The Four Women in St. Matthew's Genealogy of Christ

Abstract

RECENT discussion of the Virgin Birth has renewed interest in the genealogies of Christ; and one of the questions that have been reopened is the significance of the exceptional mention of the four women in Matthew's genealogy. Zahn, for example, in his Introduction and Commentary on Matthew has advocated the view suggested by earlier writers that the aim of the reference to these women is to connect their history with an attack on the Virgin Birth that had been made even before the composition of our First Gospel. As his view has largely influenced the most recent and representative British, French, and German discussions, it seems worth while to examine it critically; and if it should appear not to be tenable, to suggest another theory. The fundamental questions are whether the mention of the women is made with a dogmatic interest of the Evangelist in Christ's salvation of sinners; or with an apologetic interest in defending the Virgin Birth; or with an apologetic interest in a mere general problem of the Apostolic Age, revealed in a general tendency of his gospel as a whole. Ordinarily the purpose of the Evangelist is made uncertain by confusing these distinct aims ; and the confusion is occasioned by the several characters and histories of the four ancestresses.