Genealogies

In Australia it has has become the thing to trace one's genealogy all the way back, if possible, to the First Fleet which landed in Sydney Cove in 1788. Genealogies play a reasonably significant role in the Old Testament. Nehemiah has quite extensive genealogies. Both Matthew and Luke record genealogies of Jesus. This blog is concerned with God's plan for the salvation of men and women from garden to garden. That is from Eden to Paradise. The word 'edan' is the Javanese word for 'madness' or 'insanity'. There is only meaning in life and wholeness when we are part of God's plan from garden to garden.

The genealogy of Jesus emphasises that, down to every detail, everything is according to God's plan. The following are some inciteful thoughts about the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew taken from WJ Dumbrell's forthcoming book on the Synoptics and Acts (with permission from the author):

What are the names of five women doing in this genealogy? They seem to be carefully planned interruptions to its rhythm, revealing critical events and persons in the history of Israel. In each case, their inclusion averts a great threat to the fulfilment of God’s promise of a Messiah. There was also the stigma of illegitimacy about some of the births. Two of the five were suspected prostitutes (Tamar and Rahab) and one was an adulteress (Bathsheba), while stigma attached to Mary as well. The first four were all Gentiles but all five women entered into the messianic line in extraordinary ways!

Various explanations of their purpose in the line have been offered namely: God uses the humble and lowly in his total control of history. They indicate universality in a Gospel that will end on a universal note. There was something irregular or extraordinary in the backgrounds of these women, but they acted as God’s instruments to further his purposes for Israel. All of them, however, are dislocations within a normal genealogy and they prepare the reader for the most offensive dislocation of all - the virgin birth of Jesus in v. 16. Matthew's point, however in this carefully selected genealogical list, seems to be that in the strangest and most unexpected way, God had endorsed the promised line of Israel. We may imply from this that the life and ministry of Jesus will take Israel into totally new and unanticipated directions.