1:1–17 Scholars rightly call these verses Jesus’ genealogy, yet they are more than a list of forebears. Matthew underscores a leading point by stating it first and last: Jesus is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the Christ (vv. 1, 17). Ancient Greco-Roman biographies commonly began by establishing the lineage of their principal character, beginning with recent forebears. Old Testament narratives also establish the family lines of leaders. This shapes the reader’s sense of the identity of men like Abraham (Gen. 11:10–32) and David (Ruth 4:13–17).

Matthew’s genealogy serves the nearly universal human interest in social location. We see this also in Jesus’ public scenes, as people inform one another that he is from Nazareth (Matt. 21:11), the son of Joseph and Mary (Mark 6:3; John 1:45; 6:42), a carpenter (Matt. 13:55), and a man without formal education (John 7:15). In Western meritocracies, people inquire about education and job title. In traditional cultures, the interest may center on parentage and place of birth, but the questions are both common and sensible, and Matthew begins to answer them at once, even if his approach departs from the norms for Greco-Roman biographies.40

Matthew’s genealogy is distinct in several ways. While typical Greco-Roman genealogies, and also Luke’s genealogy, begin with the hero’s father and work back to distant forebears, Matthew begins with David, then Abraham, before moving forward in time. By starting with David and Abraham, Matthew evokes their role in Israel’s history and reminds readers of the promises God had given them. By naming David, Matthew suggests that Jesus is the true David, the King who will restore Israel. God had promised to David, “I will establish the throne of [your offspring’s] kingdom forever” (2 Sam. 7:13; cf. Isa. 11:1; Jer. 23:5). Matthew 28 ends with Jesus and the world, but Matthew 1 starts with Israel and with Abraham, the father of Israel and “heir of the world” (Rom. 4:13). Through him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:1–3).41

Luke’s genealogy leads back to Adam, suggesting that Jesus is the hope of humanity. Matthew’s genealogy starts with David and Abraham and then stays with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in order to stress that the hope of mankind began with the history of Israel, fulfilled in Jesus.

Matthew jolts readers by including a quartet of women in his genealogy, contra the norms for genealogies of that era. The women share two threads: Gentile connections and flagrant sin. First is Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judah, Jacob’s son. In Genesis 38, she played the prostitute to gain an advantage over Judah and as a result became pregnant by him. Rahab comes second. A prostitute in Jericho, she hid Israel’s spies and helped them escape (Joshua 2). The third woman is Ruth, a Moabite widow and daughter-in-law of Naomi. She became a part of Israel when Boaz married her (Ruth 1–4). Fourth is Bathsheba, whom Matthew calls “the wife of Uriah.” She was David’s paramour and the mother of Solomon (2 Samuel 11–12).

Since Rahab and Ruth were both foreigners and Bathsheba at least married a Gentile (a Hittite), we see that Jesus’ line includes Gentiles. This reminds us that God always intended to bring Gentiles to himself. Further, since three of the four women were involved in sexual sin, the genealogy highlights the fact that Jesus came from a line of sinners. Once we see this, it is easy to enumerate the failings of Abraham, Isaac, and the rest.

After Judah, we barely know Jesus’ forebears until we reach Boaz, Obed, and Jesse (Matt. 1:3–6a). This trio indicates that God was faithful even during Israel’s nadir, the era of the judges (Judges 17–21; 1 Samuel 1–16). He preserved Israel in its rebellion and favored those who still walked in his ways (Ruth 1–4).

The more familiar kings make the same point in two ways (Matt. 1:6b–11). First, about half of the kings listed in the genealogy, sons of David all, were truly wicked. Ahaz worshiped Assyrian deities, practiced human sacrifice, and defiled the temple (2 Kings 16). Manasseh, incredibly, was worse. He did “more evil than the nations” God expelled from Canaan. He promoted idolatry and murdered the innocent (2 Kings 21:9–18). All in all, Kings and Chronicles parade a band of malefactors from Rehoboam to Jeconiah.

Second, with the exception of Josiah, even Israel’s noble kings committed great sins. David was notorious for his explosion of sin in 2 Samuel 11. Jehoshaphat allied himself with wicked men (2 Chronicles 18). Motivated by pride, Hezekiah foolishly showed his nation’s treasures to enemies who soon plundered them (2 Kings 20:12–18). After years of successful rule, Uzziah became proud and arrogated priestly privileges to himself (2 Chron. 26:1–21). Thus Jesus’ genealogy connects the Savior to the human race in all of its sinfulness.

The last segment of Jesus’ genealogy shows Israel suffering the consequences of her sin (Matt. 1:11–16). The borders of Israel failed to hold: Assyria conquered and scattered the northern kingdom, whereas Babylon conquered the south, deporting its leaders and reducing the remnant to vassalage. Jesus’ subsequent ancestors lost their regal rank, and Joseph became a skilled but landless laborer. Yet Matthew’s thrust is not simply that Israel declined. Rather, the shape of the genealogy asserts God’s “covenantal faithfulness despite the chaos of historical events.” The exile interrupts or intrudes upon an A-B-C-C-B-A structure—Jesus, David, Abraham, Abraham, David, [exile], Jesus—but the Lord still fulfills his purposes. Further, the structure of the genealogy marks the deportation as the end of the Davidic kingship, an end that Jesus reversed, thereby beginning the restoration of Israel.42