Difference between revisions of "Matt 1:16-20"

Revision as of 00:28, 8 January 2007

The New Testament > Matthew > Chapter 1

Questions

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Verse 18

What does "espoused" mean?

===Verse 19===What does "privily" mean?

What does the story of verses 18-19 tell us about Joseph's character?

Verses 20-23

Is it significant that Joseph is a dreamer, like Joseph of old? Is the meaning of Joseph’s name significant, “to take away my reproach”?

Lexical notes

• The preposition "of" in the phrases "of the Holy Ghost" in verses 18 and 20 is a translation of the Greek preposition ek. Prepositions can be notoriously difficult to translate from one language to the other, and this is no exception. Modern translations render the preposition here as either "of," "by" or "through." Because of the various ways in which the preposition can be understood, these verses are not inconsistent with the belief that God (Heavenly Father) was the father of Jesus.

Verses 18-19

Jewish divorce law, unlike the laws and customs of other people at the time, required that divorce be formal: a man wishing to divorce his wife (to do so, he had to find “some uncleanness in her” or “something indecent about her”—Deuteronomy 24:1), had to give her a document contradicting their marriage contract. She was then free to remarry.

Exegesis

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Related links

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