Matthew 1:19, commentary and pictures

Joseph was Mary's betrothed husband, a just and righteous man who when he found her pregnant believed she had been unfaithful and planned to end the betrothal quietly by private divorce rather than expose her to public disgrace and death by stoning. While he was considering this course an angel appeared to him in a dream to confirm her purity and innocence, and he then accepted the message and took her as his wife. The account belongs to the miraculous conception of Christ by the Holy Spirit and his birth of the virgin Mary, not by ordinary human generation, in exact and literal fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah that a virgin would conceive and bear a son. In Jesus the divine and the human are united, for he is divine in person and essential deity and truly born of a woman in real human nature, and to deny his virgin birth reduces him to the son of Joseph and merely the highest type of man. Matthew stands with Luke as a competent and credible witness to the manner of his birth, so that denial of the miraculous conception is subtle infidelity and heresy that robs him of his divinity and destroys confidence in the whole Gospel founded upon it.

Joseph's Righteous Decision

Matthew 1:19 identifies Joseph as Mary's husband, to whom she was betrothed before they came together in marriage, and the wording gives no basis for changing husband to father. His place as husband is what made him treated under Jewish law as Jesus' legal father, while Jesus' fleshly descent came through Mary, even reckoning Joseph as son of Mary's father. Joseph is described as a just or righteous man. He was informed of the coming birth of the Messiah.

Discovering Mary was pregnant, Joseph believed she had been unfaithful and that her apparent condition required him to end their betrothal. He did not at first accept her explanation of purity and her candid claim of spotless innocence. Her condition exposed her to public disgrace and to the death penalty by stoning for alleged impurity. Yet though just, he was unwilling to make her a public example and planned to dismiss or divorce her privately and quietly.

While Joseph was considering this course, an angel appeared to him in a dream to confirm Mary's innocence. He then accepted the message and took Mary as his wife, deciding after all to marry her after he had decided not to marry her upon learning of her condition. Putting away refers to Jewish divorce, easily obtained at that time. It was by a written bill called a gett or Gett prepared on parchment by a notary before one or more rabbis, limited to twelve lines and no more, stating no reasons for the separation, and releasing the woman from her former marriage and marital obligations so she could marry another.

The episode belongs to the Gospel history of Jesus the Messiah set within the society, life, and intellectual and religious development of Palestine that frames and backgrounds the picture of Christ. It was known even to the early critic Celsus when he described the facts surrounding Jesus' birth and referred to Joseph's intention to put Mary away privately.

Lineage and Legal Standing

Matthew 1:19 stands in the genealogy that traces Jesus' lineage from David through Solomon to Joseph. Joseph is named in this line because he was Mary's husband, and he was treated under Jewish law as Jesus' legal father. Matthew's first chapter thus gives the royal genealogy of Christ showing that the throne of David belonged to Jesus. Jesus' fleshly descent came through Mary his mother, but the royal record is reckoned through the male line, so Joseph stands in the record in the place of Mary. In that legal standing he was even reckoned as son of Mary's father.

The account shows Jesus' parents were Jews, belonging to David's family and the tribe of Judah. His earthly lineage could be traced literally and legally through the line of promise, from Mary back to David, Judah, Jacob, and Abraham. This lineage was preserved so the promised Deliverer, the second Adam, could come.

The same genealogy shows Jesus Christ came to save sinners and did not refuse to be born of sinners, with bad men and women and people of another race than the Jews among His ancestors. In this He took upon Himself the nature of man and was tempted in all points as we are, yet in spite of His human nature lived a perfect life showing it is possible for human beings to live a holy life here in the world.

Prophecy of Virgin Birth

Matthew 1:19 belongs to the account that Christ was born of the virgin Mary by miraculous conception. That virgin birth is presented as the sign of His first advent, in fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that a virgin would conceive and bear a son. The surrounding account shows Joseph as a just man who, before learning the truth about Mary's pregnancy, intended to end their betrothal quietly rather than expose her to public disgrace. The fulfillment was exact, personal, and literal, with Christ's first advent taking place personally and literally.

The virgin foretold to bear Christ was Mary the wife of Joseph in her actual virginity. Judah meant the literal tribe of Judah, David meant the literal David, and virgin meant a literal virgin, not a type of any social or spiritual condition. The prophecies about where and how Christ would come and about His life and death were explicit, and their fulfillment was exact and literal. The same account identifies the child as Immanuel and Jesus, Mary's first-born Son, whom she wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

Christ's Divine Human Nature

Matthew 1:19 belongs to the account in Matthew 1:18-23 that Jesus was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. His conception was not the result of ordinary human generation or natural law, nor of ordinary parentage by Joseph and Mary. To claim He was begotten only by human parents or born to Joseph and Mary in ordinary wedlock contradicts the Gospel testimony of His birth. Mary is described in that account as a sanctified, holy virgin, and the narrative presents His origin as supernatural and as evidence that He came down from heaven rather than being merely raised up from among men.

Jesus was begotten by the Holy Ghost, not by Adam through human procreation, and He is divine and not merely a human descendant of Adam. His divine-human nature was present from birth, not something He acquired afterward through human development or evolution. That supernatural conception does not make His humanity unreal, for He was truly born of a woman and possessed a real human nature.

In that human nature He took upon Himself the nature of man and was tempted in all points as we are. Yet in spite of His human nature He lived a perfect life, showing that it is possible for human beings to live a holy life here in the world. The account of Christ's birth reveals the mystery of the union of the divine and the human in Jesus, both Son of God and Son of man. He is divine in His person with essential deity, not divine only in His mission, differing from men in quality and not merely in quantity.

As divine in person He is an adequate Redeemer for a lost race, not liable like other men to mistakes of judgment and growth. Without essential deity He would have been liable to stumbling in learning to walk, miscalling letters in learning to read, wrong conclusions in thought, and mistakes in intellectual, moral, and religious processes even at age thirty. To disregard this birth reduces Jesus to the son of Joseph and to merely the highest type of man. Denying it rejects the mystery essential to the gospel and reduces the gospel's divine power to mere human teaching.

Trustworthy Gospel Testimony

Matthew stands with Luke as a competent and credible witness to the manner of Jesus' birth, and receiving this account depends on recognizing Matthew as a credible historian. Its evidence is of the same character as the testimony for Jesus' miracles, resurrection, teaching, sinless life, and historical life and death, and is worthy of credence. It cannot be rejected merely because a miracle is contrary to nature, and the miraculous birth is presented as fact and not as a story to be set aside on the grounds of modern science. To cut out the infancy narrative on critical grounds while still accepting the rest of the Gospels, including the bodily resurrection, as veracious and reliable destroys confidence in the witnesses themselves, for if Matthew were gullible, ignorant, given to romance, or ready to invent and deceive on so delicate and sacred a matter of human life, his reliability and competence as historian would be discredited at every other point, even while his testimony there upholds the evangelical doctrine of the deity of Jesus and his office as Saviour.

The truth of the whole Gospel of Matthew rests on the virgin birth taught here, so that if Christ was not born of a virgin the Gospel is founded on a lie. Denial of the miraculous conception and birth is subtle infidelity and higher criticism, a heresy paraded in all ages. It is falsely dismissed as a fabulous tale. Such denial robs Jesus of his divinity, turns talent and influence against Christianity, and leaves the torrent of sin in unregenerate hearts unstemmed, for he is not merely the highest type of man with divinity in him as in other men differing only in quantity and not in quality, but the divine Saviour of men. He was divine in his person with essential deity, not divine only in his mission, and as divine in person he is an adequate Redeemer for a lost race, whereas without essential deity he would be liable like other men to mistakes of judgment and to stumbling, miscalling, wrong conclusions, and mistakes in intellectual, moral, and religious processes; denial of his miraculous birth leads to denial of his miraculous work and character and to general unbelief, and stands with denial that the Bible is divine and guarded from communicating untruth.

The virgin birth remains an old landmark of Christian faith to be held with loyalty and a fundamental affirmed as among Christian fundamentals. It is a foundation stone in the creeds proclaimed from the pulpit as vital to churches standing for liberty and the Bible as the rule of faith, a truth of Scripture and a question of Christian belief not to be rejected to fit changing beliefs. It was affirmed even by the Nazarenes, along with Christ's Messiahship and a degree of divine nature. Certainty about it is required for anyone seeking to enter the Christian ministry through Presbyterian ordination. It is a fundamental of Christian faith, not a claim that can be dismissed without consequence.

Encouragement for Holy Living

The opening chapter shows that the promises made to Abraham belong to his spiritual descendants, so that those who believe share in Abraham's inheritance and in Christ's share in David's throne through faith. Natural descent from Abraham was a valuable privilege and opportunity, yet by itself it did not guarantee heirship to those promises. Those who were heirs by natural descent could still share in the promises through faith. Joseph stood in this line of faith, for he was familiar with the prophecy of the virgin birth and was looking for its fulfillment. His spiritual attentiveness enabled him to understand the angel's words in the dream, and for this reason God could trust him with his place as the Lord's mother's husband.

Mary's candid claim of purity was ultimately vindicated, and her humility and spotless purity belonged to God's plan. Christ's birth into a human family shows that God wants to save families and restore them as part of His own family. That family is joined not by blood ties but by Christ's blood.