The King James Bible: Matthew; Chapters 1-8

While the reading of Matthew did not peak my interest as much as Genesis did, the very first few chapters assigned to read had some points of interest for me. I noticed from the very first few chapters that dreams were going to play a very important role in the section of Matthew. There were many instances where dreams were mentioned- the very first being the first mentioning of Jesus: “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (1:20). Upon reading that part, I came to the conclusion that Joseph had doubts of marrying Mary because she had become pregnant before their marriage, which made him think that she may have been an unfaithful woman and slept with someone else who she then became pregnant by. The angel of the Lord however eases Joseph’s mind by telling him that the child she shall bear shall be the Holy Ghost. The repetition of the angel of the Lord appearing in dreams and somewhat giving instructions is almost, in a sense, like a prophecy. Basically, as long as the person follows the Lord’s instruction, then what they say is going to happen will happen. Aside from the prophecy-like dreams interesting me, I also became drawn in by the introduction of John the Baptist- who, honestly, as a very uneducated person when it comes to the bible, never knew existed. As odd as it may seem, I think what I liked more was the description of John the Baptist rather than his role in the text: “And the same John has his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey” (3:4). As I read this, I couldn’t help but connect him to what would be referred to now as the modern day ‘hipster’- or to bring it back further, possibly bohemian. A rather eccentric sense of style, a love for nature, outspoken about beliefs…The title seems to fit him very well.