Matthew’s genealogy traces the male line, but in the course of it, prior to Mary who appears at the end, four women are mentioned by name: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah. Why do these women appear in the genealogy? By what criterion are they chosen?

It has been said that all four women were sinners. So, their inclusion here would serve to indicate that Jesus took upon himself their sins-and with them the sins of the world – and that his mission was the justification of sinners.

But this cannot have been the determining factor for the selection, not least because it does not in fact apply to all four women. More important, none of these women were Jewish. So, through them the world of the Gentiles enters the genealogy of Jesus – his mission to Jews and Gentiles is made manifest.

Yet most important of all is the fact that the genealogy ends with a woman: Mary, who truly marks a new beginning and relativizes the entire genealogy. Throughout the generations, we find the formula: “Abraham was the father of Isaac . . .” But at the end, there is something quite different. In Jesus’ case, there is no reference to fatherhood, instead we read: “Jacob [was] the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (Mt 1:16). In the account of Jesus’ birth that follows immediately after¬ward, Matthew tells us that Joseph was not Jesus’ father and that he wanted to dismiss Mary on account of her supposed adultery. But this is what is said to him: “That which is conceived in Mary is of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 1:20). So the final sentence turns the whole genealogy around. Mary is a new beginning. Her child does not originate from any man, but is a new creation, conceived through the Holy Spirit.

The genealogy is still important: Joseph is the legal father of Jesus. Through him, Jesus belongs by law, “legally,” to the house of David. And yet he comes from elsewhere, “from above” – from God himself. The mystery of his provenance, his dual origin, confronts us quite concretely: his origin can be named and yet it is a mystery. Only God is truly his “father.” The human genealogy has a certain significance in terms of world history. And yet in the end it is Mary, the lowly virgin from Nazareth, in whom a new beginning takes place, in whom human existence starts afresh.

Let us take a look now at the genealogy found in Luke’s Gospel (cf. 3:23-38). Several differences strike us vis-à-vis the list of ancestors supplied by Saint Matthew.

We have already established that this genealogy intro¬duces the public ministry, it so to speak legitimizes Jesus in his public mission, whereas Matthew presents the genealogy as the very start of the Gospel, proceeding from there to the account of Jesus’ conception and birth, and thus unfolding the question of his provenance in its dual significance.

– from Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration