name was Γένεσις. One is therefore led to ask whether the introductory use of βίβλος γενέσεως would not have caused Matthew’s readers to think of the Torah’s first book and to anticipate that some sort of ‘new genesis’, a genesis of Jesus Christ would follow. It is difficult to think otherwise. By opening his gospel with another book’s title, Matthew almost certainly intended to set up the story of Jesus as a counterpart to the story of Genesis. Beyond this, since ‘Genesis’ already stood as the