What Does Matthew 1:10 Mean?

And Hezekiah brought forth Manasseh, and Manasseh brought forth Amon, and Amon brought forth Josiah.

Matthew 1:10 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;

THE KEY

The Greek verb behind each “begat” belongs to the same family as words for generation, lineage, and coming into being: this is a chain of origins.

THE MEANING

You are looking at a chain in which each life is received and also becomes the source of another. Manasses bears the name-nature ⁨מְנַשֶּׁה⁩ (Menasheh), “causing to forget,” from ⁨נָשָׁה⁩ (nashah), “to forget”; the lineage carries meanings as well as descent.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that a person is self-originating: each named life enters through a chain of begetting.

THE ROOT

ἐγέννησεν

egennēsen

GROWS FROM

γεν

The Greek stem ⁨γεν-⁩ (gen-) carries the sense of bringing forth or coming into being.

“brought forth” in this verse is egennēsen. English makes “begat” sound like a narrow genealogical formula; the Greek ⁨γεν-⁩ (gen-) family also names generation, lineage, and coming into being. Each repeated act is both a link in the line and an origin for what follows.

ALSO GROWS

genea: Generation or lineage.

γενεά

It names the generational chain that the repeated begetting lays out.

genos: Kin, stock, or kind.

γένος

It shows how begetting forms a lineage whose members share an origin.

genesis: Birth, origin, or coming into being.

γένεσις

It names the emergence carried by each act of bringing forth.

THE PATTERN

Begetting marks an origin that brings another life into a continuing line.

And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and brought forth a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.

Genesis 5:3 · SDVA life received from Adam becomes the next link in a line of descent.

Now these are the births of Perez. Perez brought forth Hezron.

Ruth 4:18 · SDVThe genealogy presents each act of begetting as the beginning of another generation.

For though you have ten thousand child-leaders in the Anointed One, you do not have many fathers. For in the Anointed One Jesus, through the good message, I have brought you forth.

1 Corinthians 4:15 · SDVBegetting describes a generative bond that brings another into a shared lineage.

THE THREAD

What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of breath is breath.

John 3:6 · SDV

John uses the same ⁨γεννάω⁩ (gennaō) word family for what is born. The root opens Matthew’s genealogy to the idea that an origin carries life forward, with the source shaping what is brought forth.

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