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b'READ: ISAIAH 7:13-14; MATTHEW 1:18-23\\n\\n\\n\\nAnother tool that can help us understand Scripture is genre. The Bible has lots of different genres, like historical narratives, parables, poetry, letters, wisdom literature, apocalyptic literature, and more. Today, we\\u2019re just going to take a look at one genre: ancient biographies. Specifically, we\\u2019ll look at the book of Matthew.\\n\\n\\n\\nLike the rest of the four Gospels, Matthew is an ancient biography about Jesus. And while modern biographies attempt to cover all the facts of a person\\u2019s life in chronological order, ancient biographies only cover certain events about a person\\u2019s life, and they aren\\u2019t necessarily in chronological order. Instead, the author chooses different events and facts about the person and arranges them in a certain order to make a point.\\n\\n\\n\\nFor example, Matthew (who was one of Jesus\\u2019s disciples) makes the point that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, the fulfillment of the Jewish Scriptures. To do this, Matthew tells the story of Jesus in a way that embodies the story of Israel. Jesus is called out of Egypt (Matthew 2:13-23) like God called Israel out of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 13:17-22). Jesus\\u2019s baptism in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:13-17) parallels Israel\\u2019s journey through the Red Sea (Exodus 14:15-31). Immediately after this, Jesus wanders in the desert for forty days (Matthew 4:1-11), similar to how the Israelites wandered the desert for forty years (Numbers 32:13). Finally, He climbs up a mountain to teach His followers (Matthew 5:1-2), like Moses climbed Mount Sinai to receive the law from God (Exodus 19-20). Matthew also arranges Jesus\\u2019s sermons into five long segments (chapters 5-7; 10; 13; 18-20; 23-25) to parallel the five books of the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. This makes the point that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Torah, and He is the perfect, sinless Israel that the Israelites could never be.\\n\\n\\n\\nUnderstanding the genre the book of Matthew was written in helps us grasp its message: Jesus is the One the Israelites had been waiting for. And, because we know that ancient biographies are arranged to make a point, we can understand why the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) look slightly different: they\\u2019re making slightly different points about who Jesus is! When we look at all of them together, we get a fuller picture of Jesus\\u2014who loves us so much that He died and resurrected from the dead to save us from sin and death. \\u2022 Taylor Eising\\n\\n\\n\\n\\u2022 Why does genre matter in the Bible? How does Jesus\\u2019s fulfillment of promises show God\\u2019s love?\\n\\n\\n\\nAll this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said\\u2026Matthew 1:22a (NIV)'