Matthew 1:1 Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament
From Textus Receptus
Verse 1
Matthew 1:1. Βιβλος Γενέσεως—the Book, or Roll, of the Generation) A phrase employed by the LXX. in Genesis 2:4; Genesis 5:1. The books of the New Testament, however, being written at so early a period, abound with Hebraisms: and the Divine Wisdom provided, that the Greek version of the Old Testament should prepare the language, which would be the fittest vehicle for the teaching of the New. This title, however, the genealogy,
(1) refers, strictly speaking, to what immediately follows (as appears from the remainder of the first verse), though it applies also to the whole book, the object of which is to prove that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of David, etc., [in whom, as being the promised Messiah, the prophecies of the Old Testament have received their fulfilment. Hence it is that from time to time the evangelist frequently repeats the formula, “That it might be fulfilled.”—Vers. Germ.] See Matthew 1:20, and ch. Matthew 9:27, etc. For Scripture is wont to combine with genealogies the reasons for introducing them. See Genesis 5:1; Genesis 6:9.—Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, of Jesus Christ) The compound appellation, JESUS-CHRIST, or CHRIST-JESUS, or the simple one of CHRIST, employed by antonomasia,
(2) came into use after the Pentecostal descent of the Holy Spirit. The four Gospels, therefore, have it only at their commencements and conclusions, the other writings everywhere.—See Notes on Romans 3:24 and Galatians 2:16. Comp. Matthew 1:16 below.—υἱοῦ Δαυὶδ,
(3) υἱοῦʼ Αβραάμ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham) Our Lord is called the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, because He was promised to both. Abraham was the first, David the last of men to whom that promise was made; whence He is called the Son of David, as though David had been His immediate progenitor.—(See Rhenferd
(4) Opera Philologica, p. 715.) Both of these patriarchs received the announcement with faith and joy (See John 8:56; and Matthew 22:43).
Each of those mentioned in the following list was acquainted with the names of those who preceded, but not of those who came after him. Oh, with what delight would they have read this genealogy, in which we take so little interest! An allusion is here made by anticipation to the three Fourteens (afterwards mentioned in the 17th verse), of which the first is distinguished by the name of Abraham, the second by that of David, whilst the third, commencing, not like the others with a proper name, but with the Babylonian Captivity, is crowned with the name of Jesus Christ Himself: for the first and the second Fourteen contain the promise, the third its fulfilment. The narration, however, in the first verse goes backward from Christ to David, from David to Abraham. And so much the more conveniently is Abraham put here in the second place, because he comes on the scene immediately again in the following verse. St Mark, however, in the opening of his Gospel, calls Jesus the Son, not of David, but of GOD, because he begins his narration with the baptism of John, by whom our Lord was pointed out as the Son of God. Thus each of these evangelists declares the scope of his work in the title. The former part of this verse contains the sum of the New Testament—the latter part, the recapitulation of the Old.
