Blog 3 Sable LeFrere

Before reading the Gospel of Matthew, it never occurred to me how closely the "author" related Judaism and Christianity to each other. By related, I mean piggybacking off of Judaism so to speak. For example, Jesus the Jewish Messiah. "Jesus' followers believed him to be the messiah, a Jewish figure predicted in the Jewish Bible"1 and as stated by Ehrman, "He was "the son of David, the son of Abraham."2 From what we all know, Abraham was considered to be the father of the Jews and David was their greatest king. Matthew's point was to show that Jesus was the "ultimate fulfillment of the hopes of the Jews"3, but when looked at through its context, was he really?


This is where things become a bit confusing for me when dealing with Matthew. As we discussed in class, numbers played a significant role in biblical references. "...the number seven was of supreme importance as a symbol of perfection or divinity...what then is fourteen? Twice seven!"4 This would mean that fourteen would have been a doubly perfect number. To get to my point, when Matthew traced back Jesus' genealogy, the number fourteen became very significant. There were fourteen generations between Abraham and David, fourteen between David and the deportation of Babylon, and fourteen generations between the deportation and the messiah, Jesus. But when the sequence of fourteen is checked against this source, it does not add up showing there are more than fourteen generations between David and the deportation. Being that this is fact, it disrupts the whole notion that "...Jesus must be someone special and significant in the divine plan for Israel."5 Then to add to that, Jesus' genealogy is being traced through Joseph who we know is not his birth father. To me, it just seemed like the author intentionally created his gospel to prove his point which really didn't have a factual point and I guess this is what I struggle with most. But as I am learning in this class, everything in the Bible cannot be taken for face value as I have always been taught. If Matthew's Gospel, Mark's Gospel, or any Gospel in the Bible reaches a community, a group, a class, or a single person despite some conflicts that may arise, then to me, God's work is being done. 


¹Anonymous. Comparison of Christianity and Judaism (ReligionFacts, 2004)
2 Ehrman, B.D. The New Testament, (New York. Oxford Press, 2004), 102
3 Ehrman, B.D. The New Testament, (New York. Oxford Press, 2004), 103
4 Ehrman, B.D. The New Testament, (New York. Oxford Press, 2004), 104
5 Ehrman, B.D. The New Testament, (New York. Oxford Press, 2004), 104


Bibliography
Anonymous. "Comparison of Christianity and Judaism ." ReligionFacts. 17 December 2006. Accessed 5 March 2012 <http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/holidays.htm>.


Ehrman, B.D. The New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 101-119.