Genealogy of Jesus - Context, Context, Context
We have Matthew's creative/fictitious genealogy of Jesus (Matt 1: 1 - 17) and we have Epiphany's story of the wandering Zoroastrian priests and the slaughter that followed (Matt. 2: 1 - 23). In both cases, Matthew is responding to the genealogy that the Roman Empire claimed for Augustus Caesar.
Context. Context. Context.
It is challenging to read the scriptures as a source of wisdom without understand the context within which they were written. Without context, we can fall into great error.
“We Christians think of Jesus as the divine Son of God by - working backward - his resurrection, baptism, conception, and even genealogy. But there was also another human being in the Mediterranean world who was the divine Son of God by - also working backward - senatorial decree, adoption, conception, and even genealogy. We are speaking, of course, about Ceasar Augustus, emperor of Rome at the time Jesus was born. And we see those genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke as counter genealogies to that of Caesar Augustus.”. . . ancient genealogy was not about history or poetry, but about prophecy and destiny, not about accuracy, but about advertising.”
