{"id":656,"date":"2026-01-13T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=656&2026"},"modified":"2026-01-08T17:01:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T00:01:03","slug":"god-the-redeemer-matthew-1-1-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/god-the-redeemer-matthew-1-1-17\/","title":{"rendered":"God the Redeemer: Matthew 1:1-17"},"content":{"rendered":"
Focus Passage: Matthew 1:1-17 (NASB)<\/div>

1<\/sup>\u00a0The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: <\/p>

2<\/sup>\u00a0Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of *<\/span>Gr Judas;<\/em> names of people in the Old Testament are given in their Old Testament form<\/span>Judah and his brothers. 3<\/sup>\u00a0Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. 4<\/sup>\u00a0Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon. 5<\/sup>\u00a0Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. 6a<\/sup>\u00a0Jesse was the father of David the king.<\/p>

6b<\/sup>\u00a0David was the father of Solomon by *<\/span>Lit her of Uriah<\/em><\/span>Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah. 7<\/sup>\u00a0Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. 8<\/sup>\u00a0Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. 9<\/sup>\u00a0Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. 10<\/sup>\u00a0Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah. 11<\/sup>\u00a0Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. <\/p>

12<\/sup>\u00a0After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. 13<\/sup>\u00a0Zerubbabel was the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor. 14<\/sup>\u00a0Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud. 15<\/sup>\u00a0Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob. 16<\/sup>\u00a0Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. <\/p>

17<\/sup>\u00a0So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.<\/p>

Read Matthew 1:1-17<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n

Of all the portions of the gospels that we might call boring, topping the list for most people would be the two genealogies of Jesus. Both Matthew and Luke include a record of Jesus\u2019 ancestry, and while many of us might gloss over Jesus\u2019 family tree, if we push ourselves to look for interesting details, we are able to find them \u2013 even in these boring lists of names.<\/p>\r\n

For instance, if we push ourselves while reading Matthew\u2019s version of Jesus\u2019 genealogy, we might be surprised when we see a number of Old Testament women show up. Matthew includes Tamar<\/strong>, who was Judah\u2019s wife (v. 3); Rahab<\/strong>, who was the wife of Salmon and who may have possibly even been the same Rahab who helped the spies in Jericho (v. 5a); Ruth<\/strong> was the wife of Boaz (v. 5b); Bathsheba<\/strong> was originally Uriah\u2019s wife but then became David\u2019s wife after Uriah\u2019s death (v. 6); and last but far from least, Mary<\/strong> was Joseph\u2019s wife and the mother of Jesus.<\/p>\r\n

The interesting thing about these women comes when we ask ourselves the question: Why did Matthew include these women in a type of list that was usually limited to males?<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Some of these women were born Jewish, while others left their own people and joined the nation of Israel. Each of these women lived in different time periods, and each woman came from a different background and a different social class. But with all this uniqueness, is there something that unifies all these women\u2019s stories?<\/em><\/p>\r\n

When I stop and think about it, one big unifying factor is that each of these women (except for Mary) was not in their first relationship:<\/p>\r\n