{"id":75,"date":"2014-05-02T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=75"},"modified":"2014-04-29T20:52:57","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T20:52:57","slug":"matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 1:1-17; The Genealogy of Jesus (Cultural Commentary)"},"content":{"rendered":"

One unexpected aspect of Matthew\u2019s genealogy is the deliberate identification of four women (in addition to Mary) in Jesus\u2019 family tree. In the intensely patriarchal Jewish society of Jesus\u2019 time, it was it unusual for any<\/i> woman to be heralded in this way, let alone four of them.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the women Matthew chose all had questionable reputations in Hebrew history. Tamar (verse 3) acted as a prostitute and engaged in illicit sex with Judah in order to trick him into fathering Jesus\u2019 ancestor, Perez. Rahab (verse 5) was a career prostitute. Ruth (verse 5) was a foreigner, a woman of Moabite heritage. Uriah\u2019s wife (verse 6), Bathsheba, was also likely a foreigner, of Hittite heritage. She committed adultery with King David, and was possibly complicit in David\u2019s arranged murder of her husband.<\/p>\n

Why include these women in Jesus\u2019 family line? An obvious explanation is that God values women just as he values men, and their inclusion in this genealogy is Matthew\u2019s way of emphasizing that truth. In addition, one theologian suggests: \u201cIn all four cases, God acted in an extraordinary and unexpected way\u2014just as he did with Mary\u2026[Matthew] is suggesting that Mary is the fifth woman in the messianic line that for one reason or another was vulnerable to accusation but was vindicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Matthew<\/a><\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[SBW, 1235; MAT, 35-36]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n

About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n

About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One unexpected aspect of Matthew\u2019s genealogy is the deliberate identification of four women (in addition to Mary) in Jesus\u2019 family tree. In the intensely patriarchal Jewish society of Jesus\u2019 time, it was it unusual for any woman to be heralded in this way, let alone four of them. What\u2019s more, the women Matthew chose all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[19,22,25,302,26,27,28],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culturalcommentary","category-matthew","tag-genealogy","tag-king-david","tag-mary","tag-matthew","tag-perez","tag-rahab","tag-ruth"],"yoast_head":"\nMatthew 1:1-17; The Genealogy of Jesus (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 1:1-17; The Genealogy of Jesus (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One unexpected aspect of Matthew\u2019s genealogy is the deliberate identification of four women (in addition to Mary) in Jesus\u2019 family tree. In the intensely patriarchal Jewish society of Jesus\u2019 time, it was it unusual for any woman to be heralded in this way, let alone four of them. What\u2019s more, the women Matthew chose all…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-02T12:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-29T20:52:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Rahab-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 1:1-17; The Genealogy of Jesus (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 1:1-17; The Genealogy of Jesus (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"One unexpected aspect of Matthew\u2019s genealogy is the deliberate identification of four women (in addition to Mary) in Jesus\u2019 family tree. In the intensely patriarchal Jewish society of Jesus\u2019 time, it was it unusual for any woman to be heralded in this way, let alone four of them. What\u2019s more, the women Matthew chose all…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-05-02T12:00:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-04-29T20:52:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Rahab-225x300.jpg"}],"author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html","name":"Matthew 1:1-17; The Genealogy of Jesus (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Rahab-225x300.jpg","datePublished":"2014-05-02T12:00:30+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-29T20:52:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Rahab-225x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Rahab-225x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-11-17-the-genealogy-of-jesus-cultural-commentary.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 1:1-17; The Genealogy of Jesus (Cultural Commentary)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}