Matthew 1: Joseph, thou son of David, fear not

A family tree with surprises

The New Testament opens with a list of names: the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew arranges the generations in three groups of fourteen, from Abraham to David, from David to the exile in Babylon, and from the exile to Christ. The list includes, unusually for the time, four women besides Mary: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah, Bathsheba. Several were foreigners, and their stories are complicated, which seems to be the point: God's plan runs through real, untidy families.

The genealogy ends with Joseph, called the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus. It traces the royal line of David through Joseph, the legal father.

What does “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not” mean?

Mary and Joseph are betrothed, a binding commitment that in that culture could only be ended by divorce. Before they live together, Mary is found to be with child. Joseph is described as a just man, and not willing to shame her publicly, he plans to end the engagement quietly.

While he thinks it over, an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and says, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take Mary as his wife, for the child is of the Holy Ghost. Calling him “son of David” reminds Joseph who he is: the heir through whom the promised king will be legally born. The angel tells him to name the child Jesus, a form of Joshua meaning “the LORD saves,” for he shall save his people from their sins. Joseph wakes and does exactly as he was told.

Emmanuel, God with us

Matthew adds that all this fulfills the words of Isaiah 7:14: a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. The Gospel ends with the same promise turned around, when the risen Jesus says, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.

Saint Joseph, the silent father

Joseph never speaks a single recorded word in the Gospels, yet he acts decisively four times after dreams in Matthew 1 and 2, guarding the child and his mother on the road to Egypt and back. Readers often notice the echo of another Joseph, the dreamer of Genesis who also ended up in Egypt. Catholics honor Saint Joseph on March 19 and as Joseph the Worker on May 1, and many families give his image to a new father, to a carpenter or on Father's Day.