What is in question: Ruth, Matthew, and Luke list Nahshon, Salmon, and Boaz in sequence, but the long period involved raises the question of whether the genealogy is telescoped, meaning it may skip unnamed generations.

One reading

Read the names as the listed family sequence

majoritygraph path

Claim: The genealogy is displayed as the named sequence the biblical texts give: Nahshon, then Salmon, then Boaz.

Basis: Ruth 4:20-21, Matthew 1:4-5, and Luke 3:32 list these names consecutively.

Who holds it: not attributed to a named source in this dataset

Verses:

Another reading

Read the sequence as telescoped

contested

Claim: The names may be a compressed family line rather than immediate father-to-son links at every step.

Basis: The texts give the sequence, but the long span from the wilderness generation to Boaz leaves room for omitted generations.

Who holds it: not attributed to a named source in this dataset

Verses:

Scholarly weight: The listed sequence is the normal way to display the biblical text. The telescoping caution is also widely allowed in genealogy work, so the apparatus should not claim certainty that every listed link is an immediate biological father-son link.

Graph note: The graph keeps the named sequence for navigation and flags the links as telescoped where the data marks that possibility.

Where scholars differ

Is Matthew's Rahab the Rahab of Jericho?

What is in question: Matthew names Rahab as Boaz's mother, but does not explicitly say she is the Rahab from Jericho, so the issue is whether the two references identify the same woman.

One reading

Matthew means Rahab of Jericho

majority

Claim: Matthew's Rahab is read as the same Rahab associated with Jericho.

Basis: Matthew 1:5 names Rahab in the genealogy; Joshua 6:25 names Rahab at Jericho, and Hebrews 11:31 remembers Rahab's faith.

Who holds it: not attributed to a named source in this dataset

Verses:

Another reading

Matthew's Rahab is not further identified

minority

Claim: Matthew gives the name Rahab but does not explicitly identify her with the woman from Jericho, and the chronology raises a caution.

Basis: Matthew 1:5 gives only the genealogy link from Salmon and Rahab to Boaz; it does not narrate Rahab's earlier story.

Who holds it: not attributed to a named source in this dataset

Verses:

Scholarly weight: The Jericho identification is the common traditional reading. The unidentified-Rahab caution is a real textual caution because Matthew does not spell out the identification, but it is not the wider view.

Graph note: The person is named Rahab because Matthew names her; the Jericho identification is shown as common but not silently assumed.

Matthew 1:5 names Rahab as his wife. Salmon→Boaz likely telescopes the long Judges era.

Nahshon -> Salmon is marked as a telescoped lineage edge. Spans the conquest/Judges period; commonly held to omit generations.

Salmon -> Boaz is marked as a telescoped lineage edge.