Matthew 1:20
Encyclopedia
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. Previously Joseph
Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....
had found Mary to be pregnant and had considered leaving her. In this verse an angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
comes to him in a dream and reassures him.
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
- But while he thought on these
- things, behold, the angel of the
- LORD appeared unto him in a dream,
- saying, Joseph, thou son of David,
- fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
- wife: for that which is conceived
- in her is of the Holy Ghost.
The World English Bible
World English Bible
The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...
translates the passage as:
- But when he thought about these
- things, behold, an angel of the
- Lord appeared to him in a dream,
- saying, "Joseph, son of David,
- don't be afraid to take to yourself
- Mary, your wife, for that which is
- conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 1:20
This is the first of several dream sequence
Dream sequence
A dream sequence is a technique used in storytelling, particularly in television and film, to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. The interlude may consist of a flashback, a flashforward, a fantasy, a vision, a dream, or some other element. Commonly, dream sequences appear in many...
s in Matthew. Like the others, but unlike those of the Old Testament, these dreams are very straightforward with no interpretation required.
Albright and Mann note that while the Greek word angelos is commonly translated as angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
it could just as well mean a generic divine messenger. The portrayal of an angel in this verse does not match the more common version, which has them appear as men like beings in the physical world.
The angel refers to Joseph as the "son of David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
". This again emphasizes Jesus' legal Davidic status, the theme of the earlier genealogy.
By "take Mary as your wife" the angel is referring to the second stage of the Jewish marriage ritual that saw the bride move into the husband's house. The Greek, and the content of the rest of the chapter, makes clear that take is not a euphemism for sexual relations.
Why Joseph should "fear" to love Mary is an important question. Gundry asserts that if he suspected Mary of adultery he would not be in fear. Gundry thus feels that this choice of words demonstrates that Joseph knew of the Virgin Birth before the dream and his fear was in angering God by interfering in his divine plan. This is in keeping with Luke where Mary has already been informed for some time before about the nature of her pregnancy. Boring notes that "do not be afraid" is a standard angelic opening line in the Bible that also appears in Genesis 21:17, Matthew 28:5, Luke 1:13, Luke 1:30, and Revelations 1:17.
The same note about the use of the term Holy Spirit applies here as in Matthew 1:18
Matthew 1:18
Matthew 1:18 is the eighteenth verse of Matthew 1 of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. This verse opens the description of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.-Text:The original Koine Greek, according to Westcott and Hort, reads:...
. The author of Matthew refers to a divine spirit in general, not the specific nature of the Holy Ghost of the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
which would only be developed some time later.
The word most often translated as conceived, does not specifically mean biologically conceived. As in English it can also more generally mean created or imagined. Jane Schaberg
Jane Schaberg
Jane D. Schaberg is a Professor of Religious Studies and Women's Studies at the University of Detroit Mercy. Schaberg earned a BA in Philosophy from Manhattanville College, an MA in Systematic theology from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the Union Theological Seminary. She...
argues that this verse thus does not rule out the idea that Jesus could also have had a human biological father. She notes that the same verb is used at Galatians 4:29 to refer to Isaac
Isaac
Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible, was the only son Abraham had with his wife Sarah, and was the father of Jacob and Esau. Isaac was one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites...
, and repeatedly in John to refer to all Christians. Thus to Schaberg the verse can be read as the holy spirit influencing a child already conceived by natural means.