Most of Matthew’s Genealogy of Christ (Matt. 1:2-16) consists of statements of the form “X begat Y”. But there are some additions – called annotations in the literature. In this article, I suggest that these annotations are carefully located in the genealogical table and that the pattern and content of these annotations enhances an important aspect of the theological purpose and function of the table – namely that of pointing to the fulfilling, surpassing and replacing of Israel by Jesus Christ as the One who, as the Messiah, will fulfil Israel’s destiny and bring the blessings promised to Abraham to the Gentiles.
The article can be accessed by clicking on the link below. Please let me know your thoughts on this!
The theme of Jesus as the “New Israel” is developed in many wonderful ways in Matthew’s Gospel, and this topic is excellently introduced in Peter Leithart’s freely downloadable article “Jesus as Israel – the Typological Structure of Matthew’s Gospel”.