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Prophecies fulfilled
o 1:23 (Is 7:14)
 Hebrew “young woman” versus Greek “virgin”
 Given Saint Matthew’s audience (Greek-speaking Jews) and also the language
in which his book was originally written (Greek), it is clear that Saint
Matthew intended “virgin” to be his meaning here
 Context
 Under King Ahaz, Jerusalem is besieged, under attack
 Isaiah is urging one course of action; the king’s advisers urging
another course of action; the king is undecided
 Isaiah offers a sign by which Ahaz will be given to know which
course of action to follow
 Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign, indicating that his mind is already
closed to making his own decision
 The sign thus given no longer is intended to persuade the king (since
his mind is closed) but instead will confirm the truth of what Isaiah
has spoken: the child promised will guarantee the future of the
dynasty (the house of David)
o 2:2 (Num 24:17)
 Central figure: Balaam
 Context: Numbers 22 – 24
 En route to the Promised Land, Israel defeats the Amorites
 Balak (king of Moab) attempted an alliance with Midian to resist
Israel and recruited Balaam to prophesy against Israel
 Balaam is bribed and flattered and threatened to curse Israel, but in
consulting God, he refuses, knowing that God blessed Israel and
cannot allow Israel to be cursed
 The reference to “star” occurs in Balaam’s fourth oracle
o 2:5-6 (Mic 5:1; 2 Sam 5:2)
 Mic 5:1
 An announcement of a new David coming to restore his kingship
 Bethlehem is the city of Jesse and of his son David, who was chosen
to be king of the twelve tribes of Israel (1 Samuel 16)
 The name “Bethlehem” means “house of bread”
o An allusion to the Eucharist perhaps?
o Jesus was found lying in a manger
 Wood of the manger  wood of the cross
 Manger: a feeding trough for farm animals
 2 Sam 5:2
 The people of Israel recalling the promise of the Lord that King
David would be shepherd
 The Hebrew word translates “to shepherd,” and the connotation is
that the ruler would use persuasion rather than force on account of
being a pastoral leader (Jesus uses parables rather than power)
o 2:15 (Hos 11:1)
 Literature and oral tradition of the ancient near east often gave notable
figures a divine ancestry; Jesus, of course, is divine by His very nature
 The context in Hosea is about the strained relationship between a loving
God and a disobedient, rebellious Chosen People
 Seen as a messianic prophecy, this could be an indication of how intimately
united with His people Jesus understands Himself to be (cf. Acts 9:4-5)
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o 2:18 (Jer 31:15)
 Ramah was a city in the northern Kingdom
 Rachel
 A wife of Jacob/Israel and mother of Joseph (who himself gave rise
to the two half-tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh)
 An ancient tradition has her tomb located near Bethlehem
 The northern Kingdom: decimated by the Assyrians (total war; terror tactics)
 Given Rachel’s tomb’s proximity to Bethlehem (where Jesus was born, where
the Innocents were killed) and given also the slaughter of the Innocents (not
unlike the slaughter of the northern Kingdom), it is readily seen how this text
from the Prophet Jeremiah could be understood as a messianic prophecy
o 2:23
 No direct reference to Nazareth or Nazorean in the Old Testament
 Is 11:1 (“…from his roots a bud shall blossom.”)  “bud” in ancient
Hebrew is neser, from which possibly “Nazareth” is derived
 Jdgs 13:5, 7 (in both verses: “No razor shall touch his head, for the boy is to
be a nazirite for God from the womb.”)  “nazirite” could be a linguistic
basis for “Nazareth”
Matthew 1
o Genealogy (1:1-17)
 Drawing upon both biblical tradition and Jewish lore, Saint Matthew portrays
Jesus as reliving the Exodus experience of Israel; His rejection by His own
people and His Passion are foreshadowed by the troubled reaction of “all
Jerusalem” to the question of the Magi who sought the “newborn King of
the Jews” and King Herod’s attempt to have Him killed
 The Magi who do Him homage prefigure the Gentiles who will accept the
preaching of the Gospel
 The chief links of this genealogical chain (Abraham; David) are highlighted
 David is mentioned first to emphasize that Jesus is the royal Messiah
 Abraham is mentioned not only because he is the father of the nation
Israel but also to emphasize the universal cope of Jesus’ mission
(Gen 22:18: “…and in your descendants all the nations of the earth
will find blessing, because you obeyed My command.”)
 Three sets of fourteen generations (fourteen is the numerical value of the
Hebrew letters forming the name of David  D+W+D = 4+6+4 = 14)
 Albeit a cumbersome way to begin an important book, the genealogy as a
literary device was common in the oral tradition of the ancient near east in
instances of royal lineage; the very fact of the use of this literary device of
genealogy, therefore, in and of itself emphasizes the royalty of Jesus Christ
 This genealogy teaches an important lesson insofar as it briefly incorporates
the whole of Old Testament history and thought into this Gospel narrative
as the proximate background of Jesus; basically, it says that if one wants to
know and understand Jesus, then one needs to read the Old Testament
o “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ….”
 “Book” may suggest that Saint Matthew intended his writing to be a sort of
textbook or instruction manual for Church leaders
 Saint Mark calls his writing “Gospel” (a form of preaching; perhaps because
Saint Mark’s is the earliest-written of the four Gospel narratives, and it was
his main project to put to writing what had only been oral tradition then)
 Saint Luke calls his writing “narrative” (suggesting story, rather than actual
manual instruction)
 “Genealogy” is derived from the Greek genesis
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The Greek genesis can be translated “genealogy” (Mt 1:1), “birth” (Mt
1:18), and “beginning” (Gen 1:1; Jn 1:1)
Saint Matthew’s use of this term could be generic, and/or it could be
a deliberate allusion to the Book of Genesis, the preeminent Old
Testament book of Creation
o “Jesus”
 Jesus is Greek; Joshua (or Yeshue) is Hebrew;
 Both versions of the name mean “God saves,” or “savior” (originally, and
more accurately, it means: “Yahweh, help!”)
o Jesus’ various titles
 Christ
 Greek Xristos (the chi-rho being a very ancient Christian symbol,
comprised of the first two letters in the word Xristos)
 Hebrew “Messiah”
 Both versions of the word meaning “anointed one”
 Son of David
 End-time successor of King David
 Restorer of Israel as God’s people, free and sovereign
 Son of Abraham
 A generic title for any Jew
 Abraham, being the father of the nation Israel, claims fatherhood of
all members of the nation Israel, Jesus included
o The birth of Jesus
o Prominently features Saint Joseph
o (homily, 4th Sunday in Advent)
Matthew 2
o The Magi
 The term “magi” originally was a designation of the Persian priestly caste; it
later came to reference those who were regarded as having more than human
knowledge
 Magi, this caste of wise men, were variously associated with dream
interpretations, Zoroastrianism, astrology, and magic
 The Magi might also have been kings of the east
 Ps 72:10, 15  “the kings of Tarshish and the islands bring tribute,
the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts…. Long may he live, receiving
gold from Sheba, prayed for without cease, blessed day by day.”
 Is 60:6  “Caravans of camels shall cover you, dromedaries of
Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba shall come bearing gold and
frankincense, and heralding the praises of the Lord.”
 Tradition later holds the Magi to have been three in number (though no
number is specified here) because of the number of gifts given
 These Magi were likely astrologers, given their interest in a “star at its rising”
 The “star at its rising”  it was a common ancient belief that a new start
appeared at the time of a ruler’s birth
 The gifts
 Gold: symbolizing the kingship of Jesus
 Frankincense: symbolizing the divinity of Jesus
 Myrrh (used for preparing bodies for burial): symbolizing the
redemptive suffering and death of Jesus