It's intriguing to think about what qualities Matthew may have had in mind when he called out those four women as ancestors of Jesus, presumably also intending to compare them with Jesus' mother Mary: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba.
One thing they all had in common was that they either were publicly tainted by sexual scandal or were in risk of being so. Tamar seduced her father-in-law. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth seduced her mother-in-law's kinsman at her suggestion. Bathsheba had an affair with the king, who had her husband killed to cover up their affair. Yet each of these women were essential parts of the lineage of David and also, as Christians understand it, of salvation history.
And some similarities with Mary that Matthew may have wanted to suggest come to mind. Tamar, for instance, risked scandal, even death, in order to stand up for a more important right and principle than any she was defying by her action - and became the vehicle for Judah's larger moral awakening by doing so.
It's also notable that at least three of these women were foreigners in some way. Tamar was a Canaanite; Judah's father Jacob and grandfather Isaac had returned to the land of their ancestors to find wives, not willing to take a wife among the Canaanites who did not share the faith of Abraham. Rahab was part of the city of Jericho but took huge risks to help the people of Yahweh. Ruth was a Moabite. And even Bathsheba may have been of Hittite descent like her husband.
Bathsheba seems the most problematic of the four as a comparison to Mary. But she showed herself to be a resourceful court politician in placing Solomon on the throne. I don't see her as the passive victim that Jane Schaberg seems to view her.
I'm not trying to come up with "lessons" from their stories (although I can think of a few). In looking at this, I'vebeen more enjoying thinking about the stories themselves.
1 comment:
Brucie, for a flaming leftist your Biblical knowledge is impressive. Could you perhaps be a secret Christian like some of the Pharisees when Jesus was on earth? It looks like you spent a lot of time in Sunday School somewhere. Don't let the frailties of some of the female ancestors of Jesus throw you. Their moral failures show that they, like all of us, are human and imperfect. That's exactly why Jesus came, after all--to seek and to save that which was lost. If we had all been perfect, we would not have needed a Savior. Merry Christmas to you and all your leftist friends. Happy Hannukah and Happy Kwanzaa also.
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