The Female Ancestors Of Christ

The spiritual power of the Feminine shines forth in this psychological study of four Old Testament heroines from Jesus’ family tree. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba are the only women mentioned by name in the Gospels’ genealogies and, for Ann Belford Ulanov, this indicates that they impart something essential to the lineage of Christ. By exploring their brave and unconventional lives, she demonstrates how salvation enters the world in the feminine mode of being human, through these women’s embodiment of such powerful and deeply feminine qualities as ingenuity, audacity, determination, compassion, seduction, and devotion. “Like bolts of lightning, the stories of these outcast virgins illuminate what spiritual wholeness can be in the lives of contemporary women and men. Ann Ulanov’s riveting insights into their daring acts reveal their deep significance in the genealogy of Jesus and expand our understanding of the words courage and love.” — Marion Woodman, author of Addiction to Perfection and Leaving my Father’s House

Biblical Storytelling At Its Best! Helen Bruch Pearson examines the biblical witness of: Tamar Rahab Ruth Bathsheba Mary, the mother of Jesus Join Pearson as she fills in the gaps and helps history become her-story.

Biblical Storytelling At Its Best! Helen Bruch Pearson examines the biblical witness of: Tamar Rahab Ruth Bathsheba Mary, the mother of Jesus Join Pearson as she fills in the gaps and helps history become her-story.

Journey through Advent and Christmas with the women of Jesus’ family line. Christmas is about so much more than twinkle lights, sugar cookies, and perfect family photos. It’s about the world-changing, transforming, and sometimes messy reality of “God with us.” As we dive deep into the biblical accounts of Jesus’ female ancestors and reflect on God’s presence in their complicated lives, we can begin to release our expectations of a “perfect Christmas” and instead seek the experience of a holy season. Through invitational spiritual practices and reflections, this daily devotional centers the stories of five women in Jesus’ genealogy—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary—plus three additional female figures connected to Jesus’ early life in the days leading up to Epiphany. You will also find resources for exploring the lives of these women in worship, small group, and retreat settings. This Advent and Christmas season, step into the true power of the Incarnation as we journey together to the manger and encounter the omnipotent God who has come to us in the vulnerable Christ-child. ​Original artwork by Michelle Burkholder

Advent devotional for Christmas that will stir hope and inspire worship. As dawn broke on that first Christmas morning, the sun rose on a new era: God's king had come to earth to bring about his kingdom. Join Sinclair Ferguson as he opens up the first two chapters of Matthew's Gospel in these daily devotions for Advent. Each day’s reflection is full of insight and application, and will help you to arrive at Christmas Day awed by God's redeeming grace and refreshed by the hope of God’s promised king.

The Gospel of Matthew opens with a patrilineal genealogy of Jesus that intriguingly includes five women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, 'she of Uriah', and Mary. In a gospel that has a strongly Jewish and male-orientated outlook, why are women incorporated? Particularly, why include these four Old Testament women alongside Mary? Rejecting traditional as well as feminist views, E. Anne Clements undertakes a close literary reading of the narratives to discern how each woman is characterised and presented. All are significant scriptural figures on the margins of Israelite society. From this intertextual world established by Matthew, Clements explores why Matthew may have named these women in the opening genealogy and what implications their inclusion may have for the ongoing gospel narrative. Mothers on the Margin? argues that Matthew's Gospel contains a counter narrative focused on women. The presence of the five women in the genealogy indicates that the birth of the Messiah will bring about a crisis in Israel's identity in terms of ethnicity, marginality, and gender. The women signal that Matthew's Gospel is concerned with the construal of a new identity for the people of God.

This 50th-anniversary edition, with a new foreword by the distinguished historian Martin E. Marty, who regards this book as one of the most vital books of our time, as well as an introduction by the author never before included in the book, and a new preface by James Gustafson, the premier Christian ethicist who is considered Niebuhr’s contemporary successor, poses the challenge of being true to Christ in a materialistic age to an entirely new generation of Christian readers.

This book brings to light how the genealogies in the Bible are a developing genre, flexible in both patterns and deviations, allowing the inclusion of otherwise absent family members like mothers and daughters.