Matthew 1:16

Matthew 1:16 is the sixteenth verse of Matthew 1 of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The verse is the final part of the section that traces the genealogy of Joseph, the father of Jesus down from Abraham. See also: Genealogy of Jesus

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 1:16

This section begins with Jacob, Joseph's father, a figure about which nothing else is known. This also conflicts with Luke 3:23 that states that Heli is Joseph's father. There have been a number of explanations to explain this discrepancy, that Heli is actually Joseph's father-in-law, that Jacob is Joseph's birth father but after a Levirate marriage Heli became his legal father. These suggestions are not impossible, but there is no evidence for any of them and they are generally only believed by those committed to Biblical inerrancy.

The father of the Old Testament's Joseph is also named Jacob, and W. D. Davies and Dale Allison note that this could mean that the author of Matthew is trying to link Joseph with his Old Testament namesake. There are several other links in the text, both Josephs are spoken to in dreams, both travel to Egypt, and both have similarly righteous personalities.

Matthew breaks with the pattern that has held throughout the genealogy, Joseph did not beget Jesus, but was simply the husband of the woman who did, implying the Virgin Birth. In the original Greek, the word translated as whom is unambiguously feminine. The shift to the passive voice also symbolizes the Virgin Birth.

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