Who was Rahab? And what's the deal with conflicting geneaolgies?!

Many of us noticed in the very first page of Matthew the listing of just a few women. One of those women, Rahab, draws particular attention because she was thought to be a prostitute and she was not Jewish. How interesting that she should be named in the genealogy of Jesus when so many others are not. Is there a message to be found in the inclusion of these particular few?

Rahab is listed in the Jewish Women's Archive (Rahab: Midrash and Aggadah) as, "among the four most beautiful women the world has ever known: Sarah, Rahab, Abigail and Esther," and among the prominent conversions stories of the Old Testament.

"The Rabbis deduced from the story of Rahab the superiority of repentance over prayer, for Moses prayed exceedingly, but God did not accept his entreaty to enter Erez Israel, while the repentance of Rahab the harlot was accepted, and seven kings and eight prophets issued forth from her."

The Jewish Midrash also teaches that Rahab married Joshua, thus the seven kings and eight prophets that descended from her. This conflicts with the genealogy of Matthew, which states, "Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab," which would indicate that Rahab married Salmon. In either case, a line of kings descend from her, including, eventually, Jesus. 

 This brings us to the question of what to make of the genealogies of Jesus found in both Matthew (chapter 1) and Luke (chapter 3), because they most certainly do not agree. Bible.org has an article that helps to make some sense of this: The Genealogy of Jesus. Go check it out!

What is Midrash?

Midrash has come up a number of times in our conversations over the last few weeks. Rachel Held Evans suggests the following link in her Reading Guide for Inspired on understanding midrash:

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/midrash-101/

Of note from the article: "Midrash responds to contemporary problems and crafts new stories, making connections between new Jewish realities and the unchanging biblical text."

Rachel Held Evans also suggests the following article from the Jewish Women's Archive as an example of midrash on Rachel and Leah:

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/leah-midrash-and-aggadah

I have frequently found the Jewish Women's Archive to be a source of excellent, thought-provoking material. It's worth a look around if you have more questions or interest in how some stories, especially those about women have been understood over time. Since I mentioned the story of the concubine from Judges 19, here is the Jewish Women's Archive article on the midrash concerning that story:

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/concubine-of-levite-midrash-and-aggadah