A Spotty Heritage – Matthew 1:2-17

What does your genealogy show about you? Does having bad people in your ancestry mean you are a bad person or that you should be ashamed. I recently saw a woman who called in to a talk show for a contest and the hosts were supposed to guess which of two statements about her were true. If they guessed wrong, she won. The true fact was she was the offspring of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. She said, “We’ve not admitted this in the past but are now open about our connection to this infamous ancestor.”

Matthew gives a rendition of Jesus’ ancestry that includes some shady characters. Why?

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. (Matthew 1:2-17 ESV)

Matthew’s genealogy is not meant to include everyone but only 14 representative ancestors from three different eras (before David, David to the deportation of Judah, after the deportation and up to Jesus’ birth).  It appears that Matthew is highlighting Jesus’ adopted father’s genealogy, Joseph, and showing Jesus’ legal right to the throne of David, whereas Luke shows Jesus’ biological genealogy from David through his mother Mary. 

Jechoniah was cursed and told his offspring would never sit on the throne (Jeremiah 22:30).  But Jesus is not literally his offspring.  Joseph is.  Jesus’ genetic heritage is through another son of David, Nathan (Luke 3:31).  Jesus bypasses the curse.  The throne belongs to David’s offspring, just not those through Jechoniah.

Included in Jesus’ genealogy are 4 women: Tamar (who pretended to be a prostitute to produce an heir to her dead husband), Rahab (the prostitute in Jericho who saved the lives of the spies and who believed in Yahweh and was protected when Jericho was destroyed), Ruth (the Moabitess who converted to faith in Yahweh), and Bathsheba (wife of Uriah, one of David’s “mighty men” whom David had killed so he could marry Bathsheba).  Matthew is showing that Jesus is a savior for all people and that all people need a savior and can be redeemed.

Matthew picks 14 generations in each category perhaps because David’s name numerically adds up to 14, the three Hebrew letters that make up his name being the 4th, 6th and again 4th letters in the alphabet, adding up to 14). This becomes a way of memorizing a representative genealogy for Jesus.  Jesus fits the requirement for the Messiah.  The rest of Matthew’s Gospel will give more evidence that Jesus indeed is God’s chosen leader so long anticipated.

Jesus’ genealogy is not a line of perfect people, and neither is ours. But God has used every aspect of his lineage to prepare Jesus to be the Savior of the world. And God has prepared your lineage, as well. Live to Him, not your ancestry.