The Gospel of Matthew—indeed, the New Testament—begins with a list of names, and that list of names is introduced by this heading: “The book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Why start like this? Why “the son of David” and “the son of Abraham”?
For sure, Abraham and David are the most prominent people in the genealogy that follows, so perhaps Matthew is simply previewing the high points, preparing readers to navigate the list all the way to Jesus. Or perhaps Matthew is highlighting historical facts about Jesus: he was a Jew (son of Abraham) and a potential heir to David’s throne (son of David).
In fact, these two explanations of the titles aren’t mutually exclusive. But even taken together, they’re inadequate. I argue here that Matthew is drawing on particular Old Testament background that raises expectations about the coming of a particular person: a son of Abraham to bless the nations, and a son of David to rule them. And these two themes run all the way to the end of Matthew, and on into the present.
But to understand “the son of David” and “the son of Abraham,” we need to go back one more word in the verse.
The Christ
What’s introduced in Matthew 1:1 is not just a genealogy of Jesus. It’s a genealogy of Jesus Christ. We know, but sometimes need reminding, that “Christ” is not Jesus’s last name: it’s his title. (In Jarai, the language I work in as a Bible translator, there’s no word for “title,” so when I teach I say, “It’s the job he does, just like the word ‘king’ or ‘village chief’ isn’t a name, it’s someone’s job.”)
We might, in fact, translate Matthew 1:1 like this: “The generations of Jesus: the Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (in the Greek, “Christ” could be an appositive just as easily as the next two phrases: Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ υἱοῦ Δαυὶδ υἱοῦ Ἀβραάμ; thus the NASB, NRSV, and NIV11). The subsequent genealogy validates all three of these titles separately, as they unfold in reverse order, making a chiasm in relation to verse 1: “Abraham begat” in 1:2, “David the king begat” in 1:6, and finally in 1:16 Jesus is born, “who is called Christ.”
“Christ” was an office that was waiting for someone to fill it. Matthew 1:1 announces who that person turned out to be, and proves it with a genealogy. So what about the next two phrases: “son of David” and “son of Abraham”? Might they be announcements of fulfillment, too? Most certainly they are. Matthew isn’t just abstracting historical facts from a list of names. And he’s not simply saying that Jesus is a Jew and part of the royal line. There were lots of Jews in the first century, and plenty of Davidites.
No, Matthew is saying that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew expects his readers to know who, or what, he means. Just like there had to be a particular Christ to validate God’s faithfulness, so there had to be a particular son of David and a particular son of Abraham. These, too, are job descriptions, waiting for a qualified person to fill them. I’ll take them in reverse order.
Son of Abraham
The covenant promises to Abraham are concerned especially with Abraham’s seed, his offspring. Abraham will have a great name and be a blessing to all the families of the earth (Gen. 12:2b-3); but observe that these promises only come after the promise that he will become a great nation (Gen. 12:2a), at least hinting that Abraham will receive the latter two promises in and through his descendants. In Gen. 15, the promise of land is added, and again, the promise comes after the promise of biological offspring, indeed a great multitude of offspring, like the uncountable stars. Thus the promise of land, too, is for Abraham in his seed. After Abraham offers Isaac to God on the mountain of Moriah, God makes explicit what was only implied in the promises of Gen. 12: “in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (22:18).
These are the promises Matthew wants his readers to think of. Abraham’s offspring had become a multitude, true, and they had become a nation, and they had possessed the land. In some ways, they had even been a blessing to some of the nations. But late in the Second Temple Period, all this had faded. What was needed was a son of Abraham—the multitude concentrated in one man—who could receive the promises and, especially, be the one in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Son of David
David, too, received promises from God, and those promises, too, focused on David’s seed. Many of those promises were fulfilled in Solomon, the son who “committed iniquity” and was “chastened with the rods of men” (2 Sam. 7:14). But a house and a kingdom and a throne that would be “established forever” (7:16)? In a time when Herod, a half-Edomite, sat on the throne in Judah, this was a promise whose fulfillment was urgent.
Matthew 1 to 28
This is the background Matthew expects his readers to bring to his Gospel, right from verse 1: God has promised a Christ. This Christ would be the son of David’s house, he who would receive eternal kingship and sit on the eternal throne. And this Christ would be Abraham’s son, he who would inherit the patriarchal promises and bless the nations.
As we read the story of Jesus’ birth, we find confirmation for this understanding right off. Magicians from the eastern nations come to Jerusalem looking for the new king. Herod asks his scribes where the Christ is to be born. The magicians are directed to David’s town, where they find and worship the king.
We could trace these themes—blessing to Gentiles, the authority of a king—throughout Matthew, but it’s enough to see how the Gospel ends. “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (28:18-20). The Davidic king has received all power—he’s the king of all creation (“heaven and earth”) for all time (“alway, even unto the end of the world”)—and what does he do with that power? He blesses the nations—all of them—by giving them his own name in baptism. The nations are blessed “in Abraham’s seed,” just as God promised.
Christmas and Beyond
Two final reflections. First, Matthew 1 has a liturgical pattern (or better, sets a pattern for liturgy): Advent, then Christmas. The Advent season is long: fourteen generations thrice over. But Matthew has already told us in verse 1 the meaning of those long years, showing us who, and what, to expect.
Second, it’s common to say that the cross is the real meaning of Christmas. It’s just as true to say that the Great Commission is the real meaning of Christmas. That’s how Matthew saw it, at least. He announces it right off in the first verse, and he closes his Gospel by showing just how Jesus intends it to be done.
And how is that? The nations will be blessed by becoming the disciples of the King, through baptism and teaching. And this project is backed up by the sovereign power of that King. In this way, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).
Joshua Jensen translates and teaches the Bible for the Jarai churches of northeast Cambodia, where he lives with his wife and their (not uncountable) offspring.