A Song for Advent Study - Matthew’s Begats
Here’s a song you wouldn’t think of as being Christmas-y, but is pulled straight from the beginning of Matthew 1. We already looked at the genealogy in last Sunday’s sermon, as well as the follow up summary post on here, but for fun, let’s look a little more at the genealogy.
In first century context, lineage is a big deal. To the original audience the intro of Matthew is a big deal. It was essentially Matthew putting forth the claim that Jesus is the Messiah without directly saying that in a single sentence. Instead he spoke the cultural lingo to his audience and opened with a bold declaration by saying without saying it that Jesus is the Messiah, because of verse 1: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” And from there it’s just a connect the dots to see ho he backed up that claim.
We can start to understand it with a little patience and study, but why not make it fun by putting the whole thing to a tune. Well, Andrew Peterson did just that for us. You can even purchase a fun illustrated book with the lyrics of the song that walk though the genealogy found in Matthew.
https://youtu.be/06XHn4D9Nzw
Abraham had Isaac
Isaac, he had Jacob
Jacob, he had Judah and his kin
Then Perez and Zerah
Came from Judah's woman, Tamar
Perez, he brought Hezron up
And then came
Aram, then Amminadab
Then Nahshon, who was then the dad of Salmon
Who with Rahab fathered Boaz
Ruth, she married Boaz who had Obed
Who had Jesse
Jesse, he had David who we know as king
David, he had Solomon by dead Uriah's wife
Solomon, well you all know him
He had good old Rehoboam
Followed by Abijah who had Asa
Asa had Jehoshaphat had Joram had Uzziah
Who had Jotham then Ahaz then Hezekiah
Followed by Manasseh who had Amon
Who was a man
Who was father of a good boy named Josiah
Who grandfathered Jehoiachin
Who caused the Babylonian captivity
Because he was a liar
Then he had Shealtiel, who begat Zerubbabel
Who had Abiud who had Eliakim
Eliakim had Azor who had Zadok who had Akim
Akim was the father of Eliud then
He had Eleazar who had Matthan who had Jacob
Now, listen very closely
I don't want to sing this twice
Jacob was the father of Joseph
The husband of Mary
The mother of Christ