Book of Matthew Chapter 1 Vs. 2, 3

 

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

Mat 1:2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;

Mat 1:3 And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;

Tamar... Rachav ... Rut ... the wife of Uriyah (Bat-sheva)... Miryam. Women, especially those born Gentiles, were rarely included in biblical genealogies. The first four were Gentile women whom God honored by including them among the recorded ancestors of Yeshua the Jewish Messiah-through whom Gentiles, women and slaves are saved equally with Jews, men and free (Gal. 3:28). On whether these women became Jews or continued to be Gentiles see Acts 16:1. He was the son of a Jewish woman and therefore a Jew, not a Gentile. Many Christians suppose he was a Gentile for at least these two reasons: (1) At Num. 1:2 God calls for a census of Israel by their families, by their fathers' houses. (2) The genealogies in the Tanakh always mention the men and only rarely the women.

Nevertheless, while legal responsibilities and entitlements are passed from father to son (see Mat. 1:1 on Son of and Son of Avraham, Mat. 1:24-25, Luke 3:23-38), Jewish and non-Jewish descent are invariably traced through the mother, not the father. The child of a Jewish mother and a Gentile father is Jewish, the child of a Gentile mother and a Jewish father is Gentile. If a Gentile woman converts to Judaism, she is a Jew, and her subsequent children are likewise Jewish. The questions for us are, first, whether this was the case in the first century, and, second, even if it was, is it authorized biblically?

In his interesting book, Who Was A Jew?-Rabbinic and Halakhic Perspectives on the Jewish Christian Schism (Hoboken, New Jersey: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1985), Lawrence H. Schiffman has a chapter, The Jew By Birth, in which he dates matrilineal Jewish descent to at least the second and probably the first century C.E., adducing as evidence Mishna Kiddushin 3:12, Tosefta Kiddushin 4:16, and Josephus. Among the supportive biblical passages is Ezra 10:2-3:

And Shechanyah... answered Ezra, 'We have trespassed against our God and taken foreign wives from the people living in the Land .... So, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and such as are born to them ....' "

The phrase, and such as are born to them, implies that the children of Jewish fathers and Gentile mothers are Gentiles and not Jews; otherwise, they would not be excluded from the Jewish people in this covenant. Oved, the son of Bo'az and Ruth the Moabitess, is Jewish not because of his father Bo'az but because Ruth became Jewish first, not by some formal conversion process (there was none at the time) but with her confession, "Your people shall be my people and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16; 4:9-10, 4:21-22). Schiffman discusses these and other relevant biblical passages, concluding that inheriting Jewishness and non-Jewishness through the mother goes back as far as the mid-fifth century B.C.E. (Who Was a Jew? p. 16). In other words, the practice is biblical.

Former Chief Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Goren gives evidence that not only is it biblical but many centuries older; see his article on pp. 32-37 in Baruch Litvin, compiler, and Sidney B. Hoenig, editor, Jewish Identity: Modern Responsa and Opinions on the Registration of Children of Mixed Marriages (Jerusalem & New York: Feldheim Publishers, 1970).

The importance of tracing Jewishness through the mother increased when Jewish life became disrupted and Jewish families were broken apart by conquerors and persecutors. The rabbis reasoned, first, that where Jewish women were being abused it might be impossible to determine who the father was and therefore whether he was Jewish; and, second, that since a child's loyalties are often determined by the mother because she spends more time with him, a child raised by a Jewish mother and a Gentile father is more likely to be brought up loyal to Judaism than the child of a Jewish father and a Gentile mother who will not give him the early training that builds such devotion.

The conclusion that Timothy was a Jew and not a Gentile is important for understanding Acts 16:3.

Timothy was the son of a Jewish woman and a Greek father. Since exogamy violates Jewish law, an explanation is called for, although any conclusion must be a conjecture. I think the most likely reason for Timothy's mixed parentage is that Timothy's mother, Eunice (2Tim. 1:5), like many Jews today, was assimilated into the dominant Gentile culture around her and simply did not observe halakhah. Before coming to New Covenant faith, she married a non-Jew, but afterwards her pagan and non-believing husband left or died; whereupon she raised her son in the faith from childhood (2Tim. 3:15). Possibly she and Timothy went to live with her Messianic Jewish mother Lois (2Tim. 1:5).

Many Messianic Jews like to say that believing in Yeshua makes us even more Jewish. One result, in some cases, is that we become more attentive to Jewish laws and customs. But if the above explanation of why Timothy's father was Gentile is correct, it is clear that coming to faith did not make Eunice more observant. For if she had been observant, she would have seen to it herself that her son got circumcised. In Judaism the responsibility for circumcising a Jewish boy rest with his Jewish father but not, of course, with a Gentile father. If the father is unwilling or, as in this case, unable to take responsibility for his son's circumcision, the beit-din Jewish religious court sees to it, acting on behalf of the Jewish community as a whole. If a boy has not been circumcised by the time he reaches thirteen, bar-mitzvah age, the obligation to get circumcised becomes his own. While the mother is not directly accountable for her son's circumcision, nothing prevents her from urging the boy's father or the beit-din to act. Unlike Moses' wife Zipporah (Exo. 4:25), Eunice did not take this responsibility on herself, which is why Timothy was still uncircumcised when Sha'ul arrived on the scene, so that he, himself an observant Jew (see Act_13:9), acted in loco patris (Acts 16:3).

Here are other possible reasons, likewise speculative, why Timothy had a Jewish mother and a Gentile father:

(1) It was not a marriage but the rape of an observant Jewish woman. This is not impossible, given the antisemitism and level of violence in ancient Roman society. This explanation has appeal for Messianic Jews who would like to paint a picture of every Jewish believer as Torah-true and gloss over the fact that the Gospel has appeal for assimilated Jews too.

(2) Eunice came to faith before her marriage and therefore considered herself no longer Jewish but Christian, therefore not subject to the Torah, so that she had no scruples about marrying outside her people. Those who think accepting Yeshua decreases Jewish loyalty or frees a Jew from the Law might prefer this explanation, but the New Testament evidence is against it. Jews who accepted Yeshua as the Messiah did not suddenly consider themselves ex-Jews; everything in the book of Acts demonstrates exactly the opposite. Moreover, accepting Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah does not free a Jew from the Law; this point is made in numerous notes in this commentary. A different point: although there is no specific evidence that the teaching had yet been promulgated, we know that believers in Yeshua were encouraged to marry other believers (1Cor. 7:39).

(3) She simply fell in love with the man. But this explanation reflects twentieth-century fantasy, not first-century reality.

Phares... See 1Chr. 2:4-12; Ruth 4:13-22 for the names of Phares to Jesse (Mat. 1:3-5).

Thamar... Four women in this genealogy. Rahab and Ruth were Gentiles. Tamar and Bathsheba were Jews. Thus Christ descended from both Jews and Gentiles. Rahab was a harlot (Jas. 2:25). Both Tamar and Bathsheba committed adultery (Gen. 38:1-30; 2Sam. 11:1-5). Ruth was a pure woman (Ruth. 3:11).

begat... Greek: gennao. When used of the father it means to beget or engender. When used of the mother it means to bring forth. Translated be born (Mat. 1:16); conceive (Mat. 1:20); gender (Gal. 4:24); and bear (Luke 1:13).

In this list of names, the patriarchs, Gentiles, women of doubtful character, good men and bad men, the wise, the illustrious, the unknown-all supply important links. It is as though to teach us that in the Son of man there is a blending of all classes, that He might be the representative and helper of all. Each of us may find some point of contact in this genealogy. Jesus Christ belongs to our race. He knew what was in man by that subtle and intimate knowledge which comes of kinship. In Him, therefore, is neither Jew nor Greek exclusively, but all are one in Him.