Matthew's Gospel: Word Come Alive

By Martin Manser

Word Come Alive
• is an expanded translation (paraphrase) of the New Testament of the Bible by respected editor Martin Manser
• supplies linking phrases and background information in italics within the text to help make its message more immediately understandable
• aims to express the sense of the original in contemporary, natural English
• aims to have a powerful effect on readers, with a fresh, incisive quality that will make readers sit up and think.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543968996

Martin Manser

Martin Manser is a professional writer and researcher. He is responsible for ‘The Penguin Wordmaster’ and ‘The Guinness Book of Words’.

Book preview

Word Come Alive is an expanded translation (paraphrase) of the New Testament of the Bible. www.wordcomealive.net

Matthew’s Gospel

Copyright © Martin Manser 2019

Martin Manser’s website: www.martinmanser.co.uk

Front cover by Tony Cantale

ISBN: 9781543968996

For permissions to quote this text, see website www.wordcomealive.net

Text in italics is used for the explanations included to make the meaning more immediately understandable in this contemporary English version.

Martin Manser and his reviewers have worked from and checked this text against United Bible Societies’ 4th edition/26th and 27th editions of Novum Testamentum Graece [Greek New Testament] (Nestle-Aland) and other English translations.

Reviewers

Gervais Angel, formerly New Testament Greek Examiner for the Church of England and tutor in New Testament Greek at Trinity College, Bristol, England.

Dr. Pieter Lalleman, Tutor in Biblical Studies at Spurgeon’s College, London, England.

Contents

Matthew 1

Matthew 2

Matthew 3

Matthew 4

Matthew 5

Matthew 6

Matthew 7

Matthew 8

Matthew 9

Matthew 10

Matthew 11

Matthew 12

Matthew 13

Matthew 14

Matthew 15

Matthew 16

Matthew 17

Matthew 18

Matthew 19

Matthew 20

Matthew 21

Matthew 22

Matthew 23

Matthew 24

Matthew 25

Matthew 26

Matthew 27

Matthew 28

Matthew 1

The family line of Jesus

<1>Jesus Christ was a real person. This can be seen from this account of the royal family line of Jesus the Messiah, who was descended from David and also from Abraham. Abraham was the founder of the nation of Israel. God promised that he would bless everyone in the world through Abraham’s family line, and this was now about to take place most fully in Jesus.

<2>Abraham was Isaac’s father. Isaac was Jacob’s father. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers, whose families would become the twelve tribes of Israel. <3>Judah was the father of the twin boys Perez and Zerah, and Tamar was their mother. (Unusually – because women were looked down on in those days – this family line includes five women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Uriah’s wife and Mary.) Perez was Hezron’s father and Hezron was Ram’s father. <4>Ram was Amminadab’s father, and Amminadab was Nahshon’s father. Nahshon was Salmon’s father. <5>Salmon was Boaz’s father, and Rahab the prostitute from Jericho was his mother. Boaz was Obed’s father, and Ruth (an immigrant) was his mother. Obed was Jesse’s father. <6>Jesse was the father of King David, the man after God’s own heart.

David was the father of wise king Solomon, whose mother (Bathsheba) had been Uriah’s wife. <7>Solomon was Rehoboam’s father. Under Rehoboam’s reign, the united kingdom of Israel split into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. (The family line now continues with kings of Judah.) Rehoboam was Abijah’s father. Abijah was Asa’s father. <8>Asa was Jehoshaphat’s father. Jehoshaphat was Jehoram’s father. (Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah came next.) Jehoram was Uzziah’s ancestor. <9>Uzziah was Jotham’s father. Jotham was Ahaz’s father. Ahaz was Hezekiah’s father. <10>Faithful King Hezekiah was Manasseh’s father. Manasseh was Amon’s father. Amon was Josiah’s father. <11>(Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim came next.) Josiah – the boy king who reformed Judah’s worship – was the grandfather of Jeconiah and his brothers, when the people were sent into exile to Babylon.

<12>After the people had been sent into exile to Babylon, Jeconiah was Shealtiel’s father. Shealtiel was Zerubbabel’s grandfather. <13>Zerubbabel was Abihud’s father. Abihud was Eliakiam’s father. Eliakiam was Azor’s father. <14>Azor was Zadok’s father. Zadok was Akim’s father. Akim was Elihud’s father. <15>Elihud was Eleazar’s father. Eleazar was Matthan’s father. Matthan was Jacob’s father. <16>Jacob was Joseph’s father. Joseph – a carpenter from Nazareth – was Mary’s husband. Mary was Jesus’ mother. She gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

<17>So there were, in total in this summary about 14 generations from Abraham to David, about 14 generations from David to the exile to Babylon and about 14 generations from the exile to the birth of the Messiah.

Jesus will save his people from their sins

<18>This is the background to Jesus’ birth – how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. Jesus’ mother was Mary. When she was legally promised in marriage to Joseph, but before they had sexual relations, she was found to be pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. <19>Now Mary’s future husband Joseph was a good, law-abiding man, moral in his attitudes and behaviour. Because he did not want to shame Mary publicly, he decided to divorce her quietly. <20>But while Joseph was weighing up what to do, an angel of the Lord sent by God appeared to him completely out of the blue. The angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him, ‘Joseph, you who are descended from David, don’t be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has not been unfaithful to you. A miracle has happened. The baby that is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. <21>She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, meaning the Lord saves, because he will save his people from their sins.’ Sin is disobeying God, rebelling against him and not living up to his best for us. Jesus is the One who forgives sins, who releases people from the guilt and power of sin and rescues them from God’s judgment, so that they can know real peace and joy. Then they will be free to become the people God originally intended them to be.

<22>All this happened to fulfil what the Lord had promised through the prophet Isaiah:

<23>‘Look, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel,’ which means ‘God with us’.

<24>Joseph trusted the angel’s message, so when he woke up, he obeyed what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and he took Mary home as his wife. <25>But he did not have sexual relations with her until she had given birth to a son. And Joseph gave him the name Jesus.

Matthew 2

The wise men worship Jesus

<1>Shortly after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea in the time when Herod the Great was king, wise men turned up unexpectedly in Jerusalem. They were non-Jewish (Gentile) astrologers from the East. <2>They wanted to pay their respects to Jesus and so asked people in Jerusalem, ‘Where is the baby who has been born as king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose in the East to announce him. We have come to honour and worship him.’

<3>When King Herod heard that a king had been born, the news alarmed him. He felt threatened: he was probably afraid that the newborn king would take over his throne. The news put the wind up everyone else in Jerusalem too. <4>So Herod called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law and asked them where the Messiah was to be born. <5>They told him, ‘In Bethlehem, in Judea, because this is what the prophet Micah has written:

<6>‘"And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah

are in no way the least important among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will be a shepherd to my people Israel."’1

This prophecy was that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, an unimportant town in Judah. The Messiah would know and lead his people, protect, look after and provide for them.

<7>Then Herod secretly called the wise men to a private meeting. He found out from them the exact time that the star had appeared. <8>He sent them off to Bethlehem, telling them, ‘Go and have a good look for the child. When you’ve found him, report back to me, so that I too can go and honour him.’ But Herod was pretending that he wanted to worship Jesus. His plan was that the wise men would come back and tell him where Jesus was, so that he could get rid of him.

<9>After the wise men had listened to what the king said, they set out on their journey. And then, amazingly, they saw the star that had risen in the East moving ahead of them and guiding them. It led them on their journey until it came to a standstill directly over the place where the child Jesus lay. <10>When they saw the star, they jumped for joy. <11>As soon as they went into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother. They fell to their knees in awe and worshipped him: they had found the One they’d been looking for! Having opened their treasures, they offered valuable gifts to honour him personally. They gave precious gold, pure incense and fragrant myrrh to the One who was king, God and sacrifice. <12>Then, having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.

Jesus is kept safe

<13>Now after the wise men had gone, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Joseph in a dream. The angel told him, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you and run away to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you it’s safe to leave. I’m telling you this because Herod is planning to search for the child and kill him. You will be safe in Egypt.’ <14>So Joseph got up at once, took the child and his mother with him that night and set off for Egypt, <15>where he, the child and his mother stayed until Herod died. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet Hosea: ‘I called my son to come out of Egypt.’2 Just as God had protected his people Israel when they had escaped from Egypt in the exodus, so now Jesus would be kept safe on his journey to and from Egypt.

<16>When Herod realised that he’d been tricked by the wise men, he completely lost his cool. He was determined to get rid of any possible rival. So having found out the time when the wise men had first seen the star, he gave orders that all the boys two years old or under in and around Bethlehem should be killed.

<17>This fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

<18>‘Stop and listen!

A voice is heard in Ramah,

a voice of bitter weeping and loud mourning.

Look! Rachel is in tears for her children,

she refuses to be comforted,

because she has lost what is precious to her:

her children have all gone.’3

Just as Rachel, seen here as the mother of Israel, mourned the loss of her precious ones taken into exile, so mothers in Bethlehem mourned the death of their young boys.

<19>After Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph, while he was still in Egypt. <20>The angel told him, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel. It’s safe to return there because the people who were trying to take away the child’s life have now died.’

<21>So Joseph got