She was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit – Matthew 1:18
She was
found to be pregnant by the
Holy Spirit. There are several times in the OT where a married woman unexpectedly became pregnant by a direct intervention of God (Gen. 18:10-12; Gen. 21:1-13; Gen. 25:21; 1 Sam. 1:20; cf. also Luke 1:24). But never before had a virgin (like Mary) become pregnant directly by the Holy Spirit. This is an important part of the Christian faith that Jesus was truly human, born of a woman, but was also divine in nature by the Holy Spirit, unlike any other human. The meaning of the reference to a young woman
virgin (Heb.
'almah) in Isa 7:14 is debated, but undoubtedly Matthew understands Mary to be a virgin until after Jesus is born (Matt. 1:25).
Joseph was a righteous man – Matthew 1:19
Her
husband,
Joseph, was a
righteous man, and he did not want to
disgrace her publicly. One of the most important themes in the Gospel of Matthew is righteousness (Matt. 5:20; 6:1). Joseph is the first person in Matthew to be described as righteous. He is called righteous because he showed compassion to Mary by planning to divorce her mercifully without shaming her, even though it seemed clear that she has wronged him. Showing mercy or compassion for others is what Jesus describes as true righteousness (Matt. 5:7; 9:13; 18:21-35).
You will call his name Jesus - Matthew 1:21
You will
call his
name Jesus, for he will
save his
people from their
sins. Jesus' name is the Greek equivalent of Joshua and both names mean "God saves." Jesus saving people from their sins is the biggest idea in the Gospels. This is why each of the Gospels puts a lot of emphasis on Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead as the means of salvation. See
WLC 40,41;
BC 21,22;
HC 29
All this happened to fulfill what was spoken – Matthew 1:22
All this
happened to
fulfill what was
spoken by the
Lord. After giving Jesus' genealogy, Matthew tells five stories about Jesus' birth and childhood, each of which has a "fulfillment quotation" (Matt. 1:23; 2:5-6; 2:15; 2:17-18; 2:23). These are quotations from the OT that connect Jesus' story with God's work in Israel's history, illustrating the inner-connections. God is doing something new through Jesus, but it is built on and completes everything he did before.
Where is he who was born King of the Jews? - Matthew 2:2
Where is he who was
born King of the
Jews? These learned, non-Jewish men who probably came from Babylon in the East, correctly identified who Jesus was – the Jewish King whom God had promised to send to bring his kingdom to the world. The learned men came to Jerusalem, the Jewish capital, because they assumed this is where the infant king would be. Instead they found a false and evil king, Herod, who will try to kill the infant Jesus (Matt. 2:16).
Chief priests and scribes - Matthew 2:4
All the chief
priests and
scribes of the
people. Judaism had two main emphases, God's written Word and the system of sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem. Therefore, the most important leaders were the priests who were in charge of the temple and the scribes who studied and taught God's Word. Herod asked these people to explain to him the prophecies about the Jewish king, the Christ. These two groups of people will turn out to be Jesus' greatest enemies.
Related Resources
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License.
