[NYer]

When listing genealogy in the Bible, you hardly ever list the mother.

Wrong! Until the discovery of DNA, Jews noted birth by the mother because they KNEW WHO GAVE BIRTH. Jesus was a Jew because His mother was Jewish.

I know a family who recently adopted two children. The adoptive mother was Jewish (as was the father, but that didn't count). She had to take a "mikvah" (a ritual bath) to cleanse herself, as is the tradition in the Jewish religion.

[Marysecretary]

Biblically though, that doesn't happen. Most of the time they list the father and not the money. Now, not being Jewish, I don't know what Jews usually do. When I see it listed in scripture (the begats, etc.) it seems the lineage is the father's.