Women in the Lord's Family Tree

As with truthful eyewitnesses of the same event who stand in different places, so when we compare Matthew's and Luke's accounts of the genealogy and birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we note several striking differences. Matthew is very specific and uses the word "beget, become the father of, sire" (γεννάω gennáō) throughout his narrative; whereas, Luke uses the genitive of relationship, without telling us what that relationship is. It could be that of a father or a father-in-law.

The two genealogies also differ about which son of King David is the ancestor of the Lord Jesus. Matthew is giving the legal line of descent through the kings of Judah, and he names Solomon (Matthew 1:6); whereas, Luke cites David's son Nathan (Luke 3:31).

Tamar was the Canaanite daughter-in-law of Judah. She posed as a cult prostitute in order to make sure that she became pregnant through levirate marriage to her late husband's next of kin (Matthew 1:3; Genesis 38).

Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute who plied her trade in Jericho, and who having protected the Israelite spies, then married into the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1:5; Joshua 2; 6:22-25).

Ruth was a Moabitess, a cursed people (Matthew 1:5; Deuteronomy 23:3).

The last woman is alluded to in Matthew 1:6, Bathsheba, who was either a gentile or an Israelite married to a gentile, Uriah the Hittite. She and David committed adultery (2 Samuel 11), and David had her husband murdered in order to cover up the adultery, a death penalty offense under God's law (Leviticus 20:10).

The practical truth of this list is that God not only blesses people, he makes them a blessing, no matter their wicked past or ancestry.