Matthew 1:18

Matthew 1:18 is the eighteenth verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It is part of the decription of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

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.

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was

like this; for after his mother,

Mary, was engaged to Joseph,

before they came together, she was

found pregnant by the Holy Spirit.

The word translated as birth, geneseos, is the same term that is used in Matthew 1:1. English editions invariably give different translations for the two, but the author of Matthew may have been trying to link the two verses with the second geneseos symbolically beginning the second section of the chapter.

The word translated as espoused, engaged, or most often betrothed refers to a specific institution of the period very different from the modern idea of an engagement. This period occured after the main marriage ceremony had taken place and the marriage contracts had been signed. Dissolution thus required a formal divorce or the death of one partner. In general the marriage ceremony took place when the woman was still very young, generally around age twelve or thirteen. After the ceremony they would remain in their father's house for around a year, and this period is what is refrred to in this verse.

The second stage of the marriage was for the husband to take his bride into his own home. Most scholars believe this is what the phrase "coming together" means in this verse. It is not thought to be a euphemism for sexual relations, even though it could be interpreted in this way. Only after the bride moved into her husbands house would the marriage be consummated. In Judea sexual relations during the betrothal were not unheard of. In Galilee, however, much stricter conventions prevailed. Any infidelity with an outside partner during the betrothal period was considered adultery, and punished as such under Mosaic Law. Thus when Mary became pregnant she was at a point prior to which she would have had relations with her husband but also a time in which infidelity would be harshly punished, potentially by death.

Matthew does not relate the conception of Jesus, rather he takes the event as having already happened. To Schweizer this signals that Matthew was writing for an audience that was already well aware of story of the Virgin Birth. The chapter is also sometimes rewritten as though it is trying to rebut the attacks of those who doubted Mary was still a virgin. Schweizer also observers that the author of Matthew seems rather nonplussed by the Virgin Birth. While today modern scientifically oriented Christians find the Virgin Birth one of the more implausible parts of the Gospel, Schweizer believes the attitude would have been very different at the time Matthew was writing. There were several Virgin Birth stories in the Jewish tradition and the idea of virgin births was generally accepted by the population.

Matthew mentions the paternity of the Holy Ghost very quickly, before even any of the characters in his narrative are aware of this fact. Brown argues that this is because Matthew does not want the reader to even for an instant consider alternate scenarios as to how Mary could have become pregnant.

Despite the capital letters most editions give the phrase Matthew does not mean the Holy Ghost as understood in modern theology. It was some time before the modern notion of the Trinity was to develop. The phrase is more accurately read as either "a holy spirit" or "the holy spirit."

References

• Albright, W.F. and C.S. Mann. "Matthew." The Anchor Bible Series. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1971.
• Brown, Raymond E. The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in Matthew and Luke. London: G. Chapman, 1977.
• Schweizer, Eduard. The Good News According to Matthew. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975