Question: When giving Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1, why is it Joseph’s genealogy and not Mary’s?
Answer: Kind of ironic since he didn’t exactly have a hand in Jesus’ creation, eh? Haha. Though that being said, Joseph would have remained the legal father of Jesus, so it’s okay to attach the genealogy to him.
There are two different genealogies for Jesus in the gospels, both connected to Joseph. There are various reasons and proposals as to why there are differences between these genealogies, but both genealogies were ultimately written to prove that Jesus was within the prophetic line of the Messiah. The Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would come from Abraham’s line— even more specifically from David’s line. As a descendant of David, Joseph’s genealogy proved just this.
Perhaps Mary’s line would have proved it too. If it did, then I’m guessing they chose Joseph’s line for patriarchal reasons (see the movie Barbie for more on this subject).
Question: I want to tag in on this post with a question. Why are there five women’s names listed in the genealogy? Was this a normal practice?
Answer: It’s true that it’s rare to have women in biblical genealogies. The most common assumption as to why they are here is that these four women were (probably) all outside of the Jewish faith and that Matthew is including them to foreshadow how the Christian movement is going to be for outsiders too. Just as outsiders are in the genetic line of Christ, Christ is also reaching out to outsiders.
I’d personally add to this that God has always had his eye on the marginalized and those in need of justice. With that in mind, these four marginalized women go from their small places in history to key players in the faith. They are directly connected to the Messiah. And so we too must keep our eyes on the marginalized, be they outsiders, oppressed, or belittled by society. I’d suggest these women are included to prophetically provoke us.
Question: Is it believed that they are of the line of David or that their husbands were? I assume we believe all of those men listed connect Adam to Jesus. In these instances, is it the women that continue the genetic line?
Answer: Matthew places them within a genealogy of David, so he is assuming they are a part of the line either literally, or perhaps spiritually to make a deeper point (even if that doesn’t jive with moderns). Luke offers a different genealogy that seems to be trying to be more exact, because that’s kind of Luke’s personality when it comes to his form of authorship.
Jamin Bradley 
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