December 17th, 2022

The Gospel reading for this Sunday [Matthew 1:18-25], at its start, deals with the verse that was examined last week. That verse will be looked at again in this writing, but this time the words that follow will also be included. These words will explain in more detail what the ‘genesis’ of Jesus Christ is. The translation below is somewhat literal, and there are places where it will be noticeably different from what is given in Sunday’s reading.

And of Jesus Christ, the genesis was thus. Being betrothed the mother of him, Mary, to Joseph, before they came together, she was found in womb having by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, the husband of her, righteous being and not wishing to hold her up as an example, resolved secretly to dismiss her. And these things him thinking on, behold, an angel of the Lord by a dream appeared to him saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary, the wife of you, for the thing in her is begotten from the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you shall call the name of him Jesus, for he himself will save the people of him from the sins of them.’ And this all has happened in order that might be fulfilled, the thing spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying, ‘Behold, the virgin in womb will have, and will bear a son, and they will call the name of him Emmanuel,’ which is being interpreted, with us the God. And being raised, the Joseph, from the sleep, did as commanded him the angel of the Lord, and he took the wife of him, and he knew her not until she bore a son, and he called the name of him Jesus.

The living creature that is connected to this account, the Gospel according to Matthew, is that of a man. And that seems a normal thing, to have a person connected to a gospel account that talks about people. But the difference with this account, especially when compared to the others, is that there is an intricate structure in some of the texts.
An intricate structure may also be seen in the first words of the first man regarding anything, and the first words we hear him speaking is about the naming of his wife. This is found in Genesis 2:23, and a somewhat-literal translation is what follows:

And he said, the man: ‘This, the now, bone from bones of me, and flesh from flesh of me, to this, he shall be called “woman”, specificity, from man she was taken, this.’

In this case, there is the first word ‘this’, and then there are five words, and then the word ‘to this’ (it is one word in Hebrew), and then, there are five words again, and then the word ‘this’.

There are some significant connections with the gospel text. For one thing, this could be called the naming of Jesus. And it is quite interesting that there is the first occurrence of the name ‘Jesus’, and then there are seventy-eight words, then the name ‘Jesus’ occurs again, and then, after seventy-eight more words, the name ‘Jesus’ is at the very end of the text.
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The name Jesus is at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the text. Perhaps that may be a connection to the very end of the entire account where Jesus says that ‘I myself am with you all the days until the end of the age [Matthew 28:20b].’ And perhaps Matthew, the tax collector, was very good at counting.