First Miracle: The Fleece
When I seriously began to contemplate the N2LR methodology, as yet unnamed, and had only a rough idea of how to make the New Testament Greek translate itself, I thought the whole idea could possibly be a delusion. So I prayed and Gideon's fleece came into my head. Was I to ask for a sign? Next thought: what could I possibly ask for? Then I knew it had to be something hard or unusual, because I needed a lot of persuading. “Lord, if You really want me to do this, please show me something special about the very first NT verse.” The Bible I had handy (I was on vacation) had it as, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:" I was fairly confident and perhaps somewhat relieved that I would not find much I could consider new in this verse, but I was willing to give it a try.
So I began to do the word studies, comprehensive contextual word studies, of all the words in Mt 1:1. I discovered that I could profitably leave out words that translators usually insert in it “for clarity,” and translate each word according to its grammar, syntax, and the context of its other NT occurrences, trying to use an accurate rendition in English of all the grammar and syntax information found in each Greek word in that verse. What began to appear was unexpected. My prayer was being answered!
In Mt 1:1 the word translated "genealogy" was problematic. That definition didn't fit very well into the other two occurrences where the Greek word is found in the NT, one of those as an adjective. Eventually I hit on the noun "inheriting/heritage" and its adjective form, "inherited." These seemed to fit better than anything else with the three times the word is found in the NT.
Now the word "book" was problematic as well. I believe modern English speakers would never call a book "a scroll". Neither would 1st century Hebrew speakers ever call a scroll a separate word meaning "book". Books as we know them were not yet invented. The Hebrews written messages were "small scrolls", what today we call "letters", or I should say "emails". Their 'books' were called "large scrolls".
When I looked again after newly translating the first two words of Mt 1:1, I read, “scroll…of…inheriting/heritage”…oh! …wait! …“heritage scroll”! The Gospel of Matthew starts with a heritage scroll! That’s why this verse always sort of bothered me. The whole gospel of Matthew is not a “Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.” Matthew was announcing that the beginning of his account was a copy of Yeshua’s heritage scroll!
When Paul warned about getting distracted by “endless genealogies,” he was talking in the context of the well known importance for all Jews to know their ancestry. When the Jews had returned from the Babylonian Exile, the priests who could not prove their Levitical descent were not allowed to serve in the Temple.
More important than that, however, was the prophecy that the Messiah, the promised Anointed One of YHWH, would be a descendant of King David. No one by any amount of miracles could claim to be the Messiah without proof of his ancestry going back to King David. Every Hebrew child who was not considered deprived knew his tribe and ancestry. Especially for those of Davidic descent, having a family document as evidence of lineage might become of the greatest importance!
Matthew had the tools and skills of a writer because he was a tax collector for the Roman occupation and had to keep accurate records. The Romans, like the Nazis, were sticklers for detailed information and accurate records. Matthew was Jewish and therefore when he used the term “heritage scroll” he was announcing the major and necessary requirement for proof that Yeshua was the promised Anointed One from YHWH who would inherit David's rulership!
Most Jewish people at the time who knew of him, probably knew only that Yeshua, the miracle-working teacher, was a former builder from Nazareth. Matthew had to correct that false perception. Right after the seventeen verses of Matthew's version of Yeshua’s Heritage Scroll, Matthew begins to relate how Yeshua also fulfilled the biblical prophecies that the Messiah would be born from a virgin, born in Bethlehem of Judea, and also would then be called out of Egypt – all having been long before prophesied in the Writings from YHWH. Matthew probably got the detailed story directly from Yeshua’s mother and used it as a means of revealing the highly improbable events set up by YHWH to pinpoint the identity of the Messiah.
In his very first verse Matthew copies down Yeshua’s legal identity for all to see. By this, first and foremost, Matthew declares that Yeshua is the Son/Heir Anointed by YHWH to fulfill YHWH’s Covenant with Abraham and his descendants, and that He is the Son/Heir that YHWH promised to give King David, one who would sit on David’s throne, ruling forever.