Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Francis J. Moloney on Matthew's Genealogy of Jesus including the Five Women who were Ancestors of Jesus

  

St Jerome suggested that all the women were sinners, Martin Luther made popular the theory that they were all foreigners, while more recent scholars have argued that it is a ploy used by Matthew in his debate with the Jewish argument that Jesus had no claims on the Davidic dynasty. While each of these suggestions give some guidance, they fail to satisfy totally, especially when all five women in the genealogy, including Mary, of whom Jesus was born (v. 16), must be accounted for. They are not all sinners, they are not all foreigners, and the debate over the legitimacy of Jesus’ Davidic lineage seems to be a later question.

 

There are three features which can be attributed to all five women:

 

1.     Teach of the women mentioned plays a fundamental role at major turning points in the history of God’s people. Tamar continues God’s line after the death of Er and Onan (see Gen 46:12). Rahab is the heroine at Jericho, where Israel enters the promised land (see Josh 2:1-21; 6:17—25). Ruth is the mother of Obed, the grandfather of David (see Ruth 4:18-22). Bathsheba conceives Solomon by David, and with the guidance of the prophet Nathan establishes her son as the continuation of the Davidic line (see I Kings 1:11-2:9). Mary was the woman ‘of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ’ (Mt 1:16).

2.     In every case there is something irregular in the sexual situation. It was a scandal to those who were outside the mystery of God’s plan working through them. That this was the case with Mary is clearly indicated by vv. 18b-19: ‘When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man, and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly’.

3.     Despite the irregularities, all of these women, including Mary, showed initiative and courage when they were called by God to preserve the God-willed line of his Messiah. They are all seen by Matthew as integral to God’s plan, shown through the strangeness of his ways through the unfolding of history. (Francis J. Moloney, Mary: Woman and Mother [West St. Paul, Minn.: St. Paul Publications, 1988, Repr., Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2009], 10-11)