Nativity

In NATIVITY, Mary leaves Ein Karem in the hills of Judea and returns to Nazareth in Galilee. She will take this path many times to travel back and forth to Jerusalem. We journey with Mary as she ponders the great miracle she carries and how the revelation of it will practically affect her relationships. Joseph learns a lesson about how the light of Messiah can shine unexpectedly out of personal disappointments.¹ Then, we join the magi from the east bearing gifts and tribute for a newborn king. We visit Herod’s palace in Jerusalem, but the King of the Jews is not there. Instead, we find Him still in Bethlehem with His mother and father, and the star that led us hence appears again. Fleeing from Herod, Joseph takes the family to Alexandria, Egypt, where they remain hidden until the death of the tyrant.²

Videos

Matthew 1:18-25:

Matthew 1:18-19 Mary’s Condition and Joseph’s Dilemma

• Up until now, miraculous births in the Bible still required a male/female union.

  • Greek traditions (as well as Genesis 6) speak of gods impregnating women but nothing about the text indicates Mary’s conception was in any way sexual.³

  • God spoke the universe into existence. He created Eve from Adam’s rib.

  • He could have achieved Mary’s pregnancy by speaking it or any number of other “contactless” ways.

• At a minimum, The Virgin Birth removes the stain of sin (often called original sin) that occurs whenever a human x and human y chromosome merge. Hebrews 7 reminds us that Jesus is “holy, innocent, unstained and separated from sinners.”

• Another tidbit about the Virgin Birth. In Genesis 3:15 God says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between your seed and HER seed.”

  • The “seed of the woman” is one of the many names of the Jewish Messiah.

  • This is a seemingly biological contradiction. The seed is in the man.

  • Way back in Genesis, many scholars believe we have a hint of the virgin birth.

Wells and Caves

• Eastern tradition (Greek, Russian orthodox, etc.) holds that the annunciation occurred at this well, in keeping with the rich tradition of momentous events happening at wells or springs throughout scripture. Abraham, Jacob, Gideon, and even Jesus in John 4 has the famous meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well.⁴

• Western (Roman Catholic) tradition holds that the annunciation was in a cave that today is venerated at the Catholic Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

  • Caves are also prominent in the Bible with Abraham purchasing the cave at Machpelah in Hebron as a burial place, David establishing his superiority over Saul in a cave (though he later regretted it), Elijah, before he killed the priests of Baal, he found them hiding in caves,
  • John the Baptist traditionally lived in caves, and it is widely believed that both the birth of Jesus and the events described in the Garden of Gethsemane both took place in caves. ⁵

• Just as the Spirit wanted us to know that Zechariah was righteous, He wants us to know that Joseph was righteous.

• Again, the Hebrew word for a righteous one is tzadik. Abraham was a tzadik, Boaz was a Tsadik and here Joseph is a Tzadik

  • When you read proverbs and it says the righteous do such and such but the wicked do such and such, the word for righteous is almost always tsadik.

  • To be a tzadik does not require sinless perfection, but it essentially means the person is living out Deuteronomy 6:5, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, might and Leviticus 19:18 Love your neighbor as yourself.

  • Both of these are restated in Micah 6:8, He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you? but to do justice, and to love kindness (mercy), and to walk humbly with your God.

  • Jesus gives us all the power to be tzadikim (pl), just like Joseph.

    • If we weren’t acting like a tsaddik yesterday, today is a new day in the Lord who makes each of us a new creation.

• Calling Joseph a Tzadik rules out Joseph being the biological father (at least not in the usual sense – see speculation below); a just man wouldn’t have had relations before marriage.

  • The angelic visitation is confirmation.

• Joseph did have a decision to make.

Matthew 1:20-21 Joseph’s Course Correction

• Given all we’ve discussed, the command to take Mary as his wife is staggering.

• The angel reminded Joseph that he is a Son of David.

  • Joseph is not just in the bloodline of King David, he’s in the much more exclusive royal line.

• Joseph then receives supernatural confirmation that Mary is not an adulteress.

• As noted previously, in any other circumstance, Joseph would be sinning if he married Mary.

• The angel tells him that he’s not sinning by marrying her

• But this introduces another problem. By proceeding with the wedding, Joseph was communicating that the child was his and that he had acted less than honorably before marriage. No one at the time was going to believe their story about an immaculate conception. Not very many believe it today for that matter.

• In theory, we have a contradiction –

  • The baby’s not his, so he can’t marry her; he’s a tsadik and a tsadik doesn’t willfully break the law.

  • Yet, he DOES marry her even though the baby’s not his (or is it?)

• Lancaster speculates that among the infinite number of ways God could have engineered the pregnancy, we can’t rule out that Joseph’s DNA was not somehow, someway, a part of the Messiah.

  • Obviously, this is speculation, but such a move resolves any legal quandaries, namely the requirement for Joseph to divorce Mary.

  • This move would also assure the royal Davidic line continued to be blood-based but would (again, somehow, some way) not have the stain of the curse.⁶

• In any case, think about the ramifications for Joseph.

  • Let us not overlook his sacrifice.

  • Joseph, Mary, and Jesus all had to live with the stigma of a crime they didn’t commit (and back then it was a crime) and for which the folks in a small town would have presumed their guilt.

  • This perhaps adds new context to the angel’s encouragement to “do not fear”

  • Isaiah 51:7 says “do not fear the reproach of men.”

• The Greek word genneas does not imply sexual conception;

  • It is more along the lines of being miraculously formed in the womb as with Isaiah 49:5

  • Even more, it could be understood as miraculously placed in the womb.

  • The Nicene Creed attempts to deal with this by saying Jesus is “begotten not made, of one essence with the father by whom all things were made.”

• Jesus’ Hebrew/Aramaic name is Yeshua, which means salvation.

  • This is wordplay, albeit highly significant wordplay

  • אֶת־שְׁמוֹ יֵשׁוּעַ כִּי הוּא יוֹשִׁיעַ

• Matthew likely meant “His people” denotatively (literally). His people were the Jewish people.

  • The Jews are His natural born people.

  • Gentiles that are His are His by adoption (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:5) and grafting (Romans 11)

Matthew 1:22-23 Jesus Fulfills Isaiah 7:14

• Matthew is using a literary device called inclusio.

  • Inclusio is using the same or similar wording at both the beginning and the ending of a paragraph, passage, or in this case an entire book.

  • If we consider the genealogy a preamble, he’s essentially beginning his gospel with “God with us”

  • Matthew ends his gospel with “I AM with you.”

• Here is the first of the statements on fulfilled prophecy cited by Matthew.

  • The photo is from the “Great Isaiah Scroll” one of the Dead Sea scrolls which dates to the 2^nd century BC that was discovered in 1947. The bottom two lines are Isaiah 7:14.⁷

Answering Common Challenges to Matthew 1:23

• Those with more conservative theological beliefs would contend Matthew was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

  • Through this lens, we contend Matthew supernaturally saw that Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the birth of Immanuel had messianic fulfillment by the virgin birth of Yeshua.
  • Therefore, theological conservatives have less of a problem taking Matthew (and indeed the entire Bible) at face value than do those with a more liberal Christian worldview or a non-Christian worldview.

• Anti-missionaries⁸ and other critics/skeptics often cite several problems with Matthew’s hermaneutical methods.

  • For the most part, these arguments do have some validity; therefore, we believe such exploration is a worthwhile exercise, even though those of us reading this commentary may be firm in our beliefs.
  • It is to our benefit to know and understand common so-called “problems” with the Bible to have a ready response if asked.

• 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to be prepared to give every man an answer for the hope that is within us doing so with gentleness and respect.

  • Part of discipleship is having that initial conversation with a non-believer, whether that person is a skeptic or has never heard Jesus.

  • We are called to provide reasons, and sound, logical arguments, for the hope we have.

  • Additionally, if not checked, seeds of doubt can grow into weeds that impede our own discipleship. We must be absolutely confident that God’s word is true, and we must live like we are confident in it!

  • Dr. Chuck Missler used to say, “if you think you’ve found an error in the Bible, rejoice! There are no errors in the Bible, and the journey you take to confirm that for yourself will result in a blessing.” AMEN!⁹

• At times, such a defense may require us to provide refutations to arguments that attack the core fundamentals of the faith (in this case, the inerrancy of the Apostolic writings).

  • In the spirit of doing so with gentleness and respect, I would say rebutting an argument is ONLY worthwhile if the other person is making a legitimate academic inquiry and seeking an answer in good faith.

  • We should not pick fights or try to win points in a social media discussion.

  • Spending your time and energy answering someone who doesn’t really want to listen to you is an example of “casting your pearls before swine.”

• With this in mind, let’s look at some of the common challenges, and then we’ll provide some rebuttals and rationales.

-   Challenge: **He takes the passage hyper-literally.** Nothing about the passage implies a Virgin will still be a virgin when she conceives. It only requires that she be a virgin when the prophecy was given.
-   Response: Also true; but Matthew was also saying the most supernatural part of the prophecy remained unfulfilled in Ahaz’s day: the fact that the virgin will be a virgin when she conceives.

-   While the prophecy was most directly to King Ahaz (who lived 700 years before Jesus), Isaiah also said, “hear then, HOUSE OF DAVID…” – the prophecy can apply to the entire line; not just one man.

Matthew 1:24-25 Joseph’s Revised Decision

• Stern notes, “Joseph’s behavior indicated that he accepted Yeshua as his son.” The Mishnah states, “he is to be believed; thus Yeshua, as a legally acknowledged son, is entitled to inherit the throne of King David from Joseph.” ¹⁰

  • Perhaps this supports the speculation that (somehow, someway) Jesus WAS Joseph’s son.

• At a minimum, it appears Joseph married Mary immediately to attempt to minimize her (and now their) shame.

  • By doing so, he also created the impression among the 200 or so other townsfolk of Nazareth that he faltered and fathered the child. They probably knew the timing didn’t line up.

  • However, to see both sides, there is another line of thought that says the folk in Nazareth, which means “branch town,” i.e., branch of David, believed the messiah would eventually come from their midst, so maybe the situation isn’t as dire as we might imagine.

  • As we go through the gospels, where it may be of value to our own discipleship, we will try to learn to critically question many of the standard conclusions made and passed down by commentators over the years to see if there might not be another equally plausible explanation for what is going on.

  • Specifically, we will look for examples that allow us to exhibit Leviticus 19:18 better and give others the benefit of the doubt.

• Somehow, word got out, and Jesus’ detractors learned about Jesus’ seemingly inappropriate conception.

• Several examples of ancient anti-Christian literature claim that Jesus resulted from an affair Mary had with a Roman soldier named Pantera (yes, children of the 80s, you heard that right).

  • We only have the one event from Jesus’ childhood where he visits the Temple, so nothing is recorded of any trauma or struggles in His childhood

  • John 8, Psalm 69 and others might indicate the family was subjected to abuse because of the apparent scandal.

• Matthew skips over the birth narrative with the shepherds, which we find in Luke.

• Jewish boys were not named until the 8^th day, at their circumcision

• This is another subtle hint that the Magi were not there the night of Jesus’ birth but came later.

• We’ll spoil this and many other of your favorite Christmas traditions when we get to Luke 2!

References

Bolen, Todd. “Matthew 1.” PowerPoint handout, Santa Clarita, CA, 2018.

———. “Matthew 21.” PowerPoint handout, Santa Clarita, CA, 2018.

Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. 2nd edition (E-Sword). Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, 2014.

Lancaster, Daniel T. “Nativity.” In Chronicles of the Messiah, edited by Boaz D. Michael and Stephen D. Lancaster. Second. Marshfield, MO: First Fruits of Zion, 2014.

Stern, David H. Jewish New Testament Commentary: A Companion Volume to the Jewish New Testament. E-Sword edition. Clarksville, Md.: Lederer Messianic Publications, 1992.

“Mishnah Makkot 1:10.” Accessed August 27, 2022. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Makkot.1.10?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en.

Out of Egypt. Jesus, My Rabbi, 2020. Accessed August 31, 2022. http://friends.ffoz.org/resources/portion-connections/out_of_egypt_1.html.

The Nativity. Jesus, My Rabbi, 2020. Accessed August 31, 2022. http://friends.ffoz.org/resources/portion-connections/the_nativity_1.html.

The Virgin. Video. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Jesus, My Rabbi, 2020. Accessed August 29, 2022. http://friends.ffoz.org/resources/portion-connections/the_virgin_1.html.