How the New Testament Begins....and Why

I love beginnings and endings.  To me, it is always important that any book begin with something significant, something that really matters, something that catches your attention.  And of course, the ending needs to be powerful as well.  We see that the Bible is the prime example of this principle.

The New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ.  Now one might think this is a rather boring way to start a new book.  We don't usually think of genealogical records as being attention getting.  But in this particular case, it is quite meaningful that the book begins with this record.  We have just finished the Old Testament with all of its stories, people and nations, looking at the history of the Jewish people down through the centuries.  A close examination of the OT shows that one of the key things it is doing is to give the history of the family of Jesus leading up to the time that He will be born.  As we arrive at the NT, we see that it opens with a quick summary of what has been taught in great detail throughout the OT. 

Note the opening words, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham; Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob...."  This quick summary of the family of Jesus only takes 16 verses.  But in these verses we have a strong tie to the OT, and we have a message being given to us that this is important.  The family of Jesus, the history, the occurrences that got us to this point in the story are all quite significant. 

The book of Matthew then continues right into the birth of Jesus Christ.  We have the beautiful story of the parents of Jesus being told of the importance of the child to be born.  This story is told also in the book of Luke.  And in fact, the book of Luke gives an account in chapter 3 of the genealogy also.  The genealogical record is a little different in Luke, thought by most scholars to be due to following some of the family of Mary rather than the family of Joseph as recorded in Matthew. 

While most genealogies are not so interesting to most of us, this one is the greatest of them all.  And it is a powerful and meaningful beginning to the last part of the Bible. 

Thank you for reading..and for being a faithful follower.