My daughter was assigned a class project to trace her family tree. She came to me for help in tracing our ancestry. Sadly, I was only able to identify family members who belonged to the previous three generations!

Our Lord Jesus had his family tree preserved by the Holy Spirit, tracing his ancestry to Abraham (Matthew 1:1-17) and to Adam (Luke 3:23-38). In Matthew 1, God included five names that should surprise us greatly. All five were women, and females were usually not included in Jewish genealogies:

Tamar was a Canaanite who tricked her father-in-law into sleeping with her and thus continued Judah’s family line with the birth of twins Perez and Zerah (Genesis 38:6-30). Perez, in an unusual birth (Genesis vv.27-30), became the Lord’s ancestor (Matthew 1:3).

Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute (Joshua 2, 6:17) who became the mother of Boaz, the great-grandfather of King David (Matthew 1:5; Ruth 4:21-22).

Ruth was a cursed Moabitess (4:5; Deuteronomy 23:3-4) and an abject and poor widow (Ruth 2:2) who risked her reputation to propose marriage to Boaz on the threshing floor during the harvest festivities (Ruth 3). She became the great-grandmother of David (Matthew 1:5-6).

Bathsheba was a Hittite (2 Samuel 11:3) who through a web of adultery, betrayal, deceit, and murder (2 Samuel 11-12), gave birth to David’s son Solomon (Matthew 1:6).

Mary was a young unmarried Jewish virgin who endured the scandal of an unexplained pregnancy for her entire lifetime. She became the mother of Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25).

These women were redeemed and honored as ancestors of the Messiah. Jesus came to be the Savior of both Jews and Gentiles lost in sin.