Matthew 1

Matthew 1 goes over the ancestry of Christ, from Abraham, through the tribe of Judah, to David.  The chapter does not relate why, if Jesus is a direct descendant of David, he is not already king of the Jews.  In any event, the title "Christ" means the "anointed one". 

We are introduced to Jesus' parents and it is revealed that when Joseph became betrothed to Mary, she was already pregnant, albeit by the Holy Spirit.  Joseph, being a compassionate man, wanted to divorce her quietly to spare her shame.  However, an angel appeared to him and told Joseph Mary would be the mother of the Messiah.  So Joseph kept her and the chapter ends with the seemingly odd factoid that Joseph did not take her virginity until after Jesus was born.  I'm sure this relates back to Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, but the annotations don't get into it at this point.  Perhaps as I work my way through the OT, the importance of Christ being born to a virgin will be revealed.

Asimov talks about how Matthew, in addition to being a common Hebrew name and the name of one of Jesus' apostles, was a name closely associated with the Maccabean revolt.  He says at the time, literary works were not ascribed in the convention of today, the actual author.  Rather, they would be associated with renowned figures from the past, as either an apostle of Christ or a hero of the revolt would be.  And apart from that, the Book of Matthew was written in a time when Christians were being actively persecuted by Rome and shunned by Jews.  So the real author of the Book of Matthew may have had good reason to prefer to remain anonymous and have his work ascribed to that of a great hero of the past.