The best thing I ever read on Jesus’ lineage and birth was in Stanley Huerhaus’ wonderful commentary on Matthew.
Perhaps the best recommendation for the book comes from Hauerwas himself in the introduction: “I have tried to write the commentary in the hope that those reading the commentary will want to read it as a book. In other words, I hope that the reader will read the commentary the way they read a novel….The reader may wish to read what I have to say about this or that passage, but the intelligibility of the commentary depends upon its being read in sequence.”
Some of the selections that bear on your discussion here:
Matthew’s Genealogy
The genealogy that Matthew provides from Abraham to Jesus is but a commentary on the extraordinary claim that with Jesus we have a new beginning. The genealogy is divided into three series, the first two consisting of fourteen generations and the last of thirteen generations The last group has only thirteen generations because the church that Jesus calls into existence constitutes the fourteenth generation It is not clear why Matthew may have thought fourteen to be significant, but what is crucial is the story of Israel that Matthew tells through the genealogy.
The first generational history is meant to tell the story of Israel’s triumph as a nation, for it ends with King David, who clearly represents for Matthew the climax of Israel’s history. David, the mighty king, the lover of justice, ruled Israel in fulfillment of the law given to Moses (Psalm 99) However, the history that Matthew tells in the genealogy is also one of loss, because the next series climaxes with the Babylonian captivity an exile that still haunts Israel’s life even after the return to Palestine Matthew, like the writers of the Old Testament, does not try to hide Israel’s failure to trust God or God’s judgment on Israel’s unfaithfulness through exile That Israel continues to tell the stories of her failure is a witness to the community’s conviction — a conviction learned through the hard discipline of prophetic lives and one that affirms the story it has to tell — to the God who makes her very existence intelligible Matthew becomes part of that witness, testifying to God’s continued faithfulness to Israel through the coming of Jesus.
Accordingly the last genealogical series is about the restoration of Israel through the birth of Jesus. To be Israel’s Messiah means that Jesus does not simply represent Israel, but that he is the renewing of the law, he is the promise of the land, and he is the temple. Jesus is the long-awaited king. He is the restoration of all that makes Israel the promised people. Through Joseph’s adoption, Jesus stands in the line of David, becoming for Israel its king unlike the kings of this world. Jesus is the climax of Matthew’s genealogical story of Israel’s past, at once representing Israel’s story while profoundly transforming the very categories of its existence.
The Four Women In Matthew’s Genealogy
Matthew’s genealogy also includes the names of four women: Tamar (Genesis. 38), Rahab (Joshua 2), Ruth, and Bathsheba wife of Uriah (2 Samuel. 11-12; 1 Kings. 1). That Matthew names these women is unusual because the genealogies of Israel (e.g., those in Genesis 5; 10; 11) are lists consisting of only males. That Matthew names these women, therefore, cannot be insignificant. Some suggest that they represent women who engaged in sexually doubtful activity; thus preparing the reader for the irregularity of Jesus’ conception. Such a reading, however, does not seem to do justice to Ruth’s relationship with Boaz. It seems more likely, given the role that Gentiles will play throughout his gospel, that Matthew names these women, who are in different ways outsiders to Israel, to indicate how God has used them to sustain the promise people. These women are not clearly from the people of Israel, yet they serve God’s providential care of Israel by quite literally making the Davidic line possible. Confronted with untenable situations that seem to preclude their full inclusion, these women use their wits to force the men of Israel to claim them as members of God’s promise. They prefigure the Canaanite woman who calls to Jesus to cure her daughter tormented by a demon (Matthew. 15:21-28). Jesus at first refuses to answer her, responding that he was sent only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she kneels before him, confessing, as we confess in the prayer of humble access, that she is ready like the dogs, an Israelite description of Gentiles, to eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table. Jesus commends her faith and heals her daughter.
These women (and it is not accidental that they are women) represent the undeniable reality that God’s promise to Israel has spread to the Gentiles. Matthew’s gospel is the ongoing commentary on this reality and the tension it represents for understanding Jesus’ mission Matthew does not try to resolve the tension created by the brute fact that Jesus is acknowledged by those who are not Israel. And we, from our position two thousand years later, cannot assume that we know how to resolve the tension created by the promise of Israel including the Gentiles. All we know, because Matthew makes it a point to show us, is that Gentiles recognize Jesus. Therefore, it is crucial that we not seek solutions that would make it impossible for us to read Matthew’s gospel with a faith like that of the Canaanite woman. Like her, we must recognize that Jesus has the power to restore us to life even if it means we receive God’s gifts as crumbs from the table.
And much more here (limited by post # of characters):
payingattentiontothesky.com/2009/10/02/book-recommendation-matthew-brazos-theological-commentary-on-the-bible-by-stanley-hauerwas/
I really “got” the Virgin Birth for the first time reading this. Makes perfect sense to me now.
In Christ,
dj
It was one point of many that I made earlier. Glad to see you back by the way.