What Does Matthew 1:1 Mean in the King James?
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Matthew’s genealogy opens as Genesis: the line of David and Abraham is a beginning taking form in a person whose name means deliverance.
THE MEANING
Jesus is named through David and Abraham, and his name carries deliverance into the present. “Generation” also carries the sense of origin and coming-into-being, so the lineage reads as a beginning taking shape now.
THE ROOT
γενέσεως
geneseōs
GROWS FROM
γεν
come into being, be born
English “generation” can sound like an age group, but γενέσεως also carries the sense of origin and coming-into-being. Its family includes γένος (genos, “family, kind, lineage”) and γίνομαι (ginomai, “come to be”), so Matthew’s list is both a human lineage and a beginning taking shape.
ALSO GROWS
genos: family, kind, lineage
γένος
This branch makes the shared root’s link between coming-into-being and a line of kin visible.
ginomai: become, come to be
γίνομαι
This branch reveals the movement inside “generation”: what comes into being.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yēshūaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
deliver, bring out from constriction into spaciousness
“Jesus” in this verse is Yēshūaʿ. The name carries the Hebrew root יָשַׁע (yāšaʿ, “deliver, bring out”). Its word family names both deliverance and the deliverer, so the person at the head of this lineage bears the movement from constriction toward spaciousness in his name.
ALSO GROWS
yāšaʿ: deliver, bring out to safety
יָשַׁע
The verb shows the action carried in the name: being brought out.
yeshuʿāh: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the deliverance embodied in the name Jesus.
môšîaʿ: deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who brings others out, joining the act to the person.
Χριστοῦ
Christou
GROWS FROM
χρι
rub, anoint
“Christ” in this verse is Christou. Χριστός (Christos, “anointed one”) is a title, not a surname. Alongside “son of David,” it holds the royal line and anointing in the same name.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: anoint, rub with oil
χρίω
This verb is the action behind the title: to anoint.
chrisma: anointing
χρῖσμα
This branch makes the anointing itself visible within the title’s root family.
THE PATTERN
A promise moves through a named lineage until its beginning takes form in a person.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.THE THREAD
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,The Greek phrase βίβλος γενέσεως (biblos geneseōs, “book of generation”) in Matthew echoes the same wording in Genesis 2:4. The creation heading becomes a family line, and the beginning arrives through a named lineage whose head bears deliverance in his name.
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