The Genealogy of Christ

Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38 The Genealogy of Christ

Matt 1:1 The [a]record of the genealogy of [b]Jesus [c]the Messiah, ¹the son of David, ²the son of Abraham: 2 Abraham [d]was the father of Isaac, [e]Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of [f]Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, ³Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of [g]Ram. 4 Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon. 5 Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of ¹¹Jesse. 6 Jesse was the father of David the king. David ⁴was the father of Solomon by [h]Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah. 7 Solomon ⁵was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of [i]Asa. 8 Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of [j]Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. 9 Uzziah was the father of [k]Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of [l]Amon, and Amon the ⁶father of Josiah. 11 Josiah became the father of [m]Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the ⁷deportation to Babylon. 12 After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of [n]Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of ¹⁰Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel was the father of [o]Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor. 14 Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud. 15 Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob. 16 Jacob was the father of ⁹Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, ⁸who is called [p]the Messiah. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to [q]the Messiah, fourteen generations.

Luke 3:23 being, [r]as was supposed, the son of ⁹Joseph, [s]the son of [t]Eli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of [u]Hesli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, 27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, ¹⁰the son of Zerubbabel, the son of [v]Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, 29 the son of [w]Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of [x]Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of ¹¹Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of [y]Salmon, the son of [z]Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of [aa]Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, ^2,12the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of [bb]Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of [cc]Heber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, ¹³the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, 38 the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Footnotes

1. Matthew 1:1 Lit book
2. Matthew 1:1 Heb Yeshua (Joshua), meaning The Lord saves
3. Matthew 1:1 Gr Christos (Christ), Gr for Messiah, which means Anointed One
4. Matthew 1:2 Lit fathered, and throughout the genealogy
5. Matthew 1:2 Lit and…, and throughout the genealogy
6. Matthew 1:2 Gr Judas; names of people in the Old Testament are given in their Old Testament form
7. Matthew 1:3 Gr Aram
8. Matthew 1:6 Lit her of Uriah
9. Matthew 1:7 Gr Asaph
10. Matthew 1:8 Also Gr for Jehoram in 2 King 8:16; cf 1 Chron 3:11
11. Matthew 1:9 Gr Joatham
12. Matthew 1:10 Gr Amos
13. Matthew 1:11 Jehoiachin in 2 Kin 24:15
14. Matthew 1:12 Gr Salathiel
15. Matthew 1:13 Gr Abioud, usually spelled Abiud
16. Matthew 1:16 Gr Christos (Christ)
17. Matthew 1:17 Gr Christos (Christ)
18. Luke 3:23 Lit as it was being thought
19. Luke 3:23 Lit of Eli, and so throughout the genealogy
20. Luke 3:23 Also spelled Heli
21. Luke 3:25 Also spelled Esli
22. Luke 3:27 Gr Salathiel; names of people in the Old Testament are given in their Old Testament form through v 38
23. Luke 3:29 Gr Jesus
24. Luke 3:30 Gr Judas
25. Luke 3:32 Gr Sala
26. Luke 3:32 Gr Naasson
27. Luke 3:33 Gr Arni
28. Luke 3:35 Gr Ragau
29. Luke 3:35 Gr Eber

Commentary

For the Jews, the coming of a Messiah was and is a foundational principle. Many have come and gone, claiming to be the Messiah, and they have been dismissed by Jewish leaders for not meeting the criteria detailed in Old Testament prophecy. The inclusion of Jesus’ genealogy is one of the ways the gospel writers intended to demonstrate that Jesus was the one who had been foretold. The Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham (Gen. 12:3) as well as David (2 Sam. 7:16) (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1613). Additionally, Jewish tradition interpreted Gen 49:8-12 to foretell that the Messiah would come from the line of Judah (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1162). They also wanted to emphasize that He was fully human, since many people at the time believed Jesus was a spiritual being who only appeared to be in human form (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1774). Additionally, Matthew in particular meant to show “that Jesus is also the international Christ, the Savior of the whole world. His genealogy reaches beyond Jews to include several ethnic groups that populated the Middle East during Israel’s Old Testament history” (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1617). Matthew’s gospel stylistically mirrors the Old Testament Torah in many ways, and genealogies held a place of importance in much of the Jewish history (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 18), demonstrating God’s grace to His chosen people and to the rest of the world (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 692).

Culturally, genealogies were important to families because they figured into legal matters and were a source of pride. Joseph would surely have had records of his lineage that he kept with great care. The genealogies of Christ in Matthew and Luke both make it clear that Joseph is the legal, not actual, father of Jesus, and that Joseph is a descendant of David. However, I was stricken by the differences in the accounts of the lineage between David and Joseph. Matthew records David’s son Solomon as Joseph’s ancestor, whereas Luke has Joseph descending from the line of Nathan (Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible Vol. 2 pg. 675-676).

Matthew’s genealogy has some interesting inclusions and exclusions that are worth noting. He groups the generations into three sets of fourteen, arriving “at this scheme through selection and omission in accord with OT practice” (Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible Vol. 2 pg. 676). He also included women, which was almost unheard of in official genealogical records. Many believe that this is because Jewish leaders were trying to cast a shadow if illegitimacy on Jesus’ heritage, and Matthew wanted to point out that many of the women that were held in high esteem from the OT were not above reproach (Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible Vol. 2 pg. 676). Tamar posed as a prostitute on the side of the road to trick her father-in-law into a conjugal relationship which would give her an heir (this was in fact an act of faith and perseverance that preserved Judah’s line and served as a turning point in Judah’s life), Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute in Jericho, who saved the lives of the Isrealite spies. Ruth was a Moabitess who presumptuously laid herself at the feet of an inebriated Boaz in the middle of the night, another act of faith, which this time resulted in the birth of David’s grandfather. Bathsheba was the victim of David’s lust and was coerced into an extramarital relationship that God later redeemed with the birth of Solomon (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1618). Mary’s virginity certainly would have been met with scrutiny because a virgin birth would have been a direct fulfillment of prophecy (Is 7:14), so Matthew wanted to remind the Jews that God has always worked in mysterious ways. A great supplemental message about Matthew’s account is a sermon by Alistair Begg on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSUo_3_eL7g.

Luke’s genealogy, in addition to citing a different line than Matthew, has considerably more entries than that of Matthew and is presented in a less official way. One theory about the differing lineage between the two accounts is that Luke actually depicted the line of Mary. In Mark 6:3, Jesus is called the son of Mary, rather than the son of Joseph, which, in that male society would have been something of a slur. In one interpretation of Luke 3:23, the text can read “Jesus, being the son (as it was supposed, of Joseph) of Heli, etc.” Luke does not include any other women in his record, and while the suppression of Mary’s name weakens this theory, it could be that Mary had no brothers and that by marrying her, Joseph became the son and heir of Heli (The Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible Vol. 2 pg. 676). One benefit of this theory is that the Lukan genealogy (Nelson’s KJV Bible Commentary assumes this is Mary’s line, also) excludes Zeconiah, who was held as the last true king of the Israelites and was cursed in Jeremiah 22:30 against bearing any sovereign line (Nelson’s KJV Bible Commentary Pg. 1269).

Another explanation for the discrepancy is that Matthew’s account is focused on Joseph’s legal heritage, whereas Luke’s is focused on his physical ancestry. In the law of levirate marriage, if a married man died with no heir, his brother (or in some traditions, if he had no brothers and his father was a widower, his father) could marry the widow of the deceased, and the child from that union would become legally the heir of the deceased and not his brother’s. Assuming Heli and Jacob could have had the same mother but different fathers (although Matthat and Matthan may have been the same person), and also that Heli later married Jacob’s widow, Joseph would have been the legal heir of one and the physical heir of the other. This theory, while not infeasible, is predicated on several happy coincidences, but then again, God’s plan often works that way. Either way, the two credible theories at least serve to demonstrate that the differing genealogies are not irreconcilable (The Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible Vol. 2 pg. 676-677).

As I was researching the Scriptural references from Matthew 1:1, I got hung up on 2 Samuel 7:14. I thought the whole passage was supposed to be referring to Jesus, but on reading a number of commentaries, it sounds as though the entire passage was given to David regarding his son Solomon. Parts of it are foreshadowing the Messiah, but it is also intended literally to be about Solomon. That is why God speaks of disciplining his child when he commits iniquities. There are so many parts of the genealogy, as well as the referenced scriptures, that are tempting to explore further, but I’m afraid to go down too much of a rabbit hole when my focus is on the study of the gospels. Certainly, the Old and New Testaments need to be considered as one volume, the history of God’s relationship to man, so let me encourage you to take a deeper look into all these topics on your own.

See the next post here https://onthepath.online/2018/12/20/the-birth-of-john-the-baptist-foretold/

Scriptural References

Ge 5:3 When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. 4 Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters. 5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. 6 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and became the father of Enosh. 7 Then Seth lived eight hundred and seven years after he became the father of Enosh, and he had other sons and daughters. 8 So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died. 9 Enosh lived ninety years, and became the father of Kenan. 10 Then Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years after he became the father of Kenan, and he had other sons and daughters. 11 So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years, and he died. 12 Kenan lived seventy years, and became the father of Mahalalel. 13 Then Kenan lived eight hundred and forty years after he became the father of Mahalalel, and he had other sons and daughters. 14 So all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died. 15 Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Jared. 16 Then Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years after he became the father of Jared, and he had other sons and daughters. 17 So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died. 18 Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and became the father of Enoch. 19 Then Jared lived eight hundred years after he became the father of Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters. 20 So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died. 21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. 22 Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. 25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and became the father of Lamech. 26 Then Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years after he became the father of Lamech, and he had other sons and daughters. 27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died. 28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and became the father of a son. 29 Now he called his name ¹³Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed.” 30 Then Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years after he became the father of Noah, and he had other sons and daughters. 31 So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died. 32 Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Ge 11:26 Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of ¹²Abram, Nahor and Haran. 27 Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran became the father of Lot. 28 Haran died [a]in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah [b]and Iscah. 30 Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Gen 12:3 “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

²Ge 22:18 “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Ge 49:8-12 “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s sons shall bow down to you. 9 “Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him up? 10 “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. 11 “He ties his foal to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; He washes his garments in wine, And his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 “His eyes are dull from wine, And his teeth white from milk.

Ru 4:18 Now these are the generations of ³Perez: to Perez was born Hezron, 19 and to Hezron was born Ram, and to Ram, Amminadab, 20 and to Amminadab was born Nahshon, and to Nahshon, Salmon, 21 and to Salmon was born Boaz, and to Boaz, Obed, 22 and to Obed was born Jesse, and to Jesse, David.

¹2 Sa 7:12 When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, 15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.

⁴2 Sa 11:27 When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.

2 Sa 12:24 Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he named him ⁴Solomon. Now the Lord loved him

[j]2 King 8:16 Now in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then the king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king.

⁷2 Ki 24:14 Then he led away into exile all Jerusalem and all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land. 15 [m] So he led Jehoiachin away into exile to Babylon; also the king’s mother and the king’s wives and his officials and the leading men of the land, he led away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

1 Ch 1:1 Adam, Seth, Enosh, 2 Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, 3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, 4 ¹³Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth.

1 Ch 1:24 Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, 25 Eber, Peleg, Reu, 26 Serug, Nahor, Terah, 27 Abram, that is ¹²Abraham.

1 Ch 2:1 These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, 2 Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 3 The sons of Judah were Er, Onan and Shelah; these three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanitess. And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, so He put him to death. 4 Tamar his daughter-in-law bore him ³Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all. 5 The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. 6 The sons of Zerah were Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Calcol and Dara; five of them in all. 7 The son of Carmi was Achar, the troubler of Israel, who violated the ban. 8 The son of Ethan was Azariah. 9 Now the sons of Hezron, who were born to him were Jerahmeel, Ram and Chelubai. 10 Ram became the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, leader of the sons of Judah; 11 Nahshon became the father of Salma, Salma became the father of Boaz, 12 Boaz became the father of Obed, and Obed became the father of Jesse; 13 and Jesse became the father of Eliab his firstborn, then Abinadab the second, Shimea the third, 14 Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth, 15 Ozem the sixth, David the seventh;

1 Ch 3:10 Now Solomon’s son was ⁵Rehoboam, Abijah was his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, 11 Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, 12 Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, 13 Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, 14 Amon his son, Josiah his son. 15 The sons of Josiah were Johanan the firstborn, and the second was Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. 16 The sons of Jehoiakim were Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son. 17 The sons of Jeconiah, the prisoner, were Shealtiel his son, 18 and Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah. 19 The sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel and Shimei. And the sons of Zerubbabel were Meshullam and Hananiah, and Shelomith was their sister; 20 and Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah and Jushab-hesed, five. 21 The sons of Hananiah were Pelatiah and Jeshaiah, the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shecaniah. 22 The descendants of Shecaniah were Shemaiah, and the sons of Shemaiah: Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah and Shaphat, six. 23 The sons of Neariah were Elioenai, Hizkiah and Azrikam, three. 24 The sons of Elioenai were Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah and Anani, seven.

[j]1 Chron 3:11 [compare] Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,

1 Ch 3:14 Amon his son, ⁶Josiah his son.

¹Ps 89:3 I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant,

¹Ps 132:11 The Lord has sworn to David A truth from which He will not turn back: Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.

¹Is 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

¹Is 11:1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

Jer 22:30 “Thus says the Lord, ‘Write this man down childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.’”

Jer 27:20 which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he ⁷carried into exile Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.

Mt 9:27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, ¹Son of David!”

Mt 27:17 So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus ⁸who is called Christ?”

Mt 27:22 Pilate *said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus ⁸who is called Christ?” They all *said, “Crucify Him!”

Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.

Lk 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 ¹and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.

Lk 1:69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David ¹His servant—

Lk 2:11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, ⁸who is Christ the Lord.

Jn 4:25 The woman *said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He ⁸who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”

Jn 7:42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the ¹descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?

Ac 13:23 ¹From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus,

Ro 1:3 concerning His Son, who was born ¹of a descendant of David according to the flesh,

²Gal 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

Rev 22:16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the ¹descendant of David, the bright morning star.”