Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Matthew
Chapter 1: They Shall Call His Name Immanuel
The New Testament opens with a genealogy and a name. Matthew traces the line of Jesus from Abraham through David, proving He is the promised Messiah, the son of David and son of Abraham. Then an angel gives the child His name and its meaning: JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins. And Matthew adds the wonder that gathers up the whole gospel in a word: Immanuel, God with us. The One born of the virgin is the LORD who saves, come to His people in flesh.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Matthew chapter 1. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Greek and Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Matthew opens the New Testament by presenting Jesus as the promised King and the God who saves. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
The Gospel of the King
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised Messiah and King of the Jews, showing again and again how He fulfills the Old Testament Scriptures. It is the bridge from the Old Covenant to the New.
Matthew the Apostle
Matthew, also called Levi, was a tax collector whom Jesus called to follow Him. Writing especially for a Jewish audience, he quotes the Old Testament more than any other Gospel.
The Threshold of the Gospel
After four centuries of prophetic silence since Malachi, the promised Messiah arrives. Chapter 1 gives His royal ancestry and the account of His birth to the virgin Mary.
God With Us to Save
The names of the child tell the whole story: JESUS, the LORD who saves, and Immanuel, God with us. He is the fulfillment of every promise, come to save His people from their sins.
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:1-17)
Matthew opens with a family tree that is really a proof: Jesus is the Messiah promised to Abraham and David.
The Son of David, the Son of Abraham
"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa; And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias; And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon: And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel; And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor; And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud; And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob; And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations."
Greek Study
The opening words are biblos geneseos -- "the book of the generation" -- the very phrase the Greek Old Testament uses at Genesis 2:4 and 5:1 ("the book of the generations"). Matthew deliberately opens his Gospel with the language of Genesis: a new creation is beginning in Jesus Christ. The genealogy is then framed in three sets of fourteen (v. 17), and fourteen is the numerical value of the Hebrew letters of David's name (D-V-D = 4+6+4). The very architecture of the list spells out the promise that this Jesus is the Son of David, the promised King.
Explanation
Matthew's genealogy is a legal and theological argument. By naming Jesus "the Son of David," he presents Him as the rightful heir to David's throne, the King God promised would reign forever (2 Samuel 7:16). By naming Him "the Son of Abraham," he ties Jesus to the promise that in Abraham's seed all nations would be blessed (Genesis 22:18). The list even names women, including Gentiles such as Rahab the Canaanite and Ruth the Moabite, quietly signaling that this King's salvation would reach beyond Israel to the world.
Matthew arranges the line in three sets of fourteen generations: from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonian captivity, and from the captivity to the Christ (verse 17). The three movements trace the nation's rise to the throne under David, its fall into exile, and its restoration in the coming of the Messiah. The pattern is deliberate, showing an ordered plan of God unfolding through history, with every stage bending toward the Christ who stands at its end.
A careful reader soon notices that Luke's genealogy (Luke 3:23-38) does not match Matthew's, and the difference is not a contradiction but a key to the whole mystery. Matthew traces the legal, royal line -- the succession of the throne -- from Abraham through David's son Solomon and the kings of Judah down to Joseph, Jesus' legal father. Luke traces the physical descent, running back through David's other son Nathan rather than Solomon. The two lines part after David and meet again only in Christ. This matters because Matthew's kingly line runs through Jechonias, the king carried away to Babylon, and of him God had sworn: "no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David" (Jeremiah 22:30). A curse lay upon the royal bloodline. Had Jesus been Joseph's natural son, He would have inherited both the throne-right and the curse together. But the virgin birth resolves it perfectly. Through Joseph, His legal father, Jesus receives the lawful title to David's throne; through Mary, of the uncursed line of Nathan, He receives His human descent, "made of the seed of David according to the flesh" (Romans 1:3) -- royal by law, yet free of Jechonias' curse. The genealogy itself quietly testifies that only One conceived of the Holy Ghost could be the promised King.
Gospel Focus
God keeps His promises across centuries and generations. The long list of names, kings and sinners, the famous and the forgotten, is the road God patiently built toward the Messiah, exactly as He had sworn to Abraham and David. Not one promise failed. And the presence of flawed and Gentile people in the Messiah's own family tree is grace made visible: the King who would "save His people from their sins" was born into a line of sinners He came to redeem. If God wove Rahab and Ruth into the ancestry of the Savior, no one is beyond the reach of the grace that came through their Son.
Conceived of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18)
Matthew turns from the ancestry to the birth itself, and to its miraculous cause.
Found with Child of the Holy Spirit
"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost."
Greek Study
"Birth" here is genesis -- the same root as the book of Genesis and the word just used in verse 1 -- underscoring that the conception of Jesus is a new beginning of the created order. The phrase "of the Holy Ghost" is ek pneumatos hagiou, "out of the Holy Spirit": the child is conceived by the direct creative act of the one God, not by man. The same Spirit that moved over the waters in Genesis 1:2 now brings forth the second Adam in the womb of a virgin. This is creation language, because this is the Creator entering His creation.
Explanation
In Jewish custom, betrothal was far more binding than a modern engagement. It was a legal covenant that could only be broken by a formal divorce, and the couple were already regarded as husband and wife, though they had not yet come together or begun to live as married. It is in this window, "before they came together," that Mary "was found with child." Matthew states the cause plainly and at once, so no reader mistakes it: the child was "of the Holy Spirit." This was no ordinary conception and no sin on Mary's part, but the miraculous work of God, as the angel Gabriel had told Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee" (Luke 1:35).
Gospel Focus
The virgin conception is essential to the gospel. Because the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and not by a human father, He entered the world without inheriting the fallen, sinful nature of Adam's race; He is the sinless One who could save sinners. And notice whose child He is: His conception was the direct work of God, so that God Himself is the Father of the Son. There is no second divine person begetting the Son here; it is the one God, who is Spirit, who brought forth the humanity of Jesus in the womb of the virgin. This is the beginning of the great mystery: "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). The eternal God prepared for Himself a body (Hebrews 10:5), conceived by His own Spirit, that He might dwell among us and save us.
Joseph and the Angel (Matthew 1:19-20)
A righteous man wrestles with mercy and law until God speaks and settles it.
Do Not Be Afraid to Take Mary as Your Wife
"Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."
Greek Study
Joseph is called dikaios -- "a just man" -- the word for one righteous before God, and his justice is shown not in harshness but in mercy: he sought to "put her away privily" (lathra, secretly) rather than expose her. The "angel of the Lord" (angelos kyriou) is the same messenger-figure who appears throughout the Old Testament at the turning points of redemption. Joseph is addressed as "thou son of David" -- reminding him, and us, that the legal line of David's throne passes through him to the child he is about to name.
Explanation
Not yet knowing the cause, Joseph faced an agonizing choice. He is called "a just man," a righteous man who honored the law of God, and the law treated the apparent unfaithfulness of a betrothed woman as a grave matter. Yet his righteousness was joined to mercy: he was "not wanting to make her a public example," so he purposed to "put her away," to divorce her, quietly rather than expose her to open shame. Because betrothal was legally binding, ending it required a formal divorce even though they had never lived together. Into this quiet struggle God speaks through an angel in a dream. The angel addresses him as "son of David," reminding him of the royal line he carries, and removes his fear: "do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife," for the child is "of the Holy Spirit."
Gospel Focus
Joseph is a quiet model of a godly man. He held to righteousness without becoming harsh, and to mercy without abandoning what was right, and when he did not know what to do, God met him. Notice how the Lord guided him: not by overruling his conscience with force, but by revealing the truth so he could obey it gladly. God still guides the humble and the willing who seek to do right. And there is a deep purpose in the angel's greeting, "son of David." By taking Mary as his wife and naming her Son, Joseph would become the legal father of Jesus, passing to Him the royal, legal claim to the throne of David, while the child's true Father remained God Himself. The human father gives Him His place in David's line; His divine conception gives Him His identity as God with us. Both names of the chapter, son of David and Immanuel, are already being secured here.
You Shall Call His Name JESUS (Matthew 1:21)
The angel gives Joseph the child's name and, with it, the reason He has come.
He Will Save His People from Their Sins
"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."
Hebrew and Greek Study
"JESUS," Greek Iesous (Ἰησοῦς), from the Hebrew Yeshua / Yehoshua (יְהוֹשׁוּעַ). The name means "Yahweh is salvation" or "Yahweh saves." The angel's explanation depends on that meaning: call Him "Yahweh saves," for He will save His people. The very name declares who this child is and what He came to do.
"Save," Greek sozo (σῴζω). To rescue, deliver, make whole. And notice what He saves from: not merely Rome or circumstance, but "their sins", the deepest bondage of all.
Greek Study
The name commanded is Iesous -- the Greek form of the Hebrew Yeshua / Yehoshua, which means "YHWH is salvation" or "YHWH saves." The reason given unfolds the name exactly: "he shall save his people from their sins." The name declares who He is (YHWH-salvation) and the sentence declares what He does (saves His people) -- and the two are one. The child does not merely bring salvation from God; He bears the divine name and does the divine work Himself.
Explanation
The angel does not say Jesus will save His people from their enemies, their poverty, or their oppressors -- but "from their sins." At the very door of the Gospel, the true enemy is named, and it is not Rome but sin. And notice whose people they are: the Old Testament calls Israel "his people" meaning the LORD's people, yet here they are the people this child will save -- because this child is the LORD come in flesh to save them. The name and the mission together announce, in the first chapter, that God Himself has stepped into the world to do what only God can do: take away sins.
Gospel Focus
The name of Jesus is the meaning of the incarnation. It means "Yahweh saves," and then the angel says this Jesus "will save His people from their sins", the very work Scripture says belongs to God alone: "I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour" (Isaiah 43:11). The One who saves from sin is Yahweh, and His name is Jesus, for in Christ the LORD Himself came to save. This is why the apostles preached that "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12), why they baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 2:38). The name given here in a Bethlehem manger is the saving name of God.
Immanuel (Matthew 1:22-23)
Matthew shows the birth fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy, and unfolds a second name heavy with meaning.
God With Us
"Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
Hebrew Study
"Immanuel," Immanu-El (עִמָּנוּ אֵל). Three Hebrew pieces: im ("with"), anu ("us"), and El ("God"). Matthew translates it for us: "God with us." Isaiah spoke it seven centuries earlier (Isaiah 7:14); in the virgin's Son it came true.
Explanation
Matthew reads the whole event as the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14, and he presses the meaning of the name Emmanuel to its limit: "which being interpreted is, God with us." This is the theological key to the entire Gospel. The child in Mary's womb is not merely a man accompanied by God, nor a prophet sent from God -- He is God with us, the one LORD now present in human flesh. Matthew has just given Him the name Jesus (YHWH saves) in verse 21 and now Emmanuel (God with us) in verse 23; the two names are one confession. The Gospel that opens with "God with us" will close with His promise, "I am with you alway" (28:20) -- the same divine presence, now never to depart.
Gospel Focus
Here is the mystery at the heart of the gospel. The child born of the virgin is named "God with us", not a god beside us or a messenger from God, but God Himself present with His people in flesh. This is the great truth the apostles proclaimed: "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16), and "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). The two names of Matthew 1 belong together: He is Immanuel, God with us, and therefore He is Jesus, the LORD who saves. The one true God, who alone can forgive sins, came to His own people to save them, and His name is Jesus. The whole gospel is already sounding in these opening verses.
Joseph Did as the Angel Commanded (Matthew 1:24-25)
Joseph wakes and obeys at once, guarding the virgin birth and naming the child.
He Did as the Lord Commanded
"Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS."
Greek Study
Mary's son is called her prototokos -- "firstborn" -- a word of rank and inheritance rights, not merely birth order; it marks Jesus as the heir who opens the womb and holds the rights of the eldest. The verse also carefully notes that Joseph "knew her not till she had brought forth" the child, guarding the truth of the virgin conception announced in verse 20. Joseph's obedience is total: raised from sleep, he does exactly as commanded and gives the child the divine-salvation name. The legal father names the child, and by naming Him, publicly receives Him into the house of David.
Explanation
Joseph's response is immediate and complete obedience: he "did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife." He set aside his own plan the moment God made His will known. The phrase "did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son" plainly states that Joseph and Mary had no marital relations until after Jesus was born, so that the virgin birth was fully preserved; the child was in no way Joseph's by nature. The words "firstborn" and "till" also point forward: Scripture goes on to speak of the brothers and sisters of Jesus (Matthew 13:55-56), children born to Joseph and Mary afterward in a normal marriage. Finally, obeying the angel, Joseph "called His name Jesus," the father's act of naming that legally claimed the child as his own son and heir.
Gospel Focus
Faith is seen in obedience. Joseph did not delay or bargain; he rose and did exactly what God commanded, at real cost to his own reputation. This quiet obedience made him the guardian of the Savior's early life, and it stands as a pattern for us: when God shows His will, we obey without waiting to understand everything. In naming the child Jesus, Joseph both submitted to God's word and gave the Son of God His legal standing as son of David. And the careful guarding of the virgin birth reminds us again who this child is. He is not a man who became divine, but God come in flesh, born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit, entering our world to save us. The chapter closes as it began, fixed on the name above every name: "he called His name Jesus."
Chapter 1 in Review
Matthew 1 opens the New Testament by presenting Jesus through His ancestry and His birth. The genealogy proves He is the promised Messiah, the Son of David and Son of Abraham, in whom God kept every ancient promise, and into whose line grace had woven sinners and Gentiles. Then Matthew tells of the birth itself: Mary is found with child of the Holy Spirit; Joseph, a just and merciful man, is minded to divorce her quietly until an angel reveals the truth and stills his fear; and Joseph obeys, taking Mary as his wife, keeping her a virgin until the child is born, and naming the Son. The angel gives that name and its reason: JESUS, "Yahweh saves," because He will save His people from their sins, fulfilling Isaiah's word that He would be called Immanuel, "God with us."
For the Apostolic reader, this first chapter already declares the fullness of the gospel. The One who saves from sin is God alone, and He has come to His people in flesh: Immanuel, God with us, whose saving name is Jesus. The two names are one truth. The child of Bethlehem is the LORD who saves, and there is salvation in no other name. Everything the rest of the New Testament proclaims is here in seed: God with us, come to save, and His name is Jesus.
- The genealogy proves Jesus is the promised Messiah; God kept every promise across the centuries.
- Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, entering the world without Adam's sinful nature (Luke 1:35).
- Joseph, just and merciful, obeyed God at once; by naming the child he secured His legal claim as son of David.
- The name Jesus means "Yahweh saves," and He saves from sins, the work of God alone (Isaiah 43:11).
- Immanuel, "God with us," declares that God Himself came in flesh to save (1 Timothy 3:16).
Questions for Reflection
- God wove flawed people into the Messiah's family tree. How does that assure you of His grace toward you?
- The name Jesus means "Yahweh saves." What does it mean to you that the One who saves from sin is God Himself?
- He is "God with us." How does knowing God came near in Christ change the way you face today?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Greek and Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The Messiah, son of David and Abraham; three sets of fourteen: Matthew 1:1-17; 2 Samuel 7:16; Genesis 22:18.
- Conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin: Matthew 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35; Hebrews 10:5.
- Joseph the just man, the angel's charge, and his obedience: Matthew 1:19-20, 24-25; the brothers of Jesus, Matthew 13:55-56.
- The name Jesus, "Yahweh saves": Matthew 1:21; salvation belongs to God alone, Isaiah 43:11.
- Salvation and baptism in the name of Jesus: Acts 4:12; 2:38.
- Immanuel, God with us, fulfilling Isaiah: Matthew 1:22-23; Isaiah 7:14.
- God manifested in the flesh: 1 Timothy 3:16; Colossians 2:9.