The Forgotten Woman in Jesus' Family Tree

What Rahab's story reveals about grace, belonging, and the people God refuses to overlook

Genealogies are often overlooked when we read the Bible, yet they tell a powerful story. Matthew's family tree includes unexpected names such as Rahab, reminding us that grace has always been part of the story. Image: Canva Pro.

Welcome to today’s reflection.

Do you explore your family tree? Today I write about how we have been investigating our own and the strange lists at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel.

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My wife Rachel is currently researching our family history.

Like many people these days, she sent off one of those DNA kits for both of us and has spent the past few months uncovering stories about our ancestors. New names appear regularly. There are hints of people from places we have never visited and branches of the family stretching in unexpected directions.

Then my results came back.

Apparently, I am around 80 per cent East Anglian.

Which means that for generation after generation, my ancestors seem to have stayed exactly where they were. They worked the fields, raised families, attended local churches, and got on with things with little fuss.

No great adventures or dramatic migrations around the world. No long-lost aristocratic connections waiting to be discovered. Just ordinary people living ordinary lives in this little corner of England.

Part of me was slightly disappointed.

Another part rather liked it.

There is something comforting about the thought that countless people before me walked the same roads, worked the same land, and watched the same Suffolk skies.

Researching family history raises interesting questions. We naturally look for stories worth telling. We celebrate the ancestors who achieved something remarkable and enjoy discovering details that make our family narrative more interesting.

What we rarely do is search for the embarrassing relatives. Most families have stories that are deliberately forgotten. Some instinctively tidy their history for future generations.

Which is why I find one detail in the opening chapter of Matthew’s Gospel so fascinating.