Women of Ill-Repute

In a culture that usually ignored the significance of women, that wrote genealogies based on the familial continuance from father to son, Matthew includes five women in his account of the ancestry of Jesus Christ. What is even more extraordinary is that all five women were distinguished by questionable, and sometimes outright sinful, behavior. Let's consider them.

Matthew 1:3--Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar.

Tamar was a Canaanite woman who had married Judah's oldest son Er. Er was a wicked man in the sight of God, and God killed him. According to custom, Er's younger brother Onan married the widow in order to give his childless dead brother an heir. This custom will actually be of great importance when we look at the genealogy in Luke. However, Onan was also a wicked man; instead of impregnating his wife, he engaged in coitus interruptus and spilled his seed on the ground so that she did not conceive an heir for his dead brother. The concept of Leviratic marriage and men providing heirs for their dead brothers by marrying the widow was so honorable in the eyes of God that to refuse was an insult to the Almighty, so God killed Onan. Judah's third son wasn't quite ready for marriage, so Tamar was sent back to her father's house to await her third wedding.

The problem was never with Tamar in the eyes of God; it was with Judah and his wicked sons. Judah himself proves dishonorable when his third son comes of age and he fails to give him Tamar as wife for fear that this son will also die. When Tamar realizes what has happened, she takes matters into her own hands to provide an heir for her dead husband. She goes straight to the owner of the estate--her father-in-law Judah. Only she does so in the garb of a prostitute. Seducing Judah with veiled face, she gets herself pregnant by her dead husband's father to ensure a future for their family.

When Judah finds out that Tamar is pregnant, he wants her stoned for adultery. But when she produces his own staff and signet ring, items she kept in pledge because he had nothing with which to pay her for her conjugal services, as proof of paternity, the hypocrite backs down and takes her into his household, though he never has relations with her again. Through the adulteress and deceptive act of a Canaanite widow posing as a prostitute, the Messianic line was preserved.

Matthew 1:5--Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab.

Salmon was the heir to leadership over the tribe of Judah at the time Joshua led the Children of Israel over Jordan in the conquest of the Promised Land. There are some traditions that he was, with Caleb, one of the spies sent to Jericho, who was subsequently hidden from arrest by the Canaanite prostitute Rahab. When she secreted them away on her roof, she made them promise that when God gave Jericho into their hands, they would spare her life and the lives of those in her household. They promised her that if she hung a scarlet rope in her window, they would see to it that she was preserved. Of course, it was actually God who did the preserving, because when he caused the walls of Jericho to collapse and fall flat, Rahab's house of ill-repute was the only thing left standing, and her family was incorporated into the ranks of the Israelites. Some other traditions also claim she married first Joshua, giving him eight sons who were all prophets, and afterward married Salmon and gave birth to Boaz.

Matthew 1:5--Boaz begot Obed by Ruth.

Boaz was a wealthy land owner, the leading citizen of Bethlehem and in the direct line of Judah's leading elders. Ruth was the Moabitess widow of his cousin Mahlon, whose family had left Bethlehem for Moab in the time of famine. Mahlon had died without heirs, as had his brother Chilion, and no one was left to carry on the name of their father Elimelech, a member of Judah's nobility, and inherit his estate. There were two near-kinsman who had the right to redeem Elimelech's land and marry the widow Ruth, but neither showed any inclination to do either. So shrewd Naomi sent Ruth to Boaz's barley fields with a plan, again taking matters into her own hand in a way that would preserve the Messianic lineage.

All through the harvest, Ruth had gleaned unharvested barley behind the reapers. Boaz took notice of her and asked her identity, and when he heard that she was the widow of his near relative and that she was also caring for her widowed mother-in-law, he took an interest in her. He asked her to glean only in his fields, invited her to eat with him and his reapers, offered her bread and parched grain from his own hand, allowed her to drink from his own water pots, let her rest in his own house, and when she went back to her gleaning, he made sure the reapers left her handfuls of grain on purpose. He was willing to do all this, but not take her as wife.

So at the behest of her mother-in-law, Ruth cleaned herself up and put on some perfume, then slipped down to where Boaz was celebrating a good harvest. When he had eaten his fill, and drank to his own contentment, he went happily to sleep behind his pile of grain, and there Ruth joined him. The Bible says she came softly and uncovered his feet, and lay down there, but some commentators believe this might be a polite euphemism for something else--that as Boaz slept off his drunkenness, Ruth actually disrobed him and covered him up with her own cloak. When he awoke with a woman next to him and her robes spread over him, he found himself in a very compromised position. When he asked who she was, she revealed her identity to him and then suggested that he needed to marry her now that they had been together. Boaz did the honorable thing.

Matthew 1:6--David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.

Bathsheba was the wife of one of David's closest friends, the daughter of another, and the granddaughter of one of his most trusted advisers. But her name has become so recognizably connected to one of the most shameful scenes in Scripture that the gospel writer simply referred to her by her dead husband's name. She was a beautiful Jewess who had married a foreigner, and when her king called, she answered. Peeping David had seen her from his rooftop while she bathed, and it wasn't the first glance that caused so much trouble as the second glance. He asked who she was and invited her for dinner; it was the least he could do for one of his closest friends who was at that very moment engaged in a terrific battle for the conquest of a foreign power. Bathsheba stayed for breakfast, and when the evidence of their little tryst proved problematic, David launched a massive cover up that involved deception, drunken debauchery, and finally murder. One night's passion, one foolish choice, one carnally minded man and a woman who cooperated, nearly brought down a dynasty. David lost four sons and a daughter, too many friends in peacetime and war, and his own self-respect. But in the end, God turned it for good because Bathsheba's second son was the greatest king Israel ever knew and also became an ancestor of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 1:16--And Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary,

of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.

The fifth and final woman named in Matthew's genealogical account was Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. It is important to note here that the Gospel's portray her as a pure and righteous girl, a virgin who had never been with a man, who was overshadowed and impregnated by the power of the Holy Ghost. This is a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith, and one that I absolutely believe. But the culture in which Mary and Joseph lived would have seen her pregnancy is something a little less miraculous, and a little more mischievous--and deserving of either ostracism or death.

From the perspective of her neighbors, either Mary had fornicated with someone besides Joseph, violating their marriage covenant and the Law, an act punishable by death, or Mary and Joseph had come together intimately before it was socially acceptable, though not unheard of for betrothed couples, which might have resulted in them being community pariahs. Regardless of what we know her to be, those around her probably did not think so highly of her at the time. Joseph himself considered making a public example of her, but preferred to divorce her quietly and send her away. Only an angelic messenger would prevent that.

But what Joseph really did was take Mary as his wife and claim Jesus as his child, thereby taking her shame upon himself, all so that the Son of God would have a proper place in the world He came to save.

And all of this just goes to show that Jesus, the descendant of kings and sinners, and women of questionable reputation, came to bring grace to us all!