Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we dropped in on a new gospel, Matthew, and even though he's a new gospel to us in our reading

plan, he's quite possibly the oldest of the four Gospels. Most people believe

this is Matthew the Apostle slash disciple of Jesus, who was a tax collector before Jesus called him.

Given his attention to numbers and money and return on investment, it seems likely. Matthew's

unique lens on Jesus is Jesus as king. As a refresher, Luke's lens is Jesus as man and John's is Jesus as God.

So far, we have Jesus as God, man, and king. Matthew starts out by giving us the lineage of Jesus,

and if you were with us in the Old Testament, you probably recognized at least a few of these

people. Here are three things worth noting about

this genealogy. First, it includes women. That's unheard of in ancient Jewish genealogies.

So we can see right out of the gate that the message Jesus sent his disciples about women

was one of inclusion. Jesus obviously taught Matthew that women matter, otherwise he would

have left them out.

Second, his inclusion extends beyond just gender because this genealogy also includes Gentiles.

That's any non-Jew. And it includes people with scandalous histories.

For instance, Rahab had been a pagan prostitute, and we don't have time to go into all the stuff David and Solomon did.

The message God sends in this genealogy is one of redemption. He says, you belong here in my family.

Third, even though Matthew tells us there are 14 generations three times in verse 17, those numbers

probably aren't precise. It's not that Matthew's lying here, it's that in verse 17, those numbers probably aren't precise.

It's not that Matthew's lying here, it's that in Jewish culture, numbers often represent ideas more than an actual count.

So 14 generations may be a way to say doubly perfect or doubly complete, since the number

7 represents perfection and completion.

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