Further information that might be interesting. This is from a commentary. Link will be below:
b.
Tamar…Rahab…Ruth…her who had been the wife of Uriah: This genealogy is noted for the unusual presence of four women. Women were rarely mentioned in ancient genealogies, and the four mentioned here are worthy of special note as examples of God’s grace. They show how God can take unlikely people and use them in great ways.
·
Tamar: She sold herself as a prostitute to her father-in-law Judah to bring forth
Perez and Zerah (
Genesis 38).
·
Rahab: She was a Gentile prostitute, for whom God took extraordinary measures to save from both judgment and her lifestyle of prostitution (
Joshua 2;
6:22-23).
·
Ruth: She was from Moab, a Gentile, and until her conversion out of the covenant of Israel (
Ruth 1).
·
Her who had been the wife of Uriah: Bathsheba (who is mentioned by implication in
Matthew 1:6) was an adulteress, infamous for her sin with David (
2 Samuel 11). “Matthew’s peculiar way of referring to her, ‘Uriah’s wife,’ may be an attempt to focus on the fact that Uriah was not an Israelite but a Hittite.” (Carson)
i. These four women have an important place in the genealogy of Jesus to demonstrate that Jesus Christ was not royalty according to human perception in the sense that He did not come from a pure aristocratic background.
ii. These four women have an important place in the genealogy of Jesus to demonstrate that Jesus identifies with sinners in His genealogy, even as He will in His birth, baptism, life, and His death on the cross. “Jesus is heir of a line in which flows the blood of the harlot
Rahab, and of the rustic
Ruth; he is akin to the fallen and to the lowly, and he will show his love even to the poorest and most obscure.” (Spurgeon)
iii. These four women have an important place in the genealogy of Jesus to show that there is a new place for women under the New Covenant. In both the pagan and the Jewish culture of that day, men often had little regard for women. In that era, some Jewish men prayed every morning thanking God that they were not Gentiles, slaves or women. Despite that, women were regarded more highly among the Jews than they were among the pagans.
iv. “By far the most amazing thing about this pedigree is the names of the women who appear in it.” (Barclay)
v. “Men and women, notorious for their evil character, lie in the direct line of his descent. This was permitted, that He might fully represent our fallen race.” (Meyer)
Link -
Study Guide for Matthew 1 by David Guzik
