And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
Ver. 16. And Jacob begat Joseph] Whose genealogy is here recorded, and not Mary's, it being not the custom of that people then to set forth the genealogies of women. As at this day, the Jews have an over-base conceit of that sex; saying that they have not so divine a soul as men, but are of a lower creation, &c., and therefore they suffer them not to enter the synagogue, but appoint them a gallery without. (Blount's Voyage into the Levant.)
The husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus] This is the sum of all the good news in the world, such as surpasseth the joy of conquest or of harvest, Isaiah 9:3; Isaiah 9:5,6, and should therefore swallow up all discontents whatsoever.
Who is called Christ] The name of Jesus is mel in ore, melos in aure, iubilium in corde (Bernard): as it was to St Paul, who therefore names it nine different times in the ten first verses of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, as loth to come off it. Yet is not the name Jesus alone half so sweet as when Christ is added to it, as here. For Jesus Christ betokeneth such a Saviour as is anointed and appointed thereunto by God, consecrated to the office according to his Godhead, and qualified for it according to his manhood. In both natures a Saviour, and that ex professo (as you would say) and by consent of all three persons; the Son being anointed by the Father, with the Holy Ghost: and as Samson when clothed with the spirit saved the people, so Christ much more.