Mary's name in Matthew's genealogy is the queen-mother formula; Joseph 'son of David' makes her a royal wife

Why is a woman named at the end of a royal genealogy, when 'Hebrew women were not usually included'? Because in the Jewish Scriptures one kind of woman is always named when a king comes to the throne: his mother. 'Almost every time a new king begins to reign, the name of his royal mother is given' (1 Kings 14:21; 15:1–2; 2 Kings 8:25–26, and on through the kings of Judah). Matthew's 'Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus' follows the formula. And Matthew 1:18–23 identifies Joseph as 'son of David' and Mary as mother of Immanuel: 'As the legal wife of Joseph the son of David and the mother of Immanuel, from an ancient Jewish perspective, Mary is the royal queen mother.'

• Matthew 1:16 — Mary named at the close of the genealogy.
• 1 Kings 15:1 — 'his mother's name was Maachah' — the accession formula.
• Matthew 1:23 — Immanuel — the child whose mother is the queen mother.
• Matthew 1:25 — Joseph's legal fatherhood.

Matthew's genealogy is not merely a list with a woman at the end; it is a royal accession notice, and the woman named is the one the formula always names.