Before Mary: The Ancestresses of Jesus
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Endnotes
Exceptions occur only in the case of irregularity of descent or where there is something noteworthy about the woman’s name. Strack-Billerbeck 1.15; compare Mary in the New Testament, ed. Raymond E. Brown et al. (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1978), p. 78.
On the likelihood that Matthew himself included the women in the genealogy, see Marshall D. Johnson, The Purpose of Biblical Genealogies (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ., 1969), pp. 154–159; and Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977).
Brevard S. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), p. 157. In a way, Judah performed the levirate duty for his son without intending to, because of Tamar’s initiative. But Leviticus 18:15 forbids sexual intercourse between a man and his daughter-in-law.
E.g., Testament of Judah 10:6; b. Sota 10b; b. Horayot. 10b; y. Sota 1:4 (16d, 5a); Genesis Rabbah 85.
Philo, De congressu eruditionis gratia 124; cf. De fuga et inventione 149–156; De virtutibus 220–222.
Raymond E. Brown, “Rachab in Mt 1, 5 Probably Is Rahab of Jericho,” Biblica 63 (1982), pp. 79–80. Cf. Y. Zakowitch, “Rahab als Mutter des Boas in der Jesus-Genealogie (Matth. 1.5),” Novus Testamentum 17 (1975), pp. 1–5.
T. Drorah Setel, “Prophets and Pornography: Female Sexual Imagery in Hosea,” Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, ed. Letty Russell (Phildelphia: Westminster/John Knox, 1985), pp. 89–90.
Baruch A. Levine, “In Praise of the Israelite Mišpāḥâ: Legal Themes in the Book of Ruth,” in The Quest for the Kingdom of God, ed. Harry B. Huffmon et al. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1983), p. 106.
The rabbinic writings are far more concerned with the fact that she is a foreigner—and a Moabite at that. According to Deuteronomy 22:3, “No Ammorite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of Yahweh, even to the tenth generation.” The law could apply to David through Ruth.