal to one whom he loved. But when God reveals the truth to him, he acts in direct and simple obedience and purity.
The phrase "put her to shame" points to a real legal outcome. One commentator traces it to the law's penalty for an unfaithful bride, and names who stopped the process.
I think the word meant the public exposure that would have followed if Joseph had acted on Deuteronomy 22. Humanly speaking, the appearances would have led him there, if God had not stopped this just man by sending Gabriel. Through the angel's blessed message God enabled him to judge righteous judgment.
Joseph's plan was honourable, but it rested on wrong facts. Only God could correct it. Commentators differ on his state of mind. One writer sees perplexity rather than certainty: Joseph "thinks of a half measure" until the dream "resolves his doubt and changes his purpose" — Numerical Bible Notes.
What Joseph did not do is as striking as what he planned.
You must bear in mind that Joseph and Mary had been engaged a long time... Yet he was not hasty or rash. He did not have the jealous nature that many a man would boast of. He did not act with the rashness that others would even admire in such a case. It is good to think matters over well when a difficulty crosses your path.
That pause left room for the angel's message. The word "just" also says something about his whole life. One writer sets Joseph beside the other Joseph in the Gospels, who buried Jesus. Scripture calls both men just, "which clearly shows that they had walked in the fear of God" — J. T. Mawson.
- Just — his righteousness is why he acts. It is not the enemy of his kindness. It made him refuse both the sin and the scandal.
- Bound — among the Jews an engagement was as binding as marriage, and only a divorce could end it. That same legal tie gave Jesus His title to David's throne.
- Restrained — two different words mark what Joseph would not do and what he decided to do. No public shame; a quiet release.
- Unhurried — he was neither jealous nor rash. The space he left for thought is the space God filled with the angel's message.
- Corrected — his honourable plan rested on wrong facts. God's message turned a just man's judgment into righteous judgment.
but while he pondered on these things, behold, an angel of [the] Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, fear not to take to [thee] Mary, thy wife, for that which is begotten in her is of [the] Holy Spirit.
Joseph had already made up his mind: end the engagement quietly and spare Mary public shame. Verse 20 breaks in while that plan is still only a thought. It replaces the plan with an explanation no one could have guessed.
One writer describes the compromise Joseph had settled on, and what ended it:
Here Joseph is a righteous man, but perplexed. He thinks of a half measure: he will give her a writing of divorce without stating the cause, and send her away. But the appearance of an angel to him in a dream resolves his doubt and changes his purpose.
The message came through an angel. It was aimed at Joseph's conscience:
The angel of Jehovah is sent as the instrument of providence. He satisfies the tender conscience and upright heart of Joseph by telling him that what Mary had conceived was of the Holy Spirit.
The words "the Lord" here stand for a name used in the Old Testament. A reference work explains how the Greek shows it:
In the Old Testament, the Greek translation called the Septuagint uses the word Kyrios for the name Jehovah. In the New Testament that word often stands for Jehovah too. It then appears mostly, if not always, without the article "the," as in Matthew 1:20, 22, and 24.
In Luke the announcement goes to Mary. In Matthew it goes to the man. One commentator points to two requirements that meet here. No human planning could have brought them together:
Here the angel appears to Joseph in a dream. In Luke the angel appears to Mary. It is this way in Matthew because Joseph was the important person in the eye of the law. And yet in actual fact the Messiah must not be the son of Joseph. All the cleverness of man could not have understood these ways beforehand. All his power could not have arranged the circumstances. The law required that Jesus should be the heir of Joseph. The prophet required that He should not be the son of Joseph, but of a virgin.
The angel does not call him Joseph of Nazareth. He gives him the royal title. The gap between that title and Joseph's circumstances says something about the state of the nation:
Matthew records the angel's revelation to Joseph, whom he addressed as "son of David." Joseph was the legal heir to the throne of Israel. The announcement made to him fits the way this Gospel presents the Lord. It shows how far the nation had fallen: the representative of the royal house was an obscure workman living in the despised town of Nazareth.
By obeying, Joseph did more than protect Mary's reputation. He secured a legal line:
He did as the angel of the Lord told him and took Mary as his wife, without hesitation or further misgiving. In doing so he cast the protection of his name around her. He made her firstborn Son his heir — the legal heir to David's throne.
The angel's reason for "do not fear" is the origin of the child. Those words mark something that happened once and happens to no one else:
Believers in every age have been, and are, born of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus, however, as man, was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Born of the Spirit is true of everyone who shares in the new birth. But begotten of the Holy Spirit, as the virgin's child, is true only of the Lord Jesus Christ.
One writer explains how a real human birth could produce someone with no sin in Him at all:
He did take the true manhood of His mother, but He never took manhood in the state of His mother. He took it as the body prepared for Him by the Holy Spirit, who shut out every trace of otherwise inherited evil. In His mother that nature was under the taint of sin. She was fallen, like all others conceived and born in the natural way in Adam's line. In Him it was not so.
Another writer names the wonder in it, and points back to the angel's own words:
The greatest marvel of this birth is that the Holy One of God was born without taint of sin from a woman who was herself born in sin. That state is true of every member of the whole race. The angel of the Lord gave Joseph the explanation of this unique miracle: "that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."
- Perplexity — Joseph planned a quiet divorce, the compromise of a decent man. God interrupted it before he acted.
- Reassurance — The message came to steady an honest conscience. "Do not fear" rests on the reason that follows.
- Origin — The child's source is the Holy Spirit. Every believer is born of the Spirit. Only this One was conceived by Him.
- Holiness — He took real manhood from Mary, but not manhood in her fallen state. The Holy Spirit shut out the inherited taint.
- Throne — Joseph took Mary as his wife. This obscure workman, addressed as "son of David," made her firstborn the legal heir to David's throne.