Genealogies are usually not the most exciting parts of the Bible. The first dozen chapters of First Chronicles in the Old Testament is rather dry. Matthew starts his Gospel with one of these lists, but it's rather exciting when the reader takes a minute to see what Matthew is really trying to say.
Matthew 1:1 - "A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the Son of Abraham."
Rather odd verse. Neither of those are literally true statements. However, Matthew is telling us that it is really important that Jesus came from the line of David since God promised a savior would come through David's family (2 Samuel 7:16) and through Abraham since God promised a savior would come through Abraham's offspring (Genesis 12:3). God was fulfilling both this promises, and Matthew wanted people to make the connection.
Genealogies are lists which can get repetitive, but the writer is trying to get people's attention when there is a break in the list. Look for the breaks in Matthew 1 and spend some time finding out why those breaks are significant.
So why do we have the Bible? What is so important about what has been written down by a bunch of guys two to three thousand years ago? The author and apostle, John, was willing to acknowledge the fact that there were a lot of things that happened, even during his own lifetime, that were not written down and recorded for people, but he wanted to give the reason that any of it has been shared. It's not only the purpose of his book, but I believe it is the purpose of the entire Bible:
John 20:31 "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name."
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