Hauerwas on Matthew 1 (2)

Continuing on from yesterday’s post… Hauerwas moves along to the genealogy that is found in verses 2-16.  He makes several interesting points about the genealogy: 

There are three ‘movements’ in Matthew’s genealogy:

Movement 1: (verses 2-6; 17a) Abraham to David

Movement 2: (verses 7-11; 17b) David to Exile

Movement 3: (verses 12-16; 17c) Exile to Messiah

The first movement is meant to encapsulate the story of Israel’s triumph.  Hauerwas:  “David clearly represents for Matthew the climax of Israel’s history” (p.31).  The second movement tells the story of Israel’s loss - “climaxing” with the Babylonian exile.  The third movement tells the story of restoration - climaxing with the birth of Jesus - the long-awaited king.

Again, I really enjoy this kind of thing - because I love seeing the intention behind the writing of the gospel.  There is so much more going on than we often realize.  In terms of the genealogy in particular:  how often have I skipped over the first 17 verses of Matthew in order to get to the birth (Christmas) narratives?  More times than I care to admit.  But between yesterday’s post and today’s - it’s clear that the first 17 verses were pregnant with meaning for Matthew.

He infers the entire history of Israel - simply by the way he groups generations together - and he telegraphs the significance of Jesus - simply by connecting his name to the name of two other important figures in OT history.  Whether Matthew really meant all this - I don’t know.  Whether Hauerwas is right on all of this - I also don’t know.  But what I do know and have experienced:  God is able to continually shine new light upon the scriptures.  It is remarkable what can be found there - even after hundreds of readings.  I appreciate this about the scriptures - they are alive and active - so they never grow static or stale… they can never be completely mastered - because they speak afresh to each new generation and each new set of problems and issues that each generation is tasked with facing.  I am grateful to God for the depth and breadth of the scriptures He has given to us.

And we aren’t even done with Matthew 1!