1:3–16 Women are not usually named in Near Eastern genealogies, but they are intrinsic to God’s purpose in sending Christ. The five women named in Jesus’ genealogy all remind us that God often does the unexpected and chooses the unlikely. Tamar (v. 3) reminds us of Judah’s failures (Gen. 38:6–30); Rahab (v. 5) was a harlot (Josh. 2); Ruth was a Moabite (Ruth 1:4) and thus subject to a special curse (Deut. 23:3–5); Uriah’s wife Bathsheba (v. 6) was David’s downfall (2 Sam. 11). Mary fulfills Is. 7:14 (v. 23), and the even more important promise of Gen. 3:15 (Gal. 4:4).