1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob became the father of Judah and his brothers. 3Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron. Hezron became the father of Ram. 4Ram became the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon. Nahshon became the father of Salmon. 5Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse. 6Jesse became the father of King David. David the king became the father of Solomon by her who had been Uriah’s wife. 7Solomon became the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam became the father of Abijah. Abijah became the father of Asa. 8Asa became the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat became the father of Joram. Joram became the father of Uzziah. 9Uzziah became the father of Jotham. Jotham became the father of Ahaz. Ahaz became the father of Hezekiah. 10Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh. Manasseh became the father of Amon. Amon became the father of Josiah. 11Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12After the exile to Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel. 13Zerubbabel became the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim. Eliakim became the father of Azor. 14Azor became the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim. Achim became the father of Eliud. 15Eliud became the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan. Matthan became the father of Jacob. 16Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
17So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the exile to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying away to Babylon to the Christ, fourteen generations.
18Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. 20But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.”
22Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,
23“Behold, the virgin shall be with child,
and shall give birth to a son.
They shall call his name Immanuel,”
which is, being interpreted, “God with us.”
24Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself; 25and didn’t know her sexually until she had given birth to her firstborn son. He named him Jesus.
The genealogy of Matthew departs from the standard recording of the history of a Jewish family line, in that it contains women within the genealogy. Additionally significant is that each of the women has a problematic past, and a couple of the women, even a sordid past. Let us look at each woman in the order in which she appears in the Bible.
Tamar had a number of marriages to the sons of Judah, who each died, and she married another son, based on the levirate law, in which surviving sons must marry a widowed daughter. When Judah was willing to violate this law, and he denied her right to marry another son, Tamar acted as a prostitute to trick him into bearing two sons to her (Gen 38:27-30), one whose name was Perez, an ancestor of Jesus.
The next woman mentioned is more familiar to the average reader of the Bible. Rahab was the prostitute who hid the two spies (Joshua and Caleb) when they were inside the city of Jericho (Josh 2:1-21; 6:22-25. Due to her faith (Heb 11:30-31), she was preserved when Jericho was destroyed. What is most significant in the story of Rahab is that she was the mother of Boaz, the person who later married Ruth.
Ruth was not an Israelite, but was rather a woman of Moab, with no claim to an inheritance in Israel, even though she married one of the sons of Elimelech (God is my king) and Naomi (pleasant), and accompanied Naomi back to Bethlehem. Boaz fulfilled his duty as a kinsman redeemer, taking Ruth as his wife. From them comes Obed, who begat Jesse, the father of David the king (Ruth 4:17-22).
Bathsheba is not mentioned by name in the genealogy, but identified as the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was a faithful soldier in the army of David the King (2 Sam 11:1-27), who died in battle at David's design (2 Sam 11:14-18). One cannot be sure why Matthew chose not to mention her by name, but it may be that this emphasizes that David the king had unlawful sex with another man's wife, and so had not married her before she became pregnant with a son who died as a baby (2 Sam 12: 13-19), even though afterwards she bore king Solomon (2 Sam 12:24-25).
The last woman to be mentioned is Mary (Matt 1:18-56), the virgin who was especially blessed to become the mother of Jesus, God in the flesh. The author is careful to indicate that Joseph was the husband of Mary, but he was not the Father of Jesus, whose physical beginning came through the Holy Spirit.
All of these women were special in the plan of God, and though each were outcasts by human standards they were women of faith according to the Bible, important to the coming of the King Messiah Jesus.