We note in his genealogy of Jesus, Matthew follows Hebrew practice in skipping a few names of less significant persons. The Hebrew concept of "beget" is direct descent, but not necessarily father-and-son. Instead, we see a standard Jewish pedigree showing Jesus was of royal lineage. However, He gained it via a loophole in the Law and custom of His day, because it is noted His earthly father was not His genetic father. Since Joseph publicly assumed responsibility for the child, there was no legal grounds for questioning it, regardless of facts.
In passing, Matthew includes mention of women as significant to the pedigree. In a few cases, there was moral taint, in part to show the grace of God working through and against human failures. Matthew joined Jesus in rejecting the false Jewish notion women didn't count. However, Matthew stops short of offending his Jewish Christian audience, sticking with the point of the story: Jesus gained His pedigree by a means of a claim higher than mere DNA.
His conception was itself a miracle. Jewish social custom called for a betrothal for a man between 20 and 30, preferring the latter end unless wealthy. The bride would be a teenager, not long after menarche. The period between betrothal and actual cohabitation was typically a year, based on the old custom of getting a wife, then building a room or two on the extended family home, if not a separate home, to house her. It would be hard to explain what took place unless we assume Joseph was somewhere in the middle class, at least. We know from elsewhere he was a builder, which meant primarily a stone-mason, but included carpentry. He was important enough to worry about his reputation, but genuinely pious enough not to be strict like a Pharisee.
On hearing discretely his intended was pregnant, he intended to avoid an ugly public denunciation. This would call for the girl's execution, for it was legally the same as adultery. It was a particular kindness to arrange a private dissolution of the marriage covenant. People might gossip, but would have no proof of shame. Quite likely, Mary's family would have sent her to live with a distant relative. Before he could act on this plan, Joseph was visited by an angel during a dream state at night. It was not simply a child of adultery, but the conception of God Almighty, Himself. This was a high privilege for Joseph to raise the Son of God, though most would assume he simply failed to wait for a proper and honorable consummation of the marriage. This would change the nature of the gossip to something far more benign, largely forgotten by the time the boy could walk. Joseph was told this son would become the awaited Messiah, using prophetic terms any pious Jew would understand.
However, Matthew raises one of the greatest expository difficulties for Western Christians. We know the context of Isaiah 7:13 is specific to the time of King Ahaz, when Jerusalem was under threat from Israel and Syria. Those two countries to the north had formed an alliance against Assyria, and were going to force Judah to join it. The obvious meaning for Ahaz was to point out those two nations would soon be history. Starting from that moment, a young woman who was then a virgin could be married, conceive a child, and before he was old enough to understand good and evil, the Assyrians would come and destroy Samaria and Damascus. Second, we know Isaiah's son, Maher-shalal-hashbaz (Isaiah 8) pretty much fit that image, for that son was born of a young prophetess Isaiah had married at that time. Within three years of that birth, Samaria and Damascus had been taken.
In typical Hebrew mystical fashion, that event was foreshadowing something greater. It depicted a parallel of redemption on a much greater scale than the political situation of Judah around 700BC. This time a virgin would conceive directly, and the result would be the Redeemer of the World, the very presence of God Himself. Telescoping a single prophecy from a lesser contemporary event into a much greater future event is normative in mystical Hebrew theology. The first is an example of how God works, the last is the definitive culmination.
As soon as Joseph woke up, he carried out these instructions. We can envision a hastily arranged wedding feast, and the community's smug amusement. The point thus far is Jesus met several obvious tests of Messiahship.
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By Ed Hurst
15 July 2007
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