Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened in this way. His mother, Mary, who had been betrothed to Joseph, before they ever had any intimate relations, was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her betrothed, since he was a fair man and not willing to shame her publicly, considered divorcing her privately (Matt. 1:18-19).
Try to imagine what it must have been like two thousand years ago in the Jewish community to have had a commitment with someone, only to discover that she was pregnant! To get a better idea of the nature of the commitment, one needs to understand the Jewish marriage traditions of the time. Usually parents of young children arranged marriages for them, even if the couple had never met. At this time they were considered engaged. When the children were older, the engagement could be broken, if the girl didn’t want to go through with it. Otherwise, the couple would make a commitment, called a betrothal, which would last a year. During that time, the couple was considered man and wife, though they didn’t have the rights given to them through marriage. The betrothal was binding in every way, and could not be terminated other than by divorce or death. At the end of the year of betrothal, the groom (already called husband) would suddenly appear unannounced at the bride’s home one evening to take his bride back to his home to live with him.
It isn’t too long before Mary’s pregnancy is evident. Joseph, of course, is shocked! What to do? The law prescribed that the penalty for a betrothed virgin sleeping with another man was death by stoning (Deut. 22:23-24) Infidelity at this stage was considered adultery. However, Joseph is a good and kind man, but he’s not aware of the miraculous nature of Mary’s pregnancy. He knows that in good conscience he cannot marry her. Fortunately, retribution and vengeance are not in his nature. Not only did he not want to have Mary executed, he didn’t even want to shame her in public, so he decided to divorce her quietly.
But as he contemplated these things, an angel of God appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife; because the child she has conceived is from the Holy Spirit. She will have a Son, and you shall call his name Jesus; for he will save the people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:20-21)
Now God intervenes. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream to tell him that Mary hasn’t been unfaithful, but in actuality has been blessed by God through the Holy Spirit. The angel’s first words recall Joseph’s Davidic ancestry, and, in doing so, recalls God’s promise to David that God would raise up one of David’s descendants to “build a house (dynasty) for God’s name”, which would last forever (2 Samuel 7:12-13). In other words, Mary’s child would be the fulfillment of God’s promise to David.
Just as the angel, Gabriel, had indicated that Zechariah’s son would be named John, this unnamed angel informs Joseph that he is to call Mary’s son, Jesus. The name, Jesus, was a rather common Jewish name at the time. It was the Greek form of the name Joshua, meaning Yahweh is Salvation, or Yahweh saves. As a way of explanation for the choice of the name, the angel makes reference to Psalm 130:8: God personally will save Israel from all their sins.
Some translations use the phrase his people instead of the people, saying that Joseph would have understood that to mean that Jesus would save only the Jewish people, but as the gospels develop we soon will see that the phrase refers to all those who would seek Jesus as Savior–Jew and Gentile alike.
Now all this was done to fulfill what was spoken by God through the prophet,
saying, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and will bring forth a son; and
they shall call his name Immanuel;” which translated means God with us. So when
Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of God told him, and took Mary as his wife.
But he refrained from intimate relations with her until she had given birth to
her son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
(Matt. 1:22-25)
Matthew now offers a quotation from the prophet, Isaiah, 7:14. It perhaps is important to note that not all scholars agree that the original word, almah or parthenos means virgin. As used elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures, it could have meant (experienced) maiden (Proverbs 30:19) or simply a young woman of marriageable age. However, we have the testimony of Mary, herself, as recorded in Luke (1:34), which indicated that she was indeed a virgin.
In the previous paragraph, we read that Mary’s baby was to be called Jesus, but now we are told that his name is to be Immanuel. A contradiction? No. It becomes clear when one realizes that the name Immanuel, rather than being a personal name, is a title or description–a nickname, if you will, denoting that through this baby’s birth God is with us.
Some Christian denominations teach that Mary remained a virgin all her life, but that is not what the scripture says. It says only that Joseph waited until after Jesus’ birth to have intimate relations with Mary.
This ends today’s study.
Thoughts to Ponder