What Does Matthew 1:5 Mean?
Salmon brought forth Boaz out of Rahab, and Boaz brought forth Obed out of Ruth, and Obed brought forth Jesse.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;THE KEY
The repeated Greek verb for “begat” carries this line through Rahab and Ruth, placing their named lives inside its movement toward Jesse.
THE MEANING
This verse names the lives through which continuity moves: Salmon begets Booz through Rahab, Booz begets Obed through Ruth, and Obed begets Jesse. Rahab and Ruth stand inside the line’s forward motion, and its inheritance comes through named relationships.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that lineage is only a line of fathers, with women’s lives incidental, meets a counterexample here: Rahab and Ruth are named within its generative chain.
THE ROOT
ἐγέννησεν
egennēsen
GROWS FROM
γεν-
Beget, give birth, bring forth.
“brought forth” in this verse is egennēsen. The Greek verb ἐγέννησεν belongs to the same root family as words for lineage and generation. The line is not merely a sequence of names: it brings lives forward, with Rahab and Ruth named within that movement.
ALSO GROWS
genos: Family, lineage, kind.
γένος
The repeated begetting forms a γένος, a line of kinship carried through relationships.
genea: Generation, descent.
γενεά
Each use of “begat” moves the line into another γενεά.
gennēsis: Birth, origin.
γέννησις
This branch names the birth at the heart of the genealogy’s movement from one life to the next.
רָחָב
rāḥāḇ
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be wide, spacious, or open.
“Rachab” in this verse is rāḥāḇ. Rahab’s Hebrew name carries the root of breadth and spaciousness. That name stands inside the genealogy’s forward movement, giving the line a quiet echo of widening.
ALSO GROWS
rəḥōḇ: A wide place, street, or open square.
רְחֹב
The shared root lets Rahab’s name carry an echo of open space within the line.
merḥāḇ: An expanse, a broad place.
מֶרְחָב
This branch makes the spaciousness in the root explicit, deepening the sound of Rahab’s name.
עוֹבֵד
ʿōḇēḏ
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work or serve.
Obed’s name carries the sense of one who serves. The name places service within the chain that links Ruth to Jesse, making the lineage’s names carry meaning as well as descent.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeḇeḏ: Servant.
עֶבֶד
This noun shares Obed’s root and makes the name’s service meaning concrete.
ʿăḇōḏāh: Service, labor.
עֲבֹדָה
The shared root links Obed’s name to the work of serving.
THE PATTERN
Scriptural lineage is a living chain of named relationships, carried through birth and shared inheritance.
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but Abraham, father of multitudes, for I have set you as a father of many nations.And the women who were her neighbors called out a name for him, saying, A son is born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.And if you are of the Anointed One, then you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.THE THREAD
And Jacob brought forth Joseph, the husband of Mary, out of whom Jesus was brought forth, who is called the anointed one.The Greek word translated “begat” here shares its root with “was born” in the next verse. The same birth-root carries the genealogy onward, then turns toward Jesus being born of Mary.
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