What's The Deal With The Women In Matthew's Geneology Of Jesus?
by Deacon Robert Schnell
Today's Gospel is Matthew's paternal geneology of Jesus, back to Abraham (Mt 1: 1-17). Obviously Matthew wants to make the point that Jesus is descended, through Joseph, from the line of Jewish leaders that goes back to Abraham. Luke does much the same in Luke 3: 23-38, although he goes all the way back to Adam. Not surprisingly, given the patriarchal nature of Jewish society, Luke does not name a single woman in the geneology. He just says who is the son of whom. But Matthew, writing even more for a Jewish audience, does refer to some women-- five of them if you include the reference to Jesus' mother, Mary. The other four are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the woman who was the mother of Solomon and "had been the wife of Uriah"-- namely, Bathsheba. So why just these five, out of the 42 generations that Matthew identifies from Abraham to Jesus? What is it about them? One thing, I suppose, is that all but Mary were probably not Jewish. Tamar and Ruth were Canaanites. Ruth was from Moab, and Bathsheba was probably a Hittite, having been married to Uriah the Hittite. So one explanation that commentators give is that by including non-Jews in the geneology Matthew wants his Jewish readers, and us, to remember that Jesus came to save everyone, not just those who were Jewish. A fair point for sure. But what is it that all five of these women share? I think the only answer is that they experienced very-difficult family situations but were never-the-less used by God as a critical part of salvation history. Rahab was a prostitute. Tamar got pregnant by seducing her father-in-law. Ruth was left a widow, along with her mother-in law and sister-in-law. She left her native Moab to go to Israel with Naomi, her mother-in-law. We all know the story of Bathsheba, who David got pregnant while she was still married to Uriah. Then, of course, there is the story of Mary, who got pregnant out-of-wedlock and, under the law, could easily have been stoned to death. All very difficult family situations, to be sure. Sometimes there are men involved in creating the "problem"-- David fits that category. Sometimes they aren't-- Mary and Ruth are in that situation. Sometimes the women are part of the "problem", sometimes they're not. But in all cases there is a family difficulty that has to be addressed, and the women had to make choices in terms of how to do that. Through God's grace, those choices led to the birth of Christ. This time of year can be particularly challenging from a family perspective. Old wounds can get opened up. We have to deal with people with whom we may have troubled relationships. We all want to be the perfect family, but perfection isn't in the cards. Maybe with that in mind it helps to recall the family stories of the women Matthew mentions in Jesus' geneology. Sure, we've got problems, but they did too. Nevertheless, God worked with them and they became part of the Divine plan. God works with us as well, even in our conflict and our difficulties. We don't know how or why things are as they are, but these five women give us reason to trust that all will be well. God is in charge, after all.