Advent reflection series: Christmas in the four Gospels
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We invite you to join the Sisters of Mercy on our Advent journey as we explore and reflect on how the four Gospel writers describe who Jesus was, each in their own way.
Matthew’s Genealogy: Inclusion of Women
By Sister Kathleen McAlpin
The Jewish community was promised a Messiah from the family of Israel. The story of the birth of this child was not a myth but a narrative of the historical person of Jesus, the Christ. God had a plan for Jesus to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. This was the message of the writer of Matthew’s genealogy. Matthew wants to make the point that the paternal line of Jesus goes back to Abraham and David.
Joseph, Jesus’ legal father, established the claim for Jesus to the throne of David. Matthew’s entire Gospel bears truth to the reality that Jesus is the son of Abraham and the son of David.
The paternal genealogy of Jesus is a significant feature of the Nativity story. It reveals the reality of Jesus as the son of Abraham, the heir of David, and therefore the king of Israel, and the universe.
Matthew is writing for a Jewish audience. Jesus was born into a Jewish society that had a strong patriarchal nature. Surprisingly he included women in his genealogy. There are five women included in the lineage of Jesus, including Mary, the mother of Jesus. Women are often unnamed in the Scriptures; however, Mathew names three of them: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. The mother of Solomon, Bathsheba, is not named.
Why were these particular women included in the 42 generations of Matthew’s lineage from Abraham to Jesus?
