A Bible study, by Kim Thoday

* Why are people interested in their family tree? Why do we put together family trees?

There are two family trees for Jesus. One is found in the Gospel of Matthew and the other is found in the Gospel of Luke.

Matthew begins his Gospel with Jesus’ family tree. Luke places the family tree in the story after Jesus’ baptism and before Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness. Both family trees have similarities, but there are also many differences. For instance, Matthew starts with Abraham and moves down through the line to Jesus, whereas, Luke starts with Joseph and moves back up the line, past Abraham, all the way to Adam and God. But there are other even more important differences. One of those differences is that Matthew includes women in his writing of Jesus’ family tree.

There are a lot of family trees in the Old Testament, like in Genesis and Chronicles and no women are included in them. Neither does Luke’s family tree for Jesus contain women. And there are many family trees in other ancient Jewish writings, but it was not normal practice to include women. Why do you think that was so? This of course begs another question, why does Matthew include women? It is this question that is the interesting subject of this discussion.

Matthew includes five women. Who are they? There is Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah and Mary the mother of Jesus. Can you remember who these women were and their stories? Let us look at the story of Rahab, which is found in the Book of Joshua:

(Joshua Chapter Two, from the Message paraphrase)

Joshua son of Nun secretly sent out from Shittim two men as spies: “Go. Look over the land. Check out Jericho.” They left and arrived at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, “We’ve just learned that men arrived tonight to spy out the land. They’re from the People of Israel.” The king of Jericho sent word to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you to stay the night in your house. They’re spies; they’ve come to spy out the whole country.” The woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, two men did come to me, but I didn’t know where they’d come from. At dark, when the gate was about to be shut, the men left. But I have no idea where they went. Hurry up! Chase them–you can still catch them!” (She had actually taken them up on the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax that were spread out for her on the roof.)

So the men set chase down the Jordan road toward the fords. As soon as they were gone, the gate was shut. Before the spies were down for the night, the woman came up to them on the roof and said, “I know that GOD has given you the land. We’re all afraid. Everyone in the country feels hopeless. We heard how GOD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you left Egypt, and what he did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you put under a holy curse and destroyed. We heard it and our hearts sank. We all had the wind knocked out of us. And all because of you, you and GOD, your God, God of the heavens above and God of the earth below. Now promise me by GOD. I showed you mercy; now show my family mercy. And give me some tangible proof, a guarantee of life for my father and mother, my brothers and sisters – everyone connected with my family. Save our souls from death!”

“Our lives for yours!” said the men. “But don’t tell anyone our business. When GOD turns this land over to us, we’ll do right by you in loyal mercy.” She lowered them down out a window with a rope because her house was on the city wall to the outside. She told them, “Run for the hills so your pursuers won’t find you. Hide out for three days and give your pursuers time to return. Then get on your way.” The men told her, “In order to keep this oath you made us swear, here is what you must do: Hang this red rope out the window through which you let us down and gather your entire family with you in your house – father, mother, brothers, and sisters. Anyone who goes out the doors of your house into the street and is killed, it’s his own fault – we aren’t responsible. But for everyone within the house we take full responsibility. If anyone lays a hand on one of them, it’s our fault. But if you tell anyone of our business here, the oath you made us swear is cancelled – we’re no longer responsible.” She said, “If that’s what you say, that’s the way it is,” and sent them off.

They left and she hung the red rope out the window. They headed for the hills and stayed there for three days until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers had looked high and low but found nothing. The men headed back. They came down out of the hills, crossed the river, and returned to Joshua son of Nun and reported all their experiences. They told Joshua, “Yes! GOD has given the whole country to us. Everybody there is in a state of panic because of us.”

* * * * * * *

Who was Rahab? What qualities did she have? How do you think most people would have perceived her? Why did she help the spies? How does she deal with the spies? What is she concerned about?

Why would Matthew include this woman in Jesus’ family tree? Why would he include the other women? What do these women share in common? What does all of this suggest about Jesus?

Who is Jesus, according to Matthew? The family tree tells us he comes from the line of the prophets – Amos and Josiah are there in the pedigree. He comes from the line of the priests – Zadok is included in the genealogy. He also comes from the line of the kings – David and Uzziah are on the honour roll. So, Jesus is Prophet, Priest and King. But Jesus also comes from the line of unclean and unrespectable people like Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. Three of these were Gentiles and one had been the wife of a Gentile. This is Jesus – of mixed bloodline – royal and reprobate. This is the prophet who comes and shares our sweat and tears. This is the priest whose blood mixes with our blood. This is the king who takes up our brokenness and the mystery of human being. This is God. This is the story of sacrifice and redemption, of love and salvation, of Cross and Resurrection.

Grace and Peace,

Kim Thoday, Hewett Community Church of Christ, South Australia http://www.hewett.org.au