Since Christmas is often the time for awkward family moments, for Advent in 2011 we had a Bible study at our house where we looked at some of the awkward stories from Jesus genealogy and thought about how these stories might have helped to shape Jesus as a person. (Marcus and Rachel used the same studies with a group at Footscray Baptist Church.)

If you'd like to reuse the resources I put together for this study you can download them as PDF files:

  1. Tamar and Judah
  2. Rahab
  3. Ruth and Boaz
  4. David and Bethsheba (and Uriah)

These are the books I looked at in preparation:

Matthew, Douglas R.A. Hare
The Purpose of the Biblical Genealogies, Marshall D. Johnson
The Illegitimacy of Jesus, Jane Shaberg
Genesis, Walter Brueggemann 
Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38) in Ancient Jewish Exegesis, Esther Marie Menn
Joshua, Jerome F.D. Creach
Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology, Kwok Pui-lan
Daughters of Rahab, Margaret Eletter Guider
Old Testament Theology: Israel's Gospel, John Goldingay
Ruth, Kirsten Nielsen
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone, John Goldingay