MARYHILL SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY December 01, 2011
FR. VER MIRANDA, CICM MBOMBO MOKEMBA DIDIER, CICM
SEMINAR : CULTURAL EXEGESIS
THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS IN MATTHEW 1 : 1-17
This assignment consists of reading the Infancy narrative of Jesus according
to Matthew and single out the domains of culture that it contains.
Before getting involved to the question, I would first proceed to conceptual
definition in order to fix the boundaries on which I am going to reflect upon. Indeed,
the Webster’s dictionary defines genealogy as “the record or the study of family
ancestries and histories”. In addition, Daniel Harrington perceives it as “the account
or record of the descent of a person, group, or tribe from ancestor”. In fact, these
citations give me an ample idea of what a genealogy is. It deals on family or tribe in
order to trace back to the ancestor.
The genealogy of Jesus as we read in Matthew presents the same view. It
traces Jesus back to David, and from the David to Abraham. The problem now would
be to determine the elements of the domains of culture we encounter in this passage.
My little background knowledge concerning Ancient Israel would help me respond
and situate the cultural domain hidden in this text. Whenever, Israelites talked of
genealogy, they always wanted to see if there are no foreign relatives within the
family, otherwise the family would be treated as gentile.
For instance, I look at this genealogy in three dimensions or domains of
culture. The first domain is the “social organization” since it deals with family or
tribe. The possible second domain of culture that I can single out is the “political