I've started reading through the New Testament, I'm not sure how far I will get, but I thought I'd blog my findings. Today I started with the Book of Matthew. Now in order to be forthcoming I should tell you that I haven't "read through" (chapter by chapter) the New Testament in years (probably 12) and I'm not sure what I'm really going to find, but it could be interesting.
VS. 1-17 – A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Verse 17 says "Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ". I find this odd. Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen…I wanted to research this a little more and find out why 14 mattered, but instead I couldn't stop thinking about this joke my Aunt Marilly used to tell when I was very young
Once a man was walking down the street and he heard a voice on the other side of the fence singing "Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen". Curious to find out who was singing the man bent down and peeked into a small hole in the fence. As he got closer he was suddenly poked in the eye and then he heard someone singing "Fifteen, fifteen, fifteen".
That may not be funny now, but you should hear Marilly tell it, her laugh can be infectious. Anyway, I would have researched this more, but I got distracted. Moving on.
VS. 8-25 The Virgin Birth. The book kinda just cruises through the virgin birth like it was no big deal. 7 verses briefly hitting the key details…Mary was a virgin, she was "found to be with child through the Holy Spirit"…the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said don't divorce her…and then Jesus is born. (I've decided now to mark things I find odd with an asterisks point…found to be WITH CHILD through the Holy Spirit??? Asterisk on that verse. And Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen gets an asterisk as well…maybe some of you scholars want to try and explain things more clearly for us)
Verse 25 really stood out to me as one that I've read before but never really grasped it's concept.
(vs. 24) Joseph…took Mary home as his wife (vs. 25) BUT HE HAD NO UNION WITH HER UNTIL SHE GAVE BIRTH TO A SON.
I've been married almost 8 years now, I have 3 children of my own, and I know how rough "union" can be with a pregnant woman…but for 9 months? That is some serious waiting. Would it be inappropriate to insert a joke here about following the Holy Spirit in bed??? Probably…lets just mark verse 25* and move on to Chapter 2.
VS. 1-12: Jesus is born, 3 wise men go see him and drop off some gifts, King Harod wants to kill Jesus, the wisemen are warned in a dream about this, and so they leave a different way then they came.
VS 13-15 Joseph flees to Egypt to protect Jesus, AFTER being warned in a dream,… I'm curious why the so called "Wise-Men" didn't just say something. They had already had this dream. Would it have been too hard for them to just say "Hey Joe, grab your camels, you're comin' with… Harod wants to kill your baby." Instead they just leave and make Joseph have another dream. Not so wise now are they?
God seems to speak a lot through dreams…hmmmnnn, maybe my mother is on to something after all.
VS 16-18 Harod "orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under"… That's some sick sh*t right there (asterisk intended).
VS 19-23 Harod finally dies, an angel appears to Joseph (in a dream of course) and says "Go back to Israel". Joseph takes the fam to Israel and then realizes that Harod's son is ruling and he gets scared…yet another dream warning him…and he ends up in Nazareth. Not sure why he couldn't have gotten that info in his first dream, but no matter…all's well that ends well, right?
That ends chapter 2 and Jesus is safely hiding in Nazareth. In chapter 3 we get to find out about John the Baptist. I'm psyched.
For all the weird things mentioned in the first 2 chapters, Matthew just moves through them like no one would ever question things. I was raised on this stuff, so it always seemed normal to me, but I can't imagine being an adult and hearing this for the first time. I would imagine the response would be "Whoa, whoa, whoa…back up a minute…Virgin Birth…impregnated by God…can I get a little more info please?"
No.