Bible Strands
Matthew 1:5
Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Matthew addresses a Jewish readership by cataloging Jesus’s legal ancestry at the opening of his gospel. The passage functions as a structured list to verify messianic descent from Abraham through David.
The words — The Greek ἐγέννησεν (egennēsen) literally means “begat” or “fathered,” marking direct paternal generation. The preposition ἐκ (ek) translated “by” or “out of” identifies Rahab as the mother in the phrase “by Rahab.”
The thread — This ancestral sequence is recorded in Ruth 4:18-22 and 1 Chronicles 2:10-11, which trace the same line from Salmon to Jesse. The New Testament later references Rahab’s actions in Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that Jesus’s lineage includes women explicitly identified in Scripture as outsiders or sinners. A reader must accept that the gospel’s foundation rests on documented history rather than idealized ancestry.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;
Cross-references
- Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied: “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
- Hebrews 11:31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies in peace, did not perish with those who were disobedient.
- James 2:25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute justified by her actions when she welcomed the spies and sent them off on another route?
- Joshua 6:22 Meanwhile, Joshua told the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the house of the prostitute and bring out the woman and all who are with her, just as you promised her.”
- Ruth 1:4 who took Moabite women as their wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth. And after they had lived in Moab about ten years,
- Ruth 1:22 So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
- Ruth 4:21 Salmon was the father of Boaz, Boaz was the father of Obed,
- 1 Chronicles 2:11 Nahshon was the father of Salmon, and Salmon was the father of Boaz.
- Joshua 2:1 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
- Luke 3:32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon,