[Faith-talk] Baffling Bible Questions Answered for Monday, September 5, 2016

[Paul Smith]

Hello and greetings once again to all astute Bible students out there.  
Time to move on to the New Testament and the Gospel of Matthew.  This 
will take a number of weeks to do, and I hope and pray that among the 
questions and answers given in this series of columns are some that 
you've always wanted answers to.  But let's lose no more time; rather 
let's get into Matthew.



Question:  Who wrote this book, and what themes and issues does it deal with?

Answer:  Matthew was one of Jesus' disciples.  He wrote this book 
sometime before the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.  
Matthew's Gospel is one of three that take a generally chronological 
approach to relate the story of Jesus' life.  Telling the story of 
Jesus for a Jewish audience, Matthew frequently quotes or refers to Old 
Testament prophecies to demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah whom the 
Jewish people expected.  His Gospel explains why Jesus did not 
establish the earthly kingdom that the Jews expected.  Matthew 
emphasizes teachings that explain how believers are to relate to the 
present spiritual kingdom of God; he also promises that Jesus will 
return to openly establish God's rule on earth.

Matthew is distinctive in his lengthy reports of Jesus' teachings.  
Among the longer passages are the Sermon on the Mount (5:1-7:27, 
instructions to His disciples (10:5-42), His teachings through parables 
(13:3-52), His comments on greatness in God's kingdom (18:1-20:28, and 
the preview of history's end (24:4-25:46).



Matthew 1:1-17

Question:  Were there really only 42 generations from creation to 
Christ? How could that possibly be?

Answer:  Jewish genealogies were not complete but typically selected 
and identified key ancestors.  The three groups of 14 are symbolic, 
most likely used because the numeric value of the name _David in Hebrew 
is 14.  The major purpose of this genealogy is to demonstrate that 
Jesus did descend from David's line, for the prophets declared that the 
Messiah would come from David's family.

No one today has genealogical data available to trace his or her 
ancestry back 2,000 years.  Yet, the early Hebrew stress on racial 
purity, as reflected in the Bible's many genealogies, reminds us that 
many families in Israel were able to do just that.  It is not at all 
surprising that the records of those in David's line would be carefully 
preserved.  Interestingly, historians report that the emperor Domitian 
(A.D. 81-96) ordered all descendants of David to be slain.  When two 
were identified from the genealogies and brought before the ruler, he 
saw their calloused hands and realized they were only poor farmers and 
let them go.



Matthew 1:6

Question:  Luke reports that Jesus descended from Nathan (3:31), but 
Matthew says His descent was through Solomon.  Surely, one of the two 
made an error.

Answer:  The reason for the differences in the two genealogies has 
troubled scholars since the second century A.D.  Several solutions have 
been offered that preserve the accuracy of both accounts.  One familiar 
theory is that Matthew gives the line of Joseph, and Luke the line of 
Mary.  From Joseph, Jesus inherited a clear right to the throne held by 
David's son Solomon; from Mary, His human descent from David was 
through another of David's sons, Nathan.  Other theories suggest that 
both Matthew and Luke provide genealogies of Joseph but that one line 
is a throne-succession line, which finally jumped by default to 
Joseph's physical descent line.  The other genealogy, the line of 
Solomon, died out.  While we are unsure which of the various theories 
is correct, it is clear that each succesffully handles the issues of an 
error in Scripture by showing how each genealogy not only can be 
correct but can support the Bible's teaching that Jesus is in David's 
royal line.

And there you have the introduction to the Gospel of Matthew.  We will 
be in this book for quite some time, and as stated previously, I hope 
that some of the Baffling Bible questions answered will be those that 
you've been wondering about.

Before I close this column for this week and for those of you who 
receive my quotes and news tidbits on a daily basis, the news items 
will not appear tomorrow, as I wish to tell you how to access my 
God-led program over Cjoy Internet Radio for tomorrow, especially for 
your friends who don't have computers but who wish to listen and/or 
participate, if in fact they have long-distance plans.

And that will do for this week's baffling Bible questions answered 
column.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing another uplifting literary 
work will be posted, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep 
us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we 
live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul