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Reflections on Matthew’s Gospel
Reflection 2
Mike Wilson here and this is the second in our series of reflections on Matthew’s Gospel. Today we
continue our consideration of the all-important first verse of Matthew’s Gospel.
As we observed in the first podcast, Matthew literally begins with these words: “The book of the
genesis of Jesus Christ, the son of David, son of Abraham.” Those translations err which, like the New
International Version, understand the first verse to be merely “the record of the genealogy of Jesus
Christ, the son of David, son of Abraham. “ No! Matthew’s opening statement introduces the entire
Gospel. In this book, as indicated by these introductory words, Matthew is saying that we will only
understand the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ if we understand his origin or beginning as the one who
lives to fulfil all that God purposed and promised to achieve through Abraham and David.
In appreciating just how momentous the opening words of this Gospel truly are we need to give
thought to various considerations, including such things as the various ways in which the word
γενεσις (genesis) might be translated; the relationship of the opening statement to the genealogy
that immediately follows; the relationship between verse 1 and verse 18 where the exact phrase
“the genesis of Jesus Christ” appears yet again; the significance of the fact that the phrase “the book
of the genesis” (Βιβλος γενεσεως) is the same as that used in the Greek translation (the Septuagint)
at Genesis 2:4 and Genesis 5:1; the immense emphasis Matthew places on the fulfilment of God’s
promises and purposes in the Lord Jesus Christ, considering to what extent this note of fulfilment is
also implicit in the first verse of the Gospel; the fact that the word genesis, often rendered “origin”
or “beginning” stands at the very threshold of this Gospel, while the word telos, often translated
“end” stands at the very close of this book. That is, the Gospel moves from genesis to telos, from
beginning to end. We will also need to assess the way Matthew opens by identifying Jesus Messiah
as the Abrahamic King and ask ourselves how integral this identity of Jesus as the Abrahamic King is
to the Gospel as a whole.
First consider the key word γενεσις (genesis). This word is used both in verse 1 and in verse 18. The
NIV translates each use differently. In verse 1 it translates this word as “genealogy” in the mistaken
belief that Matthew’s opening statement only introduces the genealogy of verses 2-17. In verse 18,
however, the NIV translates γενεσις as “birth”, speaking of “the birth of Jesus Christ”. Similarly, Luke
1:14 clearly uses γενεσις to refer to the “birth” of Jesus. There are two other uses of this word in the
New Testament, both in the book of James.
The NIV renders James 1:23 like this: “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is
like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately
forgets what he looks like.” The New American Standard Bible, like the King James and the Amplified
Bible speaks of a man looking at his “natural face” in a mirror, with the key phrase being “natural
face”, that is, “the face of genesis (γενεσις).” The idea of origin is here, that is, when one looks in the
mirror one is seeing the face one was born with. Of course, my face as a 60 year old differs
appreciably from the way my face looked when I was born. If my photo was mixed in with a large
number of other baby photos it would be very difficult to single out my own baby photo.
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Nevertheless, the way my face looks today is predetermined by the nature of my face at birth and
that it was lies behind the expression “the face of birth” or “face of origin”, hence “natural face.”
The second use of γενεσις in James is at 3:6, which the NIV translates: “The tongue also is a fire, a
world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his
life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” The key phrase is “the whole course of his life.” The King
James translates this as “the course of nature”, the American Standard Version has “the wheel of
nature” and the Amplified Bible renders it “the wheel of birth”. Two words are involved. The first is
the word τροχός (trochos). This word, from which we derive our English word truck, means “a
wheel,” or indeed anything made for revolving and running, hence the translations “course” or
“cycle”. The second word variously translated as “life”, “nature” or “birth” is our word γενεσις. The
Common English Bible translates “our entire life” and similarly the New Century Bible “all of life.” On
this basis a number of commentators have reasoned that in Matthew 1:1 Matthew commences to
write a book or record about the “life” of Christ.
It is possible that James’ phrase – the wheel of genesis- associated as it is with fire, recalls an horrific
instrument of torture used in the Greek-speaking world to force confessions from victims. In the 4th
Book of Maccabees 9, probably written sometime in the 1st century BC or 1st century AD, we read
how this instrument of torture was used to kill one of seven Hebrew brothers. The wheel stretched
his limbs and dislocated his joints, with sharp spikes heated in the fire piercing his sides and causing
his intestines to be burnt. If this is the background of James’ phrase then the idea is that by setting
on fire the wheel of life the tongue increases the pain and misery people suffer in their lives.
In all the various usages of the word γενεσις there is some notion of origination. Whether James had
an instrument of torture in mind or not, his phrase refers to the wheel which is set in motion at
birth, and which continues moving throughout one’s entire life.
It is possible to translate the word γενεσις as used in Matthew 1:1 as “genealogy”, as many
translations do. However, this conclusion is NOT fundamentally based on the meaning of γενεσις but
rather on an assumption concerning the relationship of the first verse of the book to the genealogy
that immediately follows. All I want to stress at this point is that Matthew’s use of γενεσις in the
opening verse of his book is open to being understood in a very different way. It is my contention
that Matthew writes his Gospel as “the book of the origin of Jesus Christ”, that we will only
understand the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ if we understand his origin or beginning as the one who
lives to fulfil all that God purposed and promised to achieve through Abraham and David.