Much has been said about the women who find their way into the genealogy of Y'shua (Jesus). Much also has been erroneously reported about the way Jewish women are regarded by the Torah of G-D up to this point in the Bible.
That somehow a majority of G-D's people considered women of lesser status until this point is often buttressed by the idea dug up from the Jewish prayers that Jewish men thank G-D that they are not women. While it may be true that ancient civilizations of the time of the Tanakh (old testament) considered women to be property and lesser than men, it is not the perspective of G-D as given in the text or the perspective of the writers or major protagonists (See the book of Ruth).
I have found this a very distasteful and regrettably re-submitted thought throughout Christian Theology and often by major Christian theologians. To think that for a minute, as has been suggested by many Christian bible scholars, the prayer from the ancient Jewish prayers thanking G-D that one was not born a woman is in some way derogatory toward them as a group is ludicrous at worst and is at best a huge misunderstanding.
I grew up in modern-day Christianity and have heard this "logic" used many times. I think our Master Y'shua is grieved every time. The prayer that is being referred to does state thanks for not having been made a woman or a gentile or a slave, but I would argue that all of these things are stated as facts for which a man who is a Jew should be thankful.
Likewise, a woman should thank G-D that she is not a man. I (a gentile man) can thank G-D that he has not made me a Jew. These are statements that echo a sense of accepting ourselves as G-D has made us. They are not and should not be interpreted as saying that one should consider oneself at an advantage because they are thanking G-D for these things, but rather that they are thanking G-D for these things as a way to demonstrate a grateful heart for how G-D has made us.
Certainly, these prayers could be read (and likely have been read) by some of the Jews of our time and Y'shua's time as something negative, but I don't believe this was in any way the thought of the majority.
To say that this is or was the majority view is to mis-characterize Judaism and thereby the One who founded it.
It is similar to the argument that because Christians believe in the Triune G-D that we are poly-theists. While on the surface it would seem true - it is not.
As for the lineage of Y'shua I would love to understand more fully why Matisyahu incorporates these women. Again, I am not implying that women are not important, but that it is a fact that the typical Jewish way of submitting one's lineage did not often include the women.
It certainly prepares one for the fact that G-D is about to cause Miriam (Mary) to become pregnant without a man having been involved. Perhaps there are similarities between the women mentioned and the woman that G-D chooses as the "seed bearer" (Gen.3:15).
Whatever the point of the women noted, it is as important and duly noted that because Yosef marries Miriam in spite of her condition, Y'shua is born into the line of Abraham of the tribe of Yehuda (Judah) a descendant of the Kingly line of David.
Yehoshua bin Yosef bin David - Adonai is our Salvation! Y'shua HaMaschiach!
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