The Hidden Virtue of Women | Matthew 1

In this video I look at the three things that Matthew does with women in his genealogy in Matthew chapter 1.

The Bible is the greatest work of literary genius. And The Bible is Art is a YouTube Channel devoted to explaining this literary art in all its sophistication, elegance, and design.

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| How to Learn to Read the Bible as Literary Art |
Reading Biblical Narrative: An Introductory Guide (https://amzn.to/30LzaRa)
Narrative Art in the Bible (https://amzn.to/30RVGIb)
The Art of Biblical Narrative (https://amzn.to/3aDrIfk)
Old Testament Narrative: A Guide to Interpretation (https://amzn.to/38rcE2C)
The Poetics of Biblical Narrative (https://amzn.to/2Gh4cqE)

| Literary Structure |
Literary Structure of the Old Testament (https://amzn.to/30Jdm8X)
Style And Structure In Biblical Hebrew Narrative (https://amzn.to/2RDTTlQ)

| Genesis |
Creation: The Story of Beginnings - Grossman (https://amzn.to/2GlPwq9)
Abram to Abraham: A Literary Analysis of the Abraham Narrative - Grossman (https://amzn.to/2v7id7Z)
Narrative Art in Genesis - Fokkelman (https://amzn.to/2ulmd4t)
A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (Part I) - Cassuto (https://amzn.to/2NOAhdt)
A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (Part II) - Cassuto (https://amzn.to/2Gcuk6d)
Genesis: A Commentary - Waltke (https://amzn.to/2vaBvt7)
The Gospel of Genesis: Studies in Protology and Eschatology - Gage (https://amzn.to/2RGjRFo)
Abraham and All the Families of the Earth: A Commentary on the Book of Genesis 12-50 - Janzen (https://amzn.to/2TVyCqJ)
Genesis 1-15, Volume 1 - Wenham (https://amzn.to/2TQnYRO)
Genesis 16-50, Volume 2 - Wenham (https://amzn.to/3aDY21J)

| Transcription |
In a previous video we saw how there are two steps to understanding genealogies. First, find the pattern of the genealogy. And second, look for how the author breaks the pattern.

The pattern that Matthew creates is that he follows the family by the male head of the household. So you have a man who fathered another man who fathered another man. That’s the pattern. But in four places Matthew will break that pattern. That is, he will include four women.

But the break in the pattern is even more unexpected because he doesn’t include the women we are expecting. Matthew does include many of the males we were expecting from reading the story up to this point in the Bible. So we have David and Judah and Abraham, famous people. And if that pattern continued we would expect all of the great matriarchs to be included when he decides to include women. Like Sarah or Abigail. But none of them are included.

Now this is very strange. Imagine if you were reading your family tree and when it came time to list the wives, all the most popular ones were missing and other less popular family members were included instead. You would either think there was a mistake or whoever composed the family tree had a reason, a purpose for doing this.

So what is Matthew’s purpose? Who does Matthew include and why? Well, Matthew includes: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.

Now, before we talk about why Matthew does this we have to remember what the purpose of this genealogy is. And that is it’s designed to characterize, to teach us who Jesus is and what his kingdom is like that he is bringing. The genealogy is not here to tell us about these people listed in the genealogy.

So what is it about these women that tell us about Jesus. There are three important things.

First, three of these women were gentiles and one was married to a gentile. Tamar and Rahab were canaanites, Ruth a moabite, and Bathsheba was married to a Hittite. So Jesus is both Jew and Gentile

Second, they’re women. Women were not typically included in genealogies. Not because women were unimportant or not included in Israel, but Jesus and his kingdom will somehow reach out and include women in a different or fuller sort of way.

And third, and most fascinating, these women are all connected to some sort of sexually questionable behavior. Tamar disguises herself and tricks Judah into sleeping with her, thus impregnating her. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth snuck into bed with a man and told him to do whatever he liked. And Bathsheba slept with David while she was married.