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1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;

3 And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;

4 And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;

5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;

6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;

7 And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa;

8 And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias;

9 And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias;

10 And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;

11 And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon:

12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel;

13 And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor;

14 And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud;

15 And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob;

16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:

25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus.

What is the New Testament to us? TO begin with, just as the New Testament can be seen as a polemic directed at the Jewish people, in turn it is directed at us. And just as the Christians say that salvation in Jesus is for all men, we note that the commandments given to Noah are also for all men. But in contrast to Judaism and Noachidism, Christianity is one of the largest religions in the world – therefore it clearly plays an important role in God's plan for the earth. Therefore as a people who are interested in serving God, it is important for us to analyze and examine the christian scriptures and determine what truths we can from them.

The most important thing to understand going into the Christian New Testament is that we have to approach it from an understanding of the old testament. And as we see in the previous book, the last prophet (Manachi) closes with a prophecy over who the next prophet would be:

“Be mindful of the Teaching of My servant Moses, whom I charged at Horeb with laws and rules for all Israel.

Know that I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the Lord. He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction.” (Malachi 4:4-5)

This well-known prophecy was itself prophesied 200 years earlier by Amos:

“A time is coming—declares my Lord God—when I will send a famine upon the land: not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord. Men shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.” (Amos 8:11–12)

It is in this light do we view the opening of Matthew; a Jewish people who had been reminded to keep the Torah and who were eagerly awaiting Elijah and the messiah. It is thus we begin our study of Matthew.

With this first passage we have a statement on who Jesus is. This passage is designed to establish the credibility and authenticity of Jesus' geneology:

• He has to be a descendant of David.

The problem is that the chapter traces Joseph back to King David, but Jesus is not the biological child of Joseph. The common response here is to state that while Joseph clearly wasn't the biological father of Jesus, he was the legal father of Jesus – as he had married Mary and raised Jesus as his own son. However, the Torah law states one may not inherit tribal affinity via adoption:

18 and on the first day of the second month, they assembled the whole congregation together, who registered themselves by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, head by head,Numbers 1:18 (ESV)

This verse is a source for the idea that one is considered of the same tribe as one's father. But what about legal fathers versus biological fathers?

7 The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.Numbers 36:7 (ESV)

In Numbers 36:7 we see clearly that the inheritance of the people of Israel cannot be transferred from one tribe to another. This means that if you adopt someone who is not from your tribe, he does not gain a share of your inheritance within your tribe. The idea that King David was promised the messiah would come from his line, is a statement that the line of Judah would inherit the honor of being ruler over Israel in that sense. Therefore anyone who is not of the line of King David could not be the messiah. This is in fact the entire need to state that Jesus is “the son of David” as we read in verse 1. However, it is interesting to note that the only way this could be true is if we disregard the Torah law over who is and is not a member of a various tribe.

This is actually a well-known and accepted issue by many Christian apologists. For example Josh McDowell acknowledges this issue (and quotes Jeremiah 22:30) on page 188 of “A Ready Defense”. Also, the Ryrie Study Bible (page 1315) also acknowledges the issue but claims the curse had no effect since this was “from Mary's genealogy” – a claim which makes no sense given that the text clearly shows the geneaology is from Joseph.

• The Lord says, (abridged: of Jeconiah -ed) … none of his sons will succeed in occupying the throne of David or ever succeed in ruling over Judah.” Jeremiah 22:30 (Abridged, NET)

Even Martin Luther conceeds on this issue; in 1543 he writes, “it cannot be proved that Jesus is of the tribe of Judah, because the apostle Matthew traces the tribe of Judah to Joseph and not Mary; therefore he could not be the Messiah as proved by the tribe of Judah and David.' However, Martin Luther does note that Mary could be of the house of David. This is his out, yet we again come back to Numbers 32:7 and other passages. So we consider this verse to be very problematic.

Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own image and likeness, and called his name Seth.

This is a very deep passage in which it is shown that in order to be created in the image and likeness of God, in order to be a human being, one's father must be a human being. As the story goes, we are created in the image and likeness of God – we are not “of the type of God” – but it is also clear we are not created after the kind or type of insert random animal here. Therefore it is of utmost importance that we realize in every case where zera is mentioned it is mentioned in the case of a physical seed and does not represent a kind of analogical or spiritual fulfillment. In the same manner it is specified in a biological sense; that the promise would go through the physical descendant of Isaac and not Ishmael; through Jacob, who became Israel, and not Esau; and then through Solomon and not Nathan, and then not through Jeconiah and others. This hard requirement is expressed by the geneaology itself which lists transmission from father to son and leads us into several other problems of cursed geneology in Matthew, shown below.

In the previous answer we have seen that no son of Jeconiah would ever sit on the throne of Israel (Jeremiah 22:30). On this point the christians have tipped their hand – they cannot have both their cake and eat it too. For if it is true that Jesus' genealogy goes through Jeconiah – as is stated in Matthew 1:12, we now have a serious problem:

• 12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel; Matthew 1:12
• (or) “After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,” –Matthew 1:12 (KJV)

If Jesus is a descendant of King David through Jechonias as claimed, he could not possibly be the Messiah!

A common response is that although the geneaology passed through Jeconiah, on the other side of the family it passed through someone else. For this we look at Luke 331, where we see the genealogy passed through Nathan. However, this again amounts to a disproof of Jesus' Messiahship, according to 1 Chronicles 22:9-10!

• ”…Solomon… He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.“ 1 Chronicles 22:9-10

There is thus the serious problem that not only do these geneaologies not prove that Jesus is a descendant of King David, they actually serve to exclude him from ever possibly being the Messiah.

Another problem we see in this verse is that the geneaology itself is inaccurate. it does not match the list of descendants given in Chronicles:

• 1 Chronicles 3:11-12 states Joram's son was Ahaziah, but Matthew 1:6 says his son is Ozias.
• Matthew omits Jehoash and Amaziah, shown in Chronicles (ibid).
• Matthew says Uzziah was Jotham's father. But 1 Chronicles says Azariah was Jotham's father.
• After Zerubabbel, Matthew and Chronicles diverge, showing a different line.
• 1 Chronicles 3:16-17

It is often claimed that all of the genealogical records were destroyed when the second temple was destroyed, and therefore it is now impossible to determine who is and who is not from Judah. This is actually not true. First, not all the geneaological records were kept in the temple. There were in fact many jewish people who were not even in Israel at the time. In fact there are many Jewish families who can trace their records back all the way to Moses or even Adam. For example of this see the Kuzari Analysis.

Even Josephus states that given the records available to him at the time, he was able to trace his family tree all the way to Ezra (at which it is then possible to trace it back using the books in the bible; Ezra was the son or grandson of the previous high priest, etc.)

Isaiah