§ 2. Birth and Childhood

Tamar

Genesis 38:2–3, 6–7, 11–19, 24–26

There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went in to her, and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er.
And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death.
Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, "Remain a widow in your father's house, till Shelah my son grows up"--for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father's house. In the course of time the wife of Judah, Shua's daughter, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. And when Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep," she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He turned to her at the roadside and said, "Come, let me come in to you," for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, "What will you give me, that you may come in to me?" He answered, "I will send you a young goat from the flock." And she said, "If you give me a pledge, until you send it--" He said, "What pledge shall I give you?" She replied, "Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand." So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him. Then she arose and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood.
About three months later Judah was told, "Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality." And Judah said, "Bring her out, and let her be burned." As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, "By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant." And she said, "Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff." Then Judah identified them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not know her again.

Rahab

Joshua 2:1, 6, 8–15

And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.
...But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof.
Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, "I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death." And the men said to her, "Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the LORD gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you." Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall.

Joshua 6:17, 25

And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.
Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Hebrews 11:31

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

James 2:24–25

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

Ruth

Ruth 1:15–17, 22

[Naomi] said, "See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law." But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you." So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth 2:11–13

Boaz answered her, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!" Then she said, "I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants."

Ruth 2:20

And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!" Naomi also said to her, "The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers."

Ruth 3:9

[Boaz] said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer."

Ruth 4:11–12

Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you by this young woman."

Ruth 4:14–17

Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him." Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi." They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

David...father of Solomon

Contrast Luke 3:31, "...Nathan, the son of David."

Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel

See the note at Luke 3:27 on the contrasting, "...Shealtiel, the son of Neri."

Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel

Compare Luke 3:27, "...Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel."

Zerubbabel the father of Abiud

Contrast Luke 3:27, "...Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel"

Joseph the husband of Mary

See the note on Luke 3:23, "Joseph, the son of Heli", below.

supposed

Meanings of this word vary from 'reckon' to 'deduce' to 'suppose.' Other places Luke uses this word in the sense of 'suppose' include:

Luke 2:44

Supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances....

Acts 14:19

Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

Acts 16:27

When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

Acts 17:29

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to [suppose] that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

Acts 21:29

They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

Joseph, the son of Heli

Contrast Matthew 1:17, "...Jacob the father of Joseph."

Where Luke says "as was supposed," Matthew says, "Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born." We conclude from the combination of the two that Luke records what we would call Mary's lineage, with Heli literally being her dad and Joseph's father-in-law. Meanwhile, Matthew records Joseph's lineage, with Jacob literally being his dad.

Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel

Contrast Matthew 1:13, "...Zerubbabel the father of Abiud"

Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel

Compare Matthew 1:12, "...Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel."

Shealtiel, the son of Neri

Contrast Matthew 1:12, "Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel."

Jechoniah is named in Joseph's lineage, but Mary is traced via Neri. The word of the Lord through Jeremiah prevents Jechoniah from having offspring succeed.

Jeremiah 22:24–30

"As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return." Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know? O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD: "Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah."

Shealtiel can be the son of Jechoniah and the son of Neri at the same time by way of Levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-6), i.e., after Jechoniah is killed, Neri raises heirs to him.

Mary's lineage also traces the line via David's son Nathan, not Solomon. Perhaps Joseph's line intends to demonstrate the dynastic lineage whereas Mary's reveals a literal succession.

...Nathan, the son of David

Contrast Matthew 1:6, "David...father of Solomon"