The Genealogy of Christ: Matthew 1:2-17; Luke 3:23-38

Here we deal with the genealogy of Christ. There are two primary points to be made by the genealogy. One is that Jesus is the Messiah and the other is that Jesus is a man. The Messiah is to be from the lineage of King David (Mark 12:35). For this reason, Matthew includes the genealogy. He begins his gospel with the genealogy, because this would need to be established first for his Jewish audience. In speaking to Jews and trying to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, if he didn’t begin by saying that Jesus is from the lineage of King David then he would lose his audience right away. Luke is writing to gentiles and so does not need to include it earlier. Matthew’s goal was to make the point that Jesus is from the line of King David, which that and writing to Jews is the reason he stops at Abraham. Luke was focusing on showing that Jesus was also a man, which is why he went all the way back to Adam. Also, he chose to place his genealogy at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in order to introduce Him as the man, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Another reason Luke goes back to Adam is to simply remind his audience that Jesus bound Himself to all humanity, not just the Jews.

Now comes the part of encouragement. Amazingly the genealogy not only should increase our faith by proving that Jesus is a man and is the Messiah, but it offers encouragement too. Here is Jesus, God himself, binding Himself to humanity. Let that sink in, because I doubt it fully will on the first consideration of that idea. Here is God, who is perfect, pure, righteous, never even desiring to do wrong, binding himself to humanity. The Humanity that He binds Himself to is evil to the core. This humanity is selfish, hateful, immoral, crude, violent, and constantly longs to do wrong. We are so undeserving to have this holy God associate with us and yet he becomes one of us.

Do you understand how frustrating this earthly life is and how wonderful heaven is? Jesus came from heaven to this irritating and painful earthly life in order to offer us a loving eternal relationship with Him (John 6:48-51). Plus in doing that, He knew that many would reject this relationship. It is utterly amazing that Jesus chose to become a part of humanity. Even notice some of the people in His direct lineage. Adam fell from the Garden of Eden. Judah slept with a prostitute. Perez was conceived from Judah’s immoral relationship with Tamar. Rahab the former prostitute was the mother of Boaz. David was an adulterer and a murderer. Ahaz committed idolatry constantly, as well as Manasseah and Amos. Jesus, out of love for us, dove right into the sick and immoral humanity that we are. God left heaven to dwell in filth to save us.

Now we do need to address some items that may seem to be problems if we don’t accurately understand how Jewish genealogies worked at the time of Christ. As can be seen per the genealogy below, there are differences between Luke’s genealogy and Matthew’s. Luke started further back, which doesn’t create a challenge. However, before David, Matthew completely skipped Admin, while Luke included him. The explanation for this is simple. The term used for father in Matthew and son in Luke is used for ancestor/descendent. So in our translations it says father/son, to them it did not mean that necessarily. It was Adam the ancestor of Seth, Seth the ancestor of Enosh. Therefore, Matthew skipping over Admin is not significant, because neither probably includes every name in the genealogy. The next difference is after David, Luke follows Nathan and Matthew follows Solomon. The two genealogies split at this point. Which is why each genealogy has different names here. Matthew follows the line of kings, of coarse for writing to a Jewish audience. Which ever line Joseph is in; it still is within the line of David, so again the difference does not create a problem. Some have suggested that Matthew follows the line to Joseph, while Luke follows the line to Mary, because according to the two genealogies there are two different individuals mentioned as Joseph’s father. The terms can be used for in-laws as well, so perhaps that is what is meant of one of the two ancestors mentioned just before Joseph. Also, since the term can simply mean ancestor, Matthew or Luke could have stopped at a grandfather or great grandfather, while the other went completely to the father. If this were the case then it would be Luke who lists the father, since Matthew is the one who has gaps. The gap explanation would also apply to explain why Luke lists so many more names, sixteen to be exact, from David to Jesus than Matthew does. It could also be that those in Luke’s genealogy consistently had children earlier in life and those in Matthew’s consistently had their children later in life. This would over time create a large difference in the genealogies.

Now of concern is did Mary come from the line of David? It is a concern, because Jesus was not biologically related to Joseph, but only to Mary. Was Jesus biologically from the line of David? Well if it is true that Luke follows the genealogy to Mary, then we have no concern. However, if that is not the correct explanation, then is Mary a descendant of David. If we don’t know by the genealogy, we know by Luke 2:1-5. Joseph had to register for the census in the city of David, which was Bethlehem. He had to do this because he was a descendant of David. Notice that Mary also had to register there. She was not married to Joseph yet, only engaged. Which means she was registering in the city of David not by marriage but by ancestry. She was also a descendant of David. Which makes Jesus a biological descendant of David. Also, makes it very likely that Luke was following the line from David to Mary. Both Joseph and Mary are descendants of David, but far back from each other enough to make them very distant relatives. If you were able to go back far enough, everyone on earth is related to each other at least if you go all the way back to Noah. The genealogy does have its significance and it is listed below.