Notes on Matthew 1:18-25

Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,"

which means, "God is with us."

24When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

What a situation Joseph finds himself in! Mary has been formally given to and accepted by him in a binding ceremony—that’s how engagement worked in those days. However, they have not yet lived together, and she turns up pregnant. Joseph knows he is not the father, for he is a righteous man, and righteous men do not “jump the gun” and impregnate their betrothed—it would bring shame upon both of them were they to be found out.

There are two paths that could be taken according to the Law: Mary could be put to death or public humiliation, according to Deuteronomy 22:13-30. Or she could be put aside, quietly. It is this course that Joseph has resolved to take, being that he is merciful and yet righteous. The Law is clear.

Yet, just as his resolution is firm, an angel appears in a dream and speaks to him. Now certainly, when this happened in the time of the patriarchs, one was expected to listen. There will be other dreams sent from above during the infancy narrative of Jesus that ends at the beginning of chapter 3: the Magi will be warned in a dream not to return and tell Herod where Jesus is (2:12); Joseph will be warned by an angel in a dream to flee to Egypt in 2:13, and then appears again to tell the family to return after Herod dies in 2:19. Another dream warns Joseph to go to Galilee rather than Judea in 2:23.

It is also interesting to see the first word used here to describe an emotion: do not be AFRAID to take Mary as wife. This is the first time this emotion is mentioned in Matthew, but it certainly won’t be the last. When Herod hears of Jesus’s birth from the Magi in 2:3, he is “frightened.” Yet these are two different kinds of fears: Joseph is wary of marrying someone he cannot trust with his good name. Herod is afraid he is going to be supplanted by someone with a better claim to the throne as a true descendant of David, and Herod is an Edomite who “practices Judaism” rather than a Jew by ancestry, as well as a puppet ruling at the will of the Romans. In Matthew 1, Joseph is told not to be afraid before Jesus comes into the world. And the gospel of Matthew will end with an angel reassuring the women at the tomb not to be afraid when they see that Jesus is gone.

And yet it is at verse 20 that Joseph gets surprised: the Law has been trumped by the upcoming birth of this child. This child is not the result of sexual misconduct, but is rather from the Holy Spirit. The old rules do not apply here— and if all the rules that Joseph has lived by to be adjudged a righteous man are gone, where does that leave him? 

Joseph is a prototype, a touchstone, for the readers of Matthew’s Gospel. They too, had dedicated their lives to being righteous according to the Law. They too, are being asked to consider that something new may have begun, and that the Law may be insufficient any more. So pay attention here to how Joseph responds: he accepts and obeys, still behaving with integrity.

Matthew has the angel states that this child’s birth is a fulfillment of the prophecy we read in Isaiah. But there are some differences: the term “young woman” is changed to “virgin,” and instead of the woman naming the child “they” name the child. It is important that Joseph play a part in naming the child. By accepting Mary, he publicly accepts her son as his child, which is why he gets the right to name the child. That was the public admission by a father that a child was his in the days before paternity tests. Jesus is a descendant of David through his claiming by Joseph. Joseph’s ready, generous obedience is held up for us a model. And even though the prophecy had the child being named “Emmanuel,” Jesus’s name in Hebrew is Y’shua or Joshua, meaning “God saves.” And it is indeed to fulfill our hopes and need for a Savior that we look to Jesus’s coming into the world.

Links for more information:

David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Feasting on the Word, Year A, vol. 1

Thomas G. Long, Westminster Bible Commentary: Matthew