The author of Matthew's Gospel had several reasons for writing the genealogy of Jesus that he used.
- In the nativity story, he wanted to show a parallel between Jesus and Moses, and therefore between Joseph in the New Testament and the Old Testament. He used the genealogy to show that the father of Joseph was called Jacob, just as the father of the Old Testament Joseph was called Jacob.
- He wanted to show that Jesus was descended from David and was therefore the hoped-for Messiah.
- He also wanted to show that Jesus was descended from the great Zorobabel, another sign of greatness.
- The Jews were superstitious and so the author used numerology to prove that Jesus was destined for greatness. He demonstrated that there were 14 generations: from Abraham to David; from David to Josiah; from Josiah to Jesus. To do this, he had to ignore 3 kings in the Old Testament and have David in the preceding (as 14) and following (as 1) groups, but not so Josiah. Then, we have no possible way of verifying Matthew's list of Jesus' ancestors from the time of the Exile.
Answer:The key to the importance of Matthew's genealogy is at the very beginning: "
...Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:" (
Matthew 1:1). Matthew then begins at Abraham and works forward through the generations to Jesus.
His purpose is to show that Jesus is the legal inheritorof God's promises to both Abraham (Genesis 22:15-18) and David (2 Samuel 7:16). Thus Jesus is legitimized as Israel's rightful Messiah and spiritual King.
It was necessary to show the Jews (Matthew's primary audience) that Jesus was Joseph's legal heir. However, since Jesus wasn't Joseph's literal fleshly offspring, Matthew's genealogy served no other practical purpose. (Jesus' fleshlydescent is shown by Luke's genealogy through Mary, which is its specific purpose.)
