I am fascinated by the opening line of the Gospel of Matthew,
Βίβλος γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ υἱοῦ Δαυὶδ υἱοῦ Ἀβραάμ.
Biblos geneseos Jesus Christ son [of] David son [of] Abraham
Matthew starts kicks off the New Testament with an echo of Genesis 1…that this is the Genesis of the story of Jesus who is of the right royal and ethnic lineage to be the Christ. That is profoundly simple and has been right under my nose my whole life.
5 Responses
I am glad you mention it. I never heard it read from a cofC pulpit. I guess it was too simple.
Matt, the first two words of Matthew are actually from Genesis 2:4 in the LXX.
That is interesting Bob! I didn’t know that either 🙂
Bob’s right. The greek word “geneseos” is not found anywhere in Genesis 1 in the LXX. Many claim that Gen. 2:4 starts the parallel creation account from the older J source while Gen. 1 is from the later priestly (P) source. Not many evangelicals are willing to entertain the possibility of sources in the Pentateuch though, not even progressives. But, thought I’d add that tidbit for what it’s worth.
Carl, that is right that the word is not in Genesis 1. That is why I was careful with my wording to say “echos of Genesis 1” not a quote from Genesis 1.