December 21,2022

1 Samuel 2:1-10; Genesis 37:2-11; Matthew 1:1-17

Congenial Genealogies – and The Stories They Tell

Sometimes the genealogies in the Bible, “the Begats,” can be passed over with a groan. We can’t even pronounce most of those names, and many of them never or rarely appear in later Bible stories.  Sometimes our family genealogies draw a yawn from those listening because we’ve heard them over and over and over again. In the last ten years, however, I’ve gotten committed to learning more about my family genealogies that my sister’s been researching.

I groan as I learn the difficult truths about my 19th century Tennessee ancestors who rode on a horse off to “the War”, toting an umbrella, of all absurdities. There was one great- great-uncle or cousin who seems to have been part of the KKK’s origination in Tennessee; another ancestor who started a “school” for Chickasaw children in Mississippi. The groans are the realization, the humiliation of the horrors and tragedies that my family stories have helped to write. As we learn to tell the truth about our lives now, it’s also important to tell the truth about the lives of those who begat us. 

Truth-telling about my family genealogies makes me even more curious about the genealogies of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew (Matthew 1:1-17). These are very different from the genealogy told in Luke 3—revealing, once again, that these gospels are not history, not journalism, but are, rather, theologies—all sitting there next to each other in the Story Quilt we read as the Apostolic Writings. What is it about the genealogy in Matthew that intrigues me? 

• There are four women mentioned: Tamar (who bore Perez by her father-in-law, Judah—yes, you read that right); Rahab (Canaanite/non-Jew and the “good prostitute” who helped the two Jewish spies, sent by Joshua, escape the King of Jericho when they had invaded and ‘annexed’ Jericho; Ruth (the Moabite/non-Jew who was particularly devoted to the Jewish Naomi who’d lost both her husband and sons, but who also had a relative named Boaz—the Boaz who was the son of Rahab and Salmon (not a fish), and finally, Mary, who bore Jesus.
• Each of these women is of questionable virtue in some societal hierarchy. Tamar is accused of tricking her father-in-law into having sex with her (you KNOW it’s more complicated!). Rahab is a “prostitute” – and that, too, besides being the “oldest profession”,  has a long and venerable, even sacred history from ancient Sumeria and Babylonia. Ruth is a Moabite who’s had two previous husbands and another man “owns” her.  What’s more, her real devotion is to Naomi, not so much to Boaz! And the unwed Mary, a teenage girl, got pregnant.  The genealogy in Matthew goes through Joseph: from Abraham to Joseph to Jesus (via Mary). You got that??

What theological angle might the writer of Matthew be arguing by including those four women in the genealogy of Jesus? What do you wonder about how Matthew’s genealogy actually goes through Joseph?

 

Forgive me, Ancient Women on the Path, but it’s possible for me to imagine these four women plus a few more – in an awful Christmas song like “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.”  If you are curious and can stand to listen to me singing to that tune…it’s below:

Kathy Meacham