Matthew 1:1–17: Cultural Subjugation of Women in Shona Communities in Zimbabwe: A Hermeneutical Study

Abstract

The space accorded women in the genealogy of Jesus Christ glowingly typifies the subordination of women in African communities generally. Appositionally, 42 men against five women are mentioned in the family tree of Jesus in Matthew 1:1–17. The domination of males in the lineage of Christ rebuts the theology of Jesus as “the seed of the woman” (Compton 2018, 1; Hamilton 2006, 30; Luther 1958, 192). The relegation of women to a silhouetted horizon in the ancestral lineage of Jesus typifies the manner in which Shona traditions in Zimbabwe peripheralise women in issues of property and inheritance (Kambarami 2006, 7; Ncube 1996, 9; Riphenburg 1997, 33). In this article, I interrogate the status of women in the Matthean lineage of Jesus in light of patriarchal suppression of women in inheritance and property rights in Zimbabwe.