NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible CBSB_Digital Sampler | Page 33
Matthew 1:25 | 1609
from David to the exile to Babylon, and
fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 This is how the b
irth of J esus the Mes
siah came about a : His mother Mary was
pledged to be married to Joseph, but be
fore they came together, she was f ound to
be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. o 19 Be
cause Joseph her husband was faithful to
the law, and yet b did not want to expose
her to public disgrace, he had in mind to
divorce p her quietly.
20
But after he had considered this, an
angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do
not be afraid to take Mary home as your
wife, because what is conceived in her is
1:18 o Lk 1:35
1:19 p Dt 24:1
1:21 q Lk 1:31
r Lk 2:11;
Ac 5:31; 13:23,
28
1:23 s Isa 7:14;
8:8, 10
1:25 t ver 21
note on v. 1). Some scholars point out that when “David”
is spelled in Hebrew letters and calculated as numbers
(Hebrew used letters also as numbers), it comes out to 14.
Some other scholars attribute this to coi ncidence.
1:18 before they came together. Whenever possible,
biographers of important figures reported the figures’
honorable ancestry, honorable behavior of their par-
ents, or special circumstances surrounding their birth.
Those who compare Jesus’ virgin birth to Greek stories
about gods impregnating women, however, appeal to a
milieu quite foreign to this account. In the Greek stories,
the gods are many, are immoral, and impregnate women
who are thus not virgins. Much more relevant are Biblical
accounts of God empowering supernatural births in the
OT (Ge 21:1 – 2; 25:21; 30:22; Jdg 13:3). Even among miracu-
lous births, however, God does something new: J esus is
born not merely from someone previously unable to bear,
but from a virgin.
Greek men, on average, were more than ten years older
than their brides, because Greeks had a shortage of mar-
riageable women (sources suggest that girl babies were
discarded more often than boys). Jewish men, however,
were usually only a few years older than their wives; both
genders assumed some adult responsibilities at puberty,
but men would often work a few years so they could pro-
vide financial stability for marriage. Betrothal involved a
financial agreement between families. It often lasted
about a year; in conservative Galilean families the couple
could not be together alone before the wedding, so
Joseph may not have known Mary very well.
1:19 divorce her quietly. More binding than modern
Western engagements, betrothal could be ended only
by divorce or by the death of one of the partners. Sexual
unfaithfulness was grounds for divorce throughout the
ancient world; both law and custom in fact required a
man to divorce an unfaithful wife or fiancée. (Romans did
not allow subject peoples to execute convicted persons
without Roman permission in this period; although some
lynchings may have occurred in secret, they were rare, so
Mary likely faced divorce rather than death [see Lev 20:10].)
A Jewish man who divorced a faithful wife had to refund
the money she brought into the marriage (normally a gift
from her father). In the case of an unfaithful wife, however,
the husband could keep this money, plus he was entitled
to a refund of any money he may have paid the father as
a bride price. (Paying the father was the traditional Israel-
ite custom; the father giving his daughter a monetary gift
was a more recent but now widespread custom.) Joseph
from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give b
irth
to a son, and you are to give him the name
Jesus, c q because he will save his people
from their sins.” r
22 All this took p
lace to fulfill what the
Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The
virgin will conceive and give b
irth to a
son, and they will call him Immanuel” d s
(which m
eans “God with us”).
24 When Jo
seph woke up, he did what
the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he
did not consummate their marriage until
she gave birth to a son. And he gave him
the name Jesus. t
a 18 Or The
origin of Jesus the Messiah was like this
b 19 Or was a righteous man and c 21 Jesus is the
Greek form of Joshua, which means the L ord saves.
d 23 Isaiah 7:14
might thus have profited financially by divorcing Mary
in front of elders, in a court setting. Instead, sensitive to
her shame, he prefers a private divorce. A private divorce
meant giving her a certificate of divorce, which would
specify her freedom to marry someone else, in front of
two or three witnesses.
1:20 angel. The angel of the Lord sometimes announced
births (Ge 16:10; Jdg 13:3) and other events (e.g.,
Ge 22:15 – 18). This angel appears to Joseph especially in
dreams (here; 2:13,19), a common way that God speaks
in Scripture (e.g., Ge 20:3; 31:24; 1Ki 3:5), sometimes by
his angel (Ge 31:11; cf. Ge 28:12). The first Joseph heard
God through dreams (Ge 37:5,9). As here, divine mes-
sages often encouraged people not to fear (e.g., Ge 15:1;
21:17; 26:24; 46:3). Greeks often reported dreams about
deceased persons, but in Biblical dreams God or angels
are the most common speakers.
1:21 Biblical birth announcements sometimes included
these elements: a woman “will bear a son” (Ge 16:11;
17:19,21; Jdg 13:3,5) “and you will call his name” (Ge 16:11;
17:19; Isa 7:14; 8:3). Jesus is the same name in Greek as
Joshua, which in its earliest form (Yehoshua) means “God
is salvation” (eventually contracted to Yeshua).
1:22 – 23 to fulfill what the Lord had said through the
prophet: “The virgin will conceive . . . and they will call him
Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). In context, the
son of Isa 7:14 was a sign to King Ahaz, and was prob-
ably Isaiah’s own son (Isa 7:10 – 17; 8:3 – 4). Isaiah’s children’s
names were for “signs” to Israel (Isa 8:18). Nevertheless, Isa-
iah’s son signified not only immediate deliverance in their
own time, but pointed to the ultimate deliverance with
the future birth of the ultimate Davidic ruler (Isa 9:6 – 7;
cf. Isa 11:1 – 5). That would be the ultimate fulfillment of
the promise of “Immanuel” (Isa 7:14), “God with us”: the
king would himself be the “Mighty God” (Isa 9:6), a title for
God elsewhere in Isaiah (Isa 10:21). Matthew has in mind
the context of the entire section of Isaiah, which he again
cites soon afterward (see Isa 9:1 – 2 in Mt 4:15 – 16).
1:24 took Mary home as his wife. If Mary’s pregnancy was
known, Joseph could repudiate responsibility and per-
haps evade suspicion by divorcing her. By instead marry-
ing her, Joseph assumes responsibility for the pregnancy,
embracing her shame. The couple could long be a mat-
ter of village gossip. Joseph valued God’s direct calling
through a dream more than what others thought of him.
1:25 did not consummate their marriage. Joseph and Mary
could not avoid physical closeness; often newly married
couples lived together in a small room on top of the home