Free Essay in Religion: Character Sketch for Gospel of Mathew

The genealogy of Jesus according to the gospel of Mathew details his parentage from the time of King David to the time he is born. According to Metzger 1173, there is a long lineage that explains who are the original parents of Jesus. The gospel of Mathew states that Jesus is the son of Jacob, but it further details the parentage from Jacob all the way to Abraham. The generations that are accounted for in the gospel number fourteen. These are fourteen generations of men and women who contributed in one way or another towards the birth of Jesus Christ. This depicts Mathew as being exemplarily specific about the information he shares. This paper details some of the generations cited in the gospel of Mathew. It also provides details of the birth of Jesus Christ, and therefore provides a character sketch of Jesus in accordance to the Gospel of Mathew. This helps one to understand the perception of Mathew with regards to the Messiah (Metzger 1197). His perceptions have greatly help mould how the modern Christian understands the life of Christ.

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Despite being miraculously conceived without marital relations, Jesus earthly father is considered to be Joseph. Jesus was born of Joseph, who was born of Matthan. Matthan was the son of Eleazar, who was the son of Eliud. Eliud, Jesus great grandfather, was the son of Achim. According to Mathew, Achim was born to the Zadok, Zadok to Azor, and Azor to Eliakim. Eliakim was born to Abiud, Abiud to Zerubbabel, Zerubabbel to Salathiel, Salathiel to Jechoniah, and Jechoniah to Josiah. It is important to mention that Josiah was deported to Babylon when fathering Jechoniah. The specifity of this lineage shows that these characters stored the information regarding their lineage in a format that was reliable, preferably a written format. Josiah was the son of Amos, Amos son of Manasseh, Manasseh son of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, Ahaz son of Jotham and Jotham the son of Uzziah (Metzger 1172). Uzziah was the son of Joram who was the son of Asaph. Asaph was the son of Abihjah, while Abijah was the son of Rehoboam. Rehoboam is the son of Solomon, Solomon son of David, Davi son of Jesse, Jesse son of Obed, Obed son of Boaz, Boaz son of Salmon, Salmon son of Nahshon, and Nahshon son of Aminadab. Aminada was the son of Hezron, Hezron son of Perez, Perez son Judah. Judah is mentioned in the gospel of Mathew to be the son of Jacob who was the son of Isaac, and Isaac the son of Abraham. There are fourteen generations before the deportation of Josiah to Babylon and another fourteen generations after the deportation of Josiah to Babylon.

According to the gospel of Mathew, Jesus mother Mary was engaged to Joseph. However, despite having had no marital relations, she is found to have a pregnancy that would later result in the birth of Jesus. This pregnancy is also attributed to the Holy Spirit. However, Joseph is not quick to accept that his wife-to-be has been impregnated by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he devices a plan to dismiss Mary without drawing attention to her. The Holy Spirit intervenes via a dream, asking Joseph not to be fearful of taking Mary as his wife. The Holy Spirit confirms that the child within Mary is born of the Hoy Spirit, As a result of this dream, Joseph resolves to take up the challenge to parent Jesus, who the messiah fondly refers to as Emmanuel. Joseph follows all the instructions provided by the Holy Spirit and does not have any marital relations with Mary until their son is born (Metzger 1187). The period when Jesus was born had a lot of judgmental attitude towards men who supported any form of sexual relations that lead to conceiving before marriage. Therefore, it was very brave of Joseph to take up the parenting role despite the judgmental attitude flooded towards him by those around him.

After the birth of Jesus, there was the visit from the wise men. These men wanted to find out the location of the new King who was to be born in the land of King Herod. This led them to King Herods Palace. Herod was curious to know the location of the supposed Kind of the Jews. He asked the three wise men to report back to him with the information about the babys location. Unknown to the wise men, Herods intentions were to kill the baby before it were to mature up. The three wise men would later find the young baby by following the bright start from the east. However, the Holy Spirit notifies them not to go back to King Herod and report of their finding baby Jesus. However, after paying homage to baby Jesus, the three wise men used a different road to go back home (Metzger 1192). This infuriated Herod who went ahead to kill every boy child who below the age of two. However, Joseph and his family escaped Herods wrath by going to Egypt before Herod could kill their son. It was after Herods death that the family returned to Israel. However, to avoid Herods son Archelaus, they moved to Nazareth. The characters mentioned in this phase of Jesus growth show there were several people against his maturation into being a King. However, there were equally other people who were relentless in seeing Jesus become the prophesied king.

Works Cited

Metzger, Bruce M. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Print.