Posted on 12/14/2018 5:56:56 AM PST by Gamecock
A strange thread runs through the most prominent women associated with Jesus: they are all women of, shall we say, ill repute. Most of their notorious reputations spring from sexual scandals. What does this say about Christ? An awful lot.
If your habit is to skip over the genealogies in the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, you may have missed a treasure buried in this list of forty fathers who comprise Jesus’s ancestry (if we count Joseph), stretching as far back as Abraham. The hidden treasure is the five women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Jesus’s mother, Mary. Why are they listed? And what makes them as valuable as any man mentioned? That’s precisely what Matthew wants us to ask.
Five Women of Ill Repute First, Tamar (Matthew 1:3). Tamar is the sort of ancestor most of us wouldn’t mention when recounting our family history. Do you remember her story (Genesis 38)? She entered the messianic bloodline by disguising herself as a prostitute and seducing her father-in-law, Judah. The scene and story are complicated. Given the cultural mores of the time, she acted more righteously than he did, since he had treated her unjustly and she had little recourse. Still, there’s no denying how horrible a mess it was.
Second comes Rahab (Matthew 1:5). She didn’t need a disguise. She was a prostitute (or at least had been prior to her marriage). She was also a Gentile. And not just a Gentile, a Canaanite and a resident of Jericho, the first city Joshua set his sights on in the Promised Land. So, how did Rahab manage to become Jesus’s great, great, great, great — add another 24 greats — grandmother? She hid Jewish military spies and helped them escape, so Joshua spared her and her family (see Joshua 2 and 6). Once she was folded into Israel, Rahab married Salmon, which resulted in the genealogical appearance of . . .
Ruth, the third woman in our list (Matthew 1:5). She wasn’t personally embroiled in sexual scandal, but she came from a people that was. Ruth was a Moabite, a nation which had sprung from the incest between Lot and his oldest daughter (Genesis 19:30–38). Ruth’s people were polytheistic pagans, occasionally offering human sacrifices to idol-gods like Chemosh. Through personal tragedy and great loyalty, she wound up at Bethlehem and in the (lawful) arms of Boaz and also joined Jesus’s family tree. How did that happen, given that Jews were forbidden to marry Moabites (Ezra 9:10–12)? You have to read Ruth — an entire book of sacred Jewish Scripture named after this Moabitess! But catch this: Matthew records Boaz as the son of Rahab and Salmon. If that’s true (ancient genealogies sometimes skip generations), imagine how Rahab might have prepared young Boaz to see in a foreign woman a wild branch God wished to graft into the Jewish olive tree.
The fourth woman is “the wife of Uriah” (Matthew 1:6). We know her as Bathsheba, the woman Israel’s greatest king couldn’t — or better, wouldn’t — keep his hands off of. The account in 2 Samuel 11 doesn’t tell us Bathsheba’s side of this adulterous story. But given the fact that David wielded nearly absolute power as king, this was multilevel abuse, plain and simple. But its result was anything but simple. This single immoral “meal” (Hebrews 12:16) produced a cascading sequence of tragic events. Bathsheba became pregnant. Her husband was murdered in a major cover-up. David brought upon himself, and his entire household, a curse that resulted in horrifying suffering for many, particularly Bathsheba (see 2 Samuel 12). And yet there she is, foregrounded in Jesus’s background.
Last on the list, but certainly not least, is Mary, the mother of Jesus (Matthew 1:16). She became pregnant with Jesus before her wedding. The child’s father was not her betrothed, Joseph. The shadow of this “illegitimate” pregnancy would have lingered over her reputation (and her son’s) for their entire earthly lives.
Jesus’s First Women Two more women figure prominently in Jesus’s life and are worth mentioning here. Both their reputations made them, in human wisdom, unlikely people to experience two astonishing firsts of Jesus.
In John 4, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman from Sychar at midday at Jacob’s well (John 4:6). Like Rahab and Ruth (and perhaps Tamar), this woman was not Jewish. And like Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba, this woman had known numerous men — five husbands and at least one uncovenanted “significant other” (John 4:17–18). And yet in John’s Gospel, this woman is the first person to whom Jesus explicitly discloses himself as the Messiah (John 4:25–26). The first person: this woman.
And then there’s Mary Magdalene. The Bible tells us little about Mary other than that she had seven demons cast out of her (Luke 8:1–3), was present at Jesus’s crucifixion (John 19:25), saw where Jesus was buried (Mark 15:47), and saw the resurrected Jesus (Matthew 28:1–10). History, however, has tended to remember Mary as a woman with a sordid sexual past. We’re not sure why. Perhaps it’s because she (likely) came from the disreputable town of Magdala. Or maybe those strange early Christian apocryphal writings are to blame. Or maybe Mary really did have a past (which is where I lean). It seems reasonable that a vague, lingering remnant of what was once her public shame clings to her reputation to highlight her Savior’s grace.
What is so astonishing about Mary Magdalene is that she was the first person Jesus appeared to after being raised from the dead (John 20:11–18). The first person! Jesus did not appear first to his mother, nor to Peter, but to a formerly immoral, formerly demonized woman.
A Gracious Sorority Why Mary Magdalene? Why the woman at the well? Why unwed Mary of Nazareth? Why Bathsheba, Ruth, Rahab, and Tamar? Why did God choose to make these women of ill repute so prominent in redemptive history?
In order to place the emphasis of history on redemption.
All of these women share this in common: a disgraceful past. They either committed or suffered disgrace. Whether they deserved them or not, they each had a tainted reputation. They endured the contempt of others and felt the pain of very real shame. At least four of the six would have carried extremely painful, sordid memories.
But God no longer sees them as disgraceful, but grace-full. God changed their identities. Instead of women of ill repute, he made them ancestors or disciples of the Messiah. They are archetypes of what he does for all of his children. God is saying loudly through each woman:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17–18)
The Old Has Passed Away In Christ the old has passed away! Jesus takes away the old reputation. In Jesus, your past sin or the abuse and injustice you’ve suffered, and the ways you’ve viewed yourself and others have viewed you because of it, is not who you are. In Jesus, your heavenly Father says,
You are my child (Ephesians 1:5). I have washed you and made you holy (1 Corinthians 6:11). You are clean, and no one has authority to say otherwise (Acts 10:15). And you are my beloved (Romans 9:25). I have removed all your scarlet letters (Psalm 51:7).
God has thousands of reasons for everything he does. One great reason he founded this gracious sorority was to remind us of his lavish, unmerited grace to the undeserved and unlikely and despised. It’s another way to tell us that he loves to redeem sinners, he loves to produce something beautiful out of something horrible, he loves to make foreigners his children, and he loves to reconcile his enemies. He loves to make all things work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28), even for prostitutes, mistresses, and men like me.
Ping
Can’t forget Ophelia (aka Jamie Lee Curtis).
[Rahab] was also a Gentile, a prostitute.
Legend has it she was also smoking hot.
Mary was what???
The Old Testament writers were very reluctant to write about a woman’s beauty.
We can assume that Eve set the pattern.
It can be inferred that Sarah was outstanding by the precautions Abraham wanted to take.
However, the original Hebrew says explicitly that Rachel was “beautiful in face and form.”
Rachel in Hebrew means “sheep” and Leah means “wild cow”.
Looks like her family had a sense of humor.
Miriam ben Joachim, espoused by Joseph the Righteous, was a virgin before, during and after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Her image is to be found in Rev. 12:1.
Lumping her in with prostitutes not only is a disservice to Mary but completely ignores the context of her pregnancy.
If you're going to cite Rev 12:1 as being Mary then you have to include Rev 12:2 as well which would undercut Rome's claim on the Immaculate Conception.
1A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Rev 12:1-2 NASB
You're also having to ignore a number of other texts that indicate Mary and Joseph did have other children on their own.
Mary was what???
When I read the story, it seemed to me that Bathsheba deliberately tempted David, the King. She bathed directly in his view.
I suspect the adultery was willing.
I would disagree with calling Mary a woman of ill repute in light of the circumstances of how she became pregnant.
I would disagree with calling Mary a woman of ill repute in light of the circumstances of how she became pregnant.
I would disagree with calling Mary a woman of ill repute in light of the circumstances of how she became pregnant.
She bathed where women bathed according to the custom of the time, and for that reason righteous men were expected to not be in high places where they could view them.
Your shallow attempt to mitigate David’s guilt fails on every possible level.
“However, the original Hebrew says explicitly that Rachel was “beautiful in face and form.”
Translation:she was hot.7
Lots of dispute about that. The Bible does not make it clear.
Today, a few centuries after the invention of privacy and indoor plumbing, it is easy for Westerners to assume that Bathsheba was bathing naked—and, because she was visible, some might argue that she was doing so inappropriately. But what “bathing” means in the world of the biblical story remains unknown. Some think she was taking a ritual bath (Hebrew, mikveh) after her menstrual period (citing 2Sam 11:4), but neither text nor archaeology offer clear support. The KJV more accurately conveys the range of meaning of the original Hebrew: she washed herself, which could mean only hands and feet. Or we might assume that the mention of her beauty implies her nakedness—but why should we assume that?
What does the Bible say? He saw a woman bathing, and she was beautiful.
Looking back you are correct.
But at the time it was considered to be quite the scandal.
Oh feel her? Odd name :)
I will do my best to be brief.
Tamar if you will remember was NOT a prostitute but the widow of a man who had not given her children. It was Judah who sinned not Tamar. She had the right to be given seed from her husbands family, it was the custom and the right. The only person who sinned was her father in law. She simply disguised herself and he took her. When he heard what had been done he was ready to kill the person who impregnated her until he found out that it was himself. She was a hero.
Rahab was another hero. In her country prostitution apparently was not a bad thing. When the Israelite spies came she recognized their goodness and sided with Israel and watched the destruction of her own country but saved her family, a great woman indeed.
How in the world you can find any fault in Ruth is absolutely beyond me. Ruth's husband died prematurely in a strange country. His brother had also died or would have been tasked with taking Ruth into his household. Ruth's mother-in-law had no descendant to take care of her in her old age and decided to go to her home country to die with family. Ruth understood the plight of her mother-in-law. Ruth had made the God of her husbands family her God. She took under her own care her mother-in-law, something that was not mandatory, she did it out of love. I think she is remembered in Israels history not for any wrong doing, there was none, but she was remembered for her great love, just like her descendant the Lord Jesus Christ would be known for His great love. This is one of the richest love stories in all of human writing. I still tear up when reading the story.
The story of Bathsheba is not about evil Bathsheba but of evil David. King David was an absolutely powerful King and had Bathsheba's husband basically killed on the battle field. This was an evil murder by David to cover his infidelity. I don't know and it isn't ever portrayed if Bathsheba had any complicity in this infidelity and consequent murder but we do know that the child of this adultery was Solomon who at least for a while was a great king. Bathsheba did what her king told her to do, she was obedient.
The last person on your list is the Mother of the Savior. To place any blame or evil on her for God impregnating her is unbelievable to me. The angel of The Lord told her that she was highly favored by God Himself and you would make her out to be a lowlife. In all of human existence she probably had less sin than anyone. I can only imagine that she was a wonderful person. One of the very last things Jesus did in life was to make sure she would be cared for by the youngest of the Apostles. The shadow you ascribe to Mary is wrong. It was not uncommon for betrothed women to be pregnant. The Betrothal was THE ceremony and the wife of the Groom was considered his from that point on, the 1 year or less that was customary was so that the groom could come up with payment that was promised for the brides father. If you didn't need the time the wedding ceremony and betrothal at nearly the same time. Since Joseph took Mary away from her home town nobody had to ever know she was with child when she left. When they traveled they traveled as man and wife except that Joseph knew not his wife until after the birth of Jesus. We are not really ever told of a wedding between Joseph and Mary, they didn't really need one, she was his.
The woman at the well was a Samaritan. She had been married 4 times and was living with a man out of wedlock. this woman was indeed living in sin so to speak, but then aren't we all? She recognized the goodness of The Savior even though He told her that He was the long promised Messiah she still believed. Before Peter understood who He was she knew. She gave her sin away immediately and followed Him apparently. With this story perhaps your supposition has merit but to me this is the first one.
And then you bring up Mary Magdalene. There is nothing in Holy Writ to suggest she was a prostitute, nothing! Many have said that the wedding where Jesus turned water into wine was His wedding to Mary Magdalene. Mind you I don't say that it is just that many traditions do and it is unlikely that the Savior of the world would be supposed to hook up with a prostitute. Since Mary was a very common name we don't really know who Mary was, there was another Mary who was close to Jesus. When Jesus was resurrected it is likely that Mary Magdalene is who he first appeared to. Matthew says it two ways, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Whether is was the sister of Martha and Lazarus or Mary Magdalene, either way this must have been one othe the closest people in life to Jesus that He would visit her first. She had to be a great woman who is done a great disservice by calling her a prostitute.
To me, putting the name of Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene or the other Mary in the same sentence as women of ill repute is sacrilegious and I am truly offended by it. That is why I took the time to say the above.
I hope I have caused you to re-consider some of your words without causing hard feelings.
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