Jesus Is Son of David and Son of Abraham (1:1)  First Matthew
calls Jesus son of David, a title of the rightful heir to
Israel's throne (as in Jer 23:5; 33:15; Ps. Sol. 17:21-23;
4QFlor). Other lines of evidence support the claim that Jesus'
family stemmed from this royal lineage (for example, Rom 1:3; b.
Sanhedrin 43a bar.; Euseb. H.E. 3.20; see also Meier
1991:216-19), and ancient Jewish polemicists never bothered to
try to refute it. Thus Matthew opens and closes the genealogy
with a title for Jesus that is significant but rare in his
Gospel: Jesus Christ, that is, the messianic king (1:1, 18).
Next Matthew calls Jesus son of Abraham. This is especially
significant because subsequent chapters further portray Jesus as
Israel's representative, the epitome of its history (for
example, 2:15; 4:2; see Kingsbury 1975:12; Longenecker
1975:141-43). As the heir of Abraham par excellence, Jesus can
communicate Abraham's promised blessings to his people. (Some
teachers regarded Abraham as the first Gentile convert t