Hi, we're Scott and Maureen Proctor, and this is Meridians podcast on The Come Follow Me Curriculum,

and we're so excited because we get to come with you into your home to study the scriptures

together. It's about our favorite thing to do. Special thanks again to Paul Cardol for

providing the music for this podcast. Oh, we love it, and this week our chapters are Matthew 1

and Luke 1. You know, it's important that you add the Joseph Smith translation to all of your

studies in the coming year because Joseph gives us so many insights into the New Testament,

and we'll talk about them here and there, and you just need to pay attention to those,

and one of the very first ones that we need to look at is just the fact that Joseph changed the name

of the books, those four gospels that we call the gospel according to Matthew, and he changed it to

the testimony of Matthew and the testimony of Mark, the testimony of Luke and the testimony of John.

That makes a real difference. And it's important to understand their audience. Matthew was writing to

the Jews, and he goes out of his way during his book to talk about how what he is talking about

fulfills the prophecy of the Jews. And that's important to understand because the Jews were always

looking for the fulfillment of prophecies. That was just the way they approached life. And Luke's

audience, of course, is to the Greeks. Luke was a missionary companion of Paul and grew up in one

of the Greek cities, so of course that is his interest. And he is not worthy also because he gives us

a lot of our understanding of Christ's interaction with women in his gospel. Mark was writing under

the direction of Peter, so he pulls upon Peter's memories, and he is essentially writing to the Romans,

and finally John, of course, is writing to members of the church. That's why we see such a heavy gospel

orientation that we find very familiar in John. So that brings us to Matthew chapter 1. If you look

at those first 17 verses, we as editors were always looking for a really great lead. You know,

you've got to have a lead. You don't want to bury your lead. You have to capture your audience.

...