Jesus Is Israel

In a 2009 article in Biblica , Brandon D. Crowe argues that the phrase “that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” in Matthew 1 alludes back to Deuteronomy 32:18. In the LXX of the Song of Moses, the verb gennao is used to describe “God’s begetting of Israel, his son.” The Hebrew verb behind the LXX is yalad , used in Isaiah 1:2; 66:9; Psalm 2:7; Proverbs 8:25.

Isaiah 1:2 is certainly part of the background, since there Yahweh also begets Israel. Matthew explicitly quotes Isaiah 7 only a few verse later, so the early chapters of Isaiah seem to be very much in his mind. Psalm 2 is also a possible intertext. But Crowe argues that Deuteronomy 32 is the main source for Matthew’s language.

He finds, for example, that Matthew alludes to various creation motifs in the first chapter, including the very word genesis . Deuteronomy 32 speaks of the Spirit hovering (v. 10), like the Spirit of Genesis 1:2, and in Deuteronomy creation motifs overlap with exodus. Crowe argues that “in Deut 32 Israel’s deliverance is related to Israel’s sonship by means of creational language. The allusion to Deut 32,18 in Matt 1, 20 evokes this creative and redemptive imagery, further connecting the beginning of the gospel with both the Song of Moses and Gen 1.”