Bible Strands
Matthew 1:18
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Matthew addresses a Jewish-Christian audience, interrupting his genealogical summary to explain the circumstances surrounding Mary’s betrothal to Joseph. The narrative moment shifts from the structural count of fourteen generations to the specific event of Jesus’s conception.
The words — The Greek term γένεσις (genesis) literally means “origin” or “birth,” marking the formal introduction of the nativity account. The particle δέ (de) operates as a narrative pivot, turning the reader’s focus from ancestral lineage to the immediate event of Mary’s pregnancy.
The thread — The motif of a divinely initiated birth within a Davidic lineage runs through Luke 1:27, which notes Mary’s betrothal to a Joseph of David’s house, and Galatians 4:4, which states God sent His Son “born of a woman.” The tension between human ancestry and supernatural intervention also parallels the purity question raised in Job 14:4.
Why it lands — The text states that Mary was found pregnant before cohabiting with Joseph, explicitly attributing the conception to the Holy Spirit. It requires the reader to accept a historical claim that severs Jesus’s origin from conventional marital procreation while maintaining his documented lineage.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Galatians 4:4 But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
- Luke 1:27 to a virgin pledged in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
- Job 14:4 Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!
- Hebrews 10:5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me.
- Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
- Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
- Hebrews 7:26 Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
- Matthew 1:1 This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:
- Luke 1:25 “The Lord has done this for me. In these days He has shown me favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”