Verse by Verse Commentary on Gospel of Matthew

[Pages:1695]Verse by Verse Commentary on Gospel of Matthew

Duncan Heaster

Published: 2014 Categorie(s): Tag(s): christadelphian matthew gospel commentary verse chapter

1

1 Chapter

Introduction

Introduction Every true Christian has a solemn duty to make a serious

study of the Gospel records. The depth and nature of the study will vary widely between individuals; for each individual relationship with the Lord Jesus is unique, and we are all wired differently. These notes are part of my personal path in seeking to know Him through the medium of the written word, and I only share them with you in the hope they may play a part in helping you in some aspects of your knowing of Him. But at the outset, be aware that the written word of the Gospel records is not the only way to know Jesus. He makes Himself known to us in various ways. The written word is but one of them- but without it, the other ways of the Lord's self-revelation are unlikely to be perceived by us as intended. Hence this book.

I've read a lot of theology and Biblical studies. Much is made of the differences between the Gospel records, and there are various arguments about structure. I make little reference to these things; not because I am ignorant of them, but because none of the theories presented strike me as very compelling. There are so many suggested structures- but the multiplicity of them suggests that they are in the eye of the beholder rather than in the intention of the writer. And more significantly, I fail to perceive in the genre of the Gospel records any intention by the authors (nor the inspired Author behind them) that the interpretation of their words depends upon perception of structure. Nor does their interpretation and meaning appear to be enhanced by any theories of how (e.g.) Matthew may have borrowed from Mark or `Q'.

By all means let me know if I've got something really wrong in any of my thoughts. Join me in praying daily to understand

2

our Lord Jesus, and to understand, trust and obey His words. Know Him, that we might make Him known. Read something from the Gospels each day, and meditate upon it. And thereby may the word become flesh in each of us, as it was in Him to perfection. And may we learn ever more deeply the simple truth many of us were taught from early childhood: "Jesus loves me, this I know- for the Bible tells me so".

For Him,

Duncan Heaster dh@

Contents

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Digression 1 John and Isaiah 40 Chapter 4 Digression 2 The Wilderness Temptations Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Digression 3 "Judge not" Chapter 8 Digression 4 "Let the dead bury their dead" Digression 5 Legion and the Gadarene Pigs Chapter 9 Digression 6 The Table Manners of Jesus Chapter 10 Digression 7 Matthew 10:16-39 And The Last Days Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Digression 8 Unclean Spirits in Mt. 12:44,45 Digression 9 Mary's Mid-Life Crisis Chapter 13 Digression 10: The PARABLE OF THE WHEAT AND TARES

IN A LAST DAYS CONTEXT Chapter 14

3

Digression 11: The Openness of Jesus in Feeding the 5000 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Digression 12: Peter The Rock Digression 13: The Compulsion Of The Cross Chapter 17 Digression 14: Curing of Psychosomatic Illness Chapter 18 Digression 15: What Is Conversion? Digression 16: The Indebted Servant of Luke 16 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Digression 17: Jesus: A Man Misunderstood Digression 18: The Two Sons (Mt. 21:28-32)

Digression 19: The Hopefulness of the Father and Son Chapter 22 Digression 20: Two Invitations- Matthew 22:4 Digression 21: The Living Word of God Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Digression 22: The Nature of Prophecy Digression 23: The Upper Room Discourse (John 14-16) and the Olivet Prophecy Digression 24: Does The Olivet Prophecy Have A Break In Fulfillment? Digression 25: Conditional Prophecy in Daniel Digression 26: With Jesus to Judgment Digression 27: The Blossoming Of The Fig Tree Digression 28: Do we Know the Day and the Hour... ? Digression 29: The Days of Noah and the Last Days Chapter 25 Digression 30: A Chronology Of Judgment? Digression 31: God And Time Digression 32: The Devil and His Angels Chapter 26 Digression 33: Caiaphas As "The prince of this world" Digression 34: Was the Last Supper Restricted? Digression 35: The Jewish Satan

4

Chapter 27 Digression 36: "As a sheep before her shearers" Digression 37: The Possibility Of Avoiding The Cross Digression 38: Ongoing Crucifixion And Death Digression 39: The Reality of Crucifixion Digression 40: Joseph And Nicodemus Digression 41: The Central Place of the Crucifixion in the Gospel Records Chapter 28 Digression 42: The Chronology Of The Resurrection Of Christ Appendices: Appendix 1: The Origin of the Gospel Records Appendix 2: The Seven Sayings from the Cross Appendix 3: The Great Commission

5

2 Chapter

Matthew Chapter 1

MATTHEW CHAPTER 1 The Genealogy of Jesus The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David,

the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah begot Perez and Zerah of Tamar and Perez begot Hezron, Hezron begot Ram. 4 Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, Nahshon begot Salmon. 5 Salmon begot Boaz of Rahab and Boaz begot Obed of Ruth and Obed begot Jesse. 6 Jesse begot David the king. And David begot Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. 7 And Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, Abijah begot Asa. 8 Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, Joram begot Uzziah. 9 Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, Ahaz begot Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, Amon begot Josiah. 11 Josiah begot Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the captivity in Babylon. 12 And after the captivity in Babylon, Jechoniah begot Shealtiel, Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, Eliakim begot Azor. 14 Azor begot Sadoc, Sadoc begot Achim, Achim begot Eliud. 15 Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, Matthan begot Jacob. 16 Jacob begot 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 to the captivity in Babylon fourteen generations and from the captivity in Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

The Birth of Jesus 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 And

6

Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not willing to make her a public example, decided to send her away secretly. 20 But as he thought on these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying: Joseph you son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she shall give birth to a son, and you shall call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this happened so what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying: 23 The virgin shall be with child and shall give birth to a son; and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. 24 And Joseph woke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual intercourse with her until she had given birth to a son; and he called his name Jesus.

1:1 Book of the generation- "Book", Gk. biblos, suggests a formal volume. It could be that Matthew refers only to the genealogy- but in this case, biblos hardly seems the appropriate word. The Gospels were transcripts of the Gospel message preached by e.g. Matthew, and as time went on and the Lord didn't return, under inspiration they wrote down their standard accounts of the good news. The Greek genesis translated "generation" is also translated "nature" in its' other two occurrences (James 1:23; 3:6). If the "book" refers to the book of the Gospel of Matthew, the idea could be that this is a Gospel which focuses upon the nature of Jesus. Related words occur often in the genealogies- people "begat" [Gk. gennao] their descendants, until Jesus was gennao of Mary (Mt. 1:16). Jesus as a person had a `genesis', He was `generated' by Mary as His ancestors had been `generated' by the `generations' of their ancestors- the whole chapter is a huge blow to the idea that Jesus pre-existed as a person before His birth. His `generation' is presented as being of the same nature as the `generation' of His human ancestors.

Son of Abraham- The Roman emperors and Greek heroes sometimes traced their pedigree back to a god- and therefore the genealogy of Jesus, whom the Gospels present as the ultimate Emperor, is quite radical in this regard. For it traces the

7

pedigree of Jesus back to a man, Abraham. The greatness of Jesus was in his humanity.

1:2 Judah and his brothers- The fact Isaac and Jacob had brothers is carefully omitted- because the descendants of Ishmael and Esau were not counted as the people of God.

1:3 Phares and Zara- Since Jesus was descended through the line of Phares, why mention the birth of Zara- seeing that so many details are omitted in this genealogy, even whole generations, why take space to record this? Perhaps it was because Zara was the first born, but Phares got the birthright. And the genealogies teach us how God delights to work through the underling, the rejected, the humanly weak.

Tamar- A prostitute and adulteress, just like Rahab. See on 1:5.

1:5 Salmon- Of the tribe of Judah, because this is the genealogy through Judah (1:2). The two spies who had been faithful the first time when spies were sent out were Joshua and Calebof the tribes of Ephraim and Judah (Num. 13:6; Jud. 2:9). It seems a fair guess that when the two spies were sent out, they were from these same two tribes. Salmon was a prince of the tribe of Judah- it's a fair guess that he was one of the two spies who went to Rahab, and he subsequently married her.

Rahab- A Gentile and a sinner. Jesus was morally perfect, and yet the genealogy shows how He had much against Him spiritually. We can't blame our lack of spirituality upon our bad background. Note that there was so much intermarriage with Gentiles like Rahab and Ruth throughout Israel's history; their standing with God was therefore never on the basis of ethnic purity, but rather by cultural identity and God's grace. Matthew's genealogy features [unusually, for Jewish genealogies] several women, who had become the ancestors of Messiah through unusual relationships. It's almost as if the genealogy is there in the form that it is to pave the way for the account of Mary's conception of Jesus without a man.

1:6 David the king- Literally "the David the king". The others aren't mentioned as being kings. The implication may be that Jesus was the promised descendant of David and the promises of eternal Kingship made to David's descendant are therefore applicable to Jesus.

8

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download