Oftentimes, a background about the human author of a book of the Bible can provide us with insights about his particular character. However, someone who was completely irrelevant wrote the book of Matthew. What do I say that?

The following presents what little we know about Matthew.

Matthew's original name was Levi. He was called a publican, which is commonly known today as a tax collector. Since Judea was controlled by Rome, for whom did a tax collector work? Rome! So, I am sure you can imagine that tax collectors were the MOST popular people in Judea (just like now…) because not only were they tax collectors, but they were tax collectors for ROME!

One day, Levi was sitting in the tax office collecting taxes. Messiah Jesus walked in, told Levi to follow Him, and renamed him Matthew, meaning Gift from God. Without hesitation, Matthew got up and followed Messiah. Matthew held a big feast for Messiah Jesus that included fellow tax collectors and other compatriots.

Matthew became one of the 12 apostles. Additionally, it is very possible that Matthew was a cousin of Jesus.

According to history, after the crucifixion of Messiah Jesus, Matthew spent about 15 years in the area of Judea. Then he traveled north to Syria, east to Persia, and over to Ethiopia where he was martyred.

We saw the genealogy of Messiah Jesus in our Matthew study Tracing the Genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth: King! According to Jewish thought, the genealogy was critical.

There was something else that was critical: the name.

Is that last question not an intriguing one?

Clearly, this passage is asking questions about God, as follows:

1. What Is His Name?
2. What Is His Son's Name?

Matthew focused on those two questions, as they involved Jesus of Nazareth, in the Matthew 1:18-25 passage. We are going to do the same. The answers to the questions may seem obvious, but maybe they are not.

Before the time of Jesus of Nazareth, if you asked any Jew, who was looking for Messiah:

Almost certainly, the person would have answered:

Matthew 1:1-18 proves that:

Throughout much of the Old Testament, there was a line of thinking that Messiah would be the Son of David. And, most probably, all Jews of the day knew that.

However, there was another line of thought about Messiah that most Jews missed, and Jesus knew that. He caused a real dilemma for the Pharisees one day, as follows:

There is that question:

And the Pharisees responded to Jesus what we would have expected:

Okay, so far so good.

But then the Pharisees missed something:

Who? The Messiah.

And here is God the Father speaking to God the Messiah:

So Messiah Jesus draws this conclusion:

Is that not a great question?

Jesus really put the Pharisees in a dilemma by asking:

It does not seem to make any sense, does it?

This scenario reminds me of a conversation between two radio talk show hosts. One man said that President William McKinley (25^th president of the USA) was named after the Mount McKinley [located in south central Alaska]. The second one disagreed saying I am almost positive Mount McKinley was named for President McKinley. The first man said Oh no! The mountain is A LOT older.

The Pharisees confirmed that Messiah is the Son of David.

So we go to David. David looked at Messiah and called Him

Messiah Jesus asked:

Of course, the Pharisees had no answer.

What was the problem? The Pharisees caught that Messiah was the Son of David throughout most of the days of the Old Testament, but they missed that Messiah was the Son of God.

All of those thousands of years the Jews were waiting for Messiah, but very few caught on that He was also called the Son of God. Additionally, very few caught onto the significance of His Name.

Now we are going to answer two questions:

1. Whose Son Is He?
2. What Is His Name?

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows:

Those who grew up with the King James Bible (KJV) would say Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise.

19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, wanted to send her away secretly.

20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

21 And she will bear a Son; and you will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."

22 Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying:

23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name 'Immanuel,' which translated means, 'God with us.'"

24 And Joseph arose from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, took her as his wife,

25 And kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and they called His name Jesus."

Heavenly Father, we thank You for this passage from Your word.

Thank You for Holy Spirit who wrote this passage. For those of us who are redeemed, we thank You that we have that same Person, Holy Spirit, living within us. Would You use Him within us to interpret the very words that He wrote?

Father, as we look at the two questions about Messiah Jesus: Whose Son Is He? What Is His Name? Please do not let us stop with an intellectual understanding of these two questions, but would You give us application for our lives.

We pray in the name of Jesus, our Messiah. Amen.

Generally, to find out whose son someone is, the first thing you do is to look at the parents. In this case, there seem to be four candidates.

In Matthew 1:18, we have three possibilities:

1. [His mother] Mary.
2. [Who is betrothed to] Joseph.
3. [In this same verse it says she was found to be with child by] Holy Spirit.

And then in Matthew 1:20, we see:

4. [He is] the Son of David.

Let us start with His birth.

18a Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: When His mother Mary.

Whose Son Is He? Is it not interesting that Messiah was to be the Son of David? However, the first reference at Jesus' birth is that He was the son of Mary.

Mary was somebody we do not know very much about. Apparently, she was from a poor family, and clearly, she was a very godly young woman.

One thing that always amazes me when considering great people in the Bible is that I will name individuals such as Adam, Abraham, Moses, Noah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and other prophets, and then from the New Testament, I will name the apostles, but I do not include Mary.

Is that not a shame? Perhaps over time we have over reacted to some idolatry by not listing Mary as one of the great people in the Bible, but she is.

Proof: God Almighty looking over approximately five billion women who have ever lived, and He chose one of them to be the mother of Jesus. He chose Mary.

Mary was extraordinary (whom we would refer to as a good Jewish girl). By the way, we would call her a girl, because at this time, she was probably in her teens.

18b Mary had been betrothed to Joseph.

Here was this good, Jewish girl who was about to marry a good, Jewish boy, Joseph.

As with Mary, there was not much written about Joseph. We know he was a carpenter.

Many of us have the wrong picture of Joseph as a carpenter. I grew up hearing that he was a carpenter, so I pictured Joseph in a tiny room making a cabinet and a chair here and there.

The most common meaning of the word Carpenter was "Master Builder". It is very likely that Joseph built houses, buildings, and possibly, synagogues!

Joseph and Mary were betrothed. That is a difficult concept to grasp, because in the USA, we do not have anything similar to it. Though betrothed is a word that is used today, it is somewhat of an archaic word.

Generally, in western cultures, there are three stages in the marriage process:

1. We date,
2. We are engaged, and then
3. We are married.

The word betrothed is used as a synonym for engaged. However, the betrothal was much more than an engagement in the Orient.

Two families would arrange for a marriage between a young man and a young woman. The families would draw up a binding contract (a promise) that there would be a marriage. Importantly, once the contract was drawn up and signed, the young couple was betrothed—

From that moment on, they were called husband and wife, but there was no physical relationship. In fact, the couple was not even alone together, because after the contract was signed, the husband would go back to his family and the wife would go back to hers. But they were legally married. [I am glad that custom changed!]

The purpose of this betrothal custom was to provide an opportunity to test the faithfulness of the two. At the end of this period (normally it was about one year), there was an actual wedding and wedding feast, which would last about seven days.

The longevity of the traditional Jewish wedding feasts explains why the wine had run out at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. That event was not a simple, afternoon gala; it was a seven-day celebration! [See John 2:1-11.]

Joseph and Mary were betrothed, legally married. They were husband and wife, but they had not come together yet. They were waiting for the wedding, and they were waiting to come together physically.

Then something looks wrong…

18c Before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

The verb was found in the original has an element of surprise. In fact, some ancient manuscripts have the word behold, which [in antiquity] meant:

• Do what?
• Whoa!
• Uh-huh!

How do we know that? Because Matthew seems to be telling this whole story from Joseph's perspective. I believe the word behold is a reflection of Joseph's testimony. That does not mean that Joseph spoke to Matthew, but it must mean that Matthew knew somebody who knew Joseph.

On the other hand, Luke, who gave the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth through Mary (see our Matthew study Tracing the Genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth: King!), certainly appears to be telling the story from Mary's perspective, from her testimony.

The reason I am saying this is:

Joseph was surprised, but Mary was not.

Even before she was pregnant, and after she was betrothed, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to Mary to tell her that she would have a Son by Holy Spirit:

Obviously, Mary did not tell Joseph. We are not told why, but I can imagine that would be a very difficult thing to try to tell somebody, particularly your betrothed husband. Who would have bought that line?

Whatever the reason, it is clear:

Whose Son Is He? Who Are His Parents? Mary was His biological mother. And now we have Joseph, who was betrothed to Jesus' mother. We will learn more about the parents shortly.

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