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Podcast: The Bible in Fewer Words
Episode: #233: Matthew 1-2 | Introducing Jesus
Description: The New Testament begins in the most boring way possible - with a genealogy. But at least it's only 17 verses, rather than nine chapters, like in the beginning of 1 Chronicles.
The point of the genealogy is to show that Jesus was a descendant of David, as was expected of the Jewish Messiah. But it doesn't show that because is it Joseph's genealogy, and Joseph, according to Matthew, was not the father of Jesus.
The birth and infancy narrative in Matthew is dominated by five dreams. It also contradicts, in nearly every detail, with the one...