The Net Of Descent

Abraham genuit Isaac, Isaac autem genuit Jacob...; Exsequitur ergo humanam generationem Christi Matthaeus, ab ipso promissionis Christi exordio, hoc est, ab Abraham generatores commemorans, quos producit ad Joseph virum Mariae, de qua natus est Jesus. Mystice quoque demonstrat quomodo, de genitilitatis caligine, quasi de Aegyptia servitute, per quadraginta duos viros, ac si ejusdem numeri mansiones, ad virginem Mariam, pleno sancti Spiritus gurgite fluentem, ac si intelligibilem Jordanem, duce Domino Jesu Christo, velut Josue filio Nun, ventum sit, ipsumque Christum de Maria natum esse testatur, qui velut hamus in retis capite, sic in fine genealogiae positus, et in mare hujus mundi a Patre missus, tortuosum draconem aduncatum occisus occidit, atque humani generis mortem mortuus mortificavit. Et ideo velut fune duplicato, iterato videlicet uniuscujusque nomine, in retis similitudinem genealogiae ordo contexitur, donec ab principio, hoc est, ab Abraham ad hamum usque, hoc est, Christum, adveniatur; de quo ad sanctum Job dicitur: Nunquid aduncabis Leviathan hamo tuo, aut armilla perforabis maxillas ejus? In hamo igitur incarnationis Christi iste captus est, quia dum in illo appetiit escam corporis, transfixus est aculeo divinitatis Rabanus Maurus, Commentariorum In Matthaeum, Caput Primus Source:  Migne PL 107.732b-d

'Abraham sired Isaac, Isaac sired Jacob...' 1 So Matthew follows the human generation of Christ, from that beginning of the promise of Christ, that is, recalling the progenitors from Abraham, those who sired up to Joseph, the man of Mary, from whom Jesus was born. Now spiritually this demonstrates how from the darkness of copulation, as from Egyptian servitude, through forty two men, just like those enumerated stopping places in the desert, 2 to the virgin Mary, flowing with the full flood of the Holy Spirit, as even a spiritual Jordan, with Jesus Christ leading, as Joshua son of Nun, it came to be, and gives witness to that same Christ born from Mary, He who is as a hook on the head of a net is thus placed in the genealogy, and in the sea of this world is sent from the Father, that being slain he slay that twisting dragon He has hooked and in death give death to the death of the human race. And therefore as with a dual rope, with the repetition of the name of each sire, the series of the genealogy is woven up into the likeness of a net, until from the beginning, that is, from Abraham, until the hook, that is, Christ, it comes, concerning which the blessed Job says: 'Shall you catch Leviathian with your hook, or pierce his jaws with a hoop?' 3 As by a hook, therefore, he is caught by the incarnation of Christ, because while he strove to feast on the flesh of the body, he was pierced by the Divine barb. Rabanus Maurus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter 1 1 Mt 1.2 2 Numbers 33 3 Job 40.20