Jacob (Joseph's father)

The verse continues the clipped pattern of the genealogy: the Greek verb ἐγέννησεν ("begot," "fathered") is rendered simply as "the father of" so the long list can be read aloud in an even, unbroken rhythm. But at Joseph the pattern deliberately stops. Matthew does not say Joseph fathered Jesus; he writes "the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus." The relative pronoun "of whom" translates ἐξ ἧς, which in Greek is unmistakably feminine and singular, pointing to Mary alone; English cannot show the gender, so the reader hears the break in the pattern instead — the active "the father of" gives way to the passive "was born." The word ἄνδρα can mean either "man" or "husband"; here the marital sense is required, and "husband" is used, though the couple was at this stage betrothed (see verses 18–19), a bond legally binding in Jewish practice. The closing phrase ὁ λεγόμενος χριστός is rendered "who is called the Christ," keeping the definite article to preserve the sense of a title rather than a surname; "who is called Messiah" or "the Anointed One" would carry the same meaning, and the verse 17 rendering "the Christ" matches it.

The change of verb form is the hinge of the whole genealogy. Thirty-nine times Matthew has used the active ἐγέννησεν, "he fathered"; here he switches to the aorist passive ἐγεννήθη, "was born." Such a passive with no stated agent is often read as a "divine passive," quietly attributing the action to God. The feminine singular relative ἐξ ἧς cannot refer to Joseph or to the couple together; grammatically Jesus is born from Mary and from her alone. Χριστός is the ordinary Greek word for "smeared, anointed," chosen by Greek-speaking Jews to render Hebrew māšîaḥ, "anointed one" — a term used of kings, priests and prophets set apart by oil. The participial phrase ὁ λεγόμενος, "the one called," is Matthew's habitual way of attaching a name or title (compare "Simon called Peter").

Ancient Jewish genealogies traced descent through the father, and legal paternity could be established by acknowledgment rather than biology; a man who named a child and raised it as his own conferred on it his tribe and lineage. This is why the list runs through Joseph even though Matthew immediately denies that Joseph fathered Jesus: Joseph's acceptance of the child (verses 20–25) makes Jesus a legal son of David. Betrothal in first-century Judaism was contracted about a year before the wedding, was legally binding, and could be dissolved only by divorce — which is why Joseph can already be called Mary's husband. Four women are named earlier in the list (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and "the wife of Uriah"), all of them associated with irregular or foreign circumstances; Mary is the fifth and last, and the pattern prepares the reader for the unusual birth about to be described.

The broken formula is Matthew's first, understated statement of the virginal conception, which he will make explicit in verses 18–25 with the citation of Isaiah 7:14. The genealogy therefore does two things at once: it establishes Jesus as the legitimate heir of David and Abraham through Joseph's legal fatherhood, and it signals that his origin is not merely human. Readers have long debated how this list relates to the different genealogy in Luke 3, with proposals ranging from Luke tracing Mary's line, to levirate marriage in the ancestry, to Matthew giving the royal-legal succession and Luke the natural descent. The title "the Christ" gathers up the whole list: the fourteen-generation structure of verse 17 presents Jesus as the goal toward which Israel's history has been moving.

The Greek manuscript tradition for this verse is remarkably uniform, and the wording translated here is supported by the earliest and best witnesses. A few ancient versions and one manuscript family, however, reword the verse: some read "Joseph, to whom the virgin Mary was betrothed, who bore Jesus called Christ," and an old Syriac witness even reads "Joseph, to whom the virgin Mary was betrothed, fathered Jesus." These readings are generally judged to be later attempts to smooth the abrupt grammar rather than the original text; notably, even the Syriac form stands in a manuscript that goes on to relate the virginal conception in the following verses.

The genealogy has traditionally been read or chanted at the Christmas vigil and at celebrations of the Nativity of Mary, with this verse as its climax; in some traditions the reader's voice rises here, since the whole list has been building toward the name of Jesus.