Saturday 11 January 2014

Men and Women in Matthew 1



David is the key to the patterning of the genealogy in Matthew and thus to the genealogy itself. David’s name is fourteenth of the list, exploiting traditional reckoning of fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and the numerical value of (one version of) David’s name is “14” which prompts the omission of three kings from the monarchical period to arrive at another set of fourteen names.

Begetting (“fathering”) is important to Matthew (note the absence of the verb in Luke’s genealogy) and the inclusion of women is striking. Three of the women are foreigners and the fourth is referred to not by her name but as “the wife of Uriah,” another non-Israelite.

All three women mentioned between Abraham and David showed initiative in preserving their family line, assuming that “Rahab” invites us to think of Joshua 2, but in the case of “the wife of Uriah” the initiative was David’s and from then on no more women are mentioned until “Mary, of whom Jesus was born.” In two of the three references to Mary by name, she is called the husband of Joseph, in the other reference is made to her engagement with Joseph.

Matthew substitutes the impersonal plural “they shall name him Emmanuel” instead of the singular form attested both in the Hebrew and in Greek renderings (καλέσεις in Vaticanus and Alexandrinus, καλέσει in Sinaiticus). This may be significant because in Isaiah 7:14 the mother names the child, in Matthew it is emphatically Joseph who names the child (1:21, 25).

Men are important in the genealogy because “the king's heritage passes only from son to son” (Sirach 45:25). Women are included to remind us of the universal significance of the son of David in line with the promises to Abraham. 

All women in the genealogy of Jesus hint at extraordinary, and potentially scandalous, circumstances in the line was continued, thus preparing for the extraordinary, and potentially scandalous, union of Mary and Joseph. But do the women in the genealogy prepare us specifically for Mary, pregnant out of wedlock, or also for Joseph who in Matthew’s Gospel is the one who has to take some initiative?

Tamar had to overcome a broken promise. Mary had not in fact broken her promise but it sure looked to Joseph as if she had.

Rahab had to take initiative to save her family in Jericho before establishing an Israelite household with Salmon. Joseph will have to take measures to save his family from Herod before making a new home in Nazareth.

Ruth had to find a redeemer to perpetuate the line of her dead husband. Joseph will find in his son a redeemer who revives the house of David.

The wife of Uriah lost her first husband and her first son (with David) but was instrumental in helping her second son (with David) to the throne. Joseph nearly lost his wife-to-be and prospect of children with her and in some ways had to give her up to God but in naming Mary’s child he incorporates the son into the royal line and thus becomes instrumental in the child’s accession to the Davidic throne.

Joseph is like the women in his genealogy – only that he needs dreams to get going in the right direction.