Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 47:1 (NA 1996)
Article: Genealogical Annotation In Genesis As Background For The Matthean Genealogy Of Jesus
Author: John Nolland

TynBul 47:1 (1996) p. 115

Genealogical Annotation In Genesis
As Background For The Matthean
Genealogy Of Jesus

John Nolland

Summary

The Matthean genealogy can helpfully be classified as an annotated genealogy, a type of genealogy which is notable in Genesis. Annotation and other forms of breach of standard patterns in the Genesis genealogies function particularly to set genealogies into their wider narrative context and to ensure that the genealogies function as compressed tellings of the history that stands behind them. It is likely that Matthew learned his craft for the creation of an annotated genealogy from study of the genealogical material in Genesis.

Quite apart from the framing information provided in Matthew 1:1 and 17, the simple father–son sequence of the Matthean genealogy (‘A produced1 [ἐγέννησεν] B, B produced C,…’) is interrupted at a number of points by the insertion of further information of one kind or another. For example, we learn that ‘Jacob produced Judah and his brothers’ (v. 2; cf. v. 11); we are given the names (or other identifying description) of the mothers on five occasions (vv. 3, 5, 6, 16); the Babylonian exile is mentioned in vv. 11 and 12; and Jesus is further identified in v. 16 as ‘who is called Christ’. Another kind of disturbance to the regular pattern is also found at the end of the genealogy (v. 16), where, in connection with the origins of Jesus, the passive of the verb referring to reproduction is used: ‘Jesus was produced (ἐγεννήθη).’ Other more subtle disturbances can be

TynBul 47:1 (1996) p. 116

identified by comparing the Matthean list with the pertinent Old Testament genealogical information.2

The genealogy is a much studied section of Matthew,3 and each of the features identified above has been commented upon in the scholarship with varying degrees of helpfulness. But what seems to be lacking is a recognition that the annotations constitute a feature of th...