WWUTT 2291 The Genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:23-38)

The Genealogy of Jesus in Matthew and Luke

The gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy of Jesus, and there's a genealogy in Luke's gospel as well in chapter 3. The two genealogies, though, happen to be different. But there's a good reason when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Luke, we are finishing up chapter 3 today with that closing section, the genealogy of Jesus. I'm going to begin reading in verse 23 and go through verse 38.

Hear the word of the Lord. Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the son, as was supposed to be, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Methat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Naum, the son of Esli, the son of Nagai, the son of Maoth, the son of Mattathias, the son of Simeon, the son of Joseph, the son of Jodah, the son of Joannan, the son of Resa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Adi, the son of Qasim, the son of Elmadam, the son of Ur, the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Joram, the son of Methat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of Mila, the son of Menah, the son of Manatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Selah, the son of Nashon, the son of Aminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arnai, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Sarag, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,.

The son of Canaan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Canaan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Luke's Genealogy and Matthew's Genealogy Compared

There you go. The genealogy of Jesus, according to Luke, 77 names in that genealogy, 42 in Matthew's genealogy. But you can see why there were more in Luke's, because he went all the way back to Adam.

Matthew had gone only as far back as Abraham. The book of Matthew began with the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And then what follows is a genealogy that begins with Abraham, traces 14 generations to King David, follows a royal line of 14 generations all the way up to the Jewish exile into the hands of the Babylonians, and finally marks 14 more generations to Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ.

That's Matthew 1 .16. Now here in this chapter in Luke, we have a somewhat different genealogy. Yeah, it's written differently, but some of the names were different as well. While Matthew's goes from Abraham to Jesus, Luke starts with Jesus and goes all the way back to Adam, the first man.

Luke's genealogy is also not as structured as we saw with Matthew's. And many of the names that we have on this list are not on Matthew's list. From Abraham to David, the two genealogies are alike, but from David to Jesus, the genealogies are almost totally different.

Genealogies were very important to the Jews. The Old Testament is full of them. You're probably familiar with the lists of complicated names in Numbers and 1 and 2 Chronicles. You may have even been in a Bible study class where the teacher probably just opted to skip the list of names.

But a person's genealogy for the Jews helped to establish heritage, inheritance, legitimacy, and also entitlements, like what portion of land belonged to which tribe, for example. Given that both Matthew and Luke had access to extremely detailed records of Jesus' lineage, why do their two genealogies come out so different?

Well, the reason is because Matthew traces Jesus' ancestry according to descendants, while Luke traces Jesus' ancestry according to law. And both genealogies are valuable in this way. It was necessary for Matthew to establish that Jesus was the descendant of Abraham, descendant of David, so that you would see that he was the rightful heir to David's throne.

That's the emphasis in Matthew's genealogy. But with Luke, tracing Jesus' lineage through the law shows how Christ is the fulfillment of the law and even the greater Adam, since Luke's list goes all the way back to Adam.

Matthew 1 .16 says that Jacob is the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who was called Christ. But Luke 3 .23 says Jesus, when he began his earthly ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Heli.

So according to Matthew, Joseph's father is Jacob. But according to Luke, Joseph's father is Heli. Now, it's common for Jews to have more than one name. We've seen this before. The apostle Peter is also called Simon, also called Cephas.

The apostle Paul was called Saul. Matthew himself is called Levi. So is it possible then that Heli and Jacob are actually the same person, but with different names? Maybe both Luke and Matthew are mentioning the same father for Joseph.

No, that can't be. Because Heli and Jacob do not have the same father. As we continue up the family tree, Jacob's father was Methan, while Heli's father was Methat. Okay, those names are not that different.

They're just one letter off from each other. Could it be that Methat and Methan are the same person? No, because Methat and Methan have different fathers, too. Methat's father is Levi, while Methan's is Eleazar.

And when we trace the two lines of Joseph back seven generations, the list looks like this. In Matthew's gospel, it goes from Joseph to Jacob, Methan, Eleazar, Eliud, Achim, Zadok, and Ezer. According to Luke's gospel, it goes from Joseph to Heli, Methat, Levi, Melchi, Jani, Joseph, and Mattathias.

It's almost as if we're climbing two different family trees. The two lists don't even converge until we get to King David. At the very least, we could say that Matthew and Luke agree Jesus was descended from David, but surely several Jews could have said that they were descended from David.

Why does it look like Matthew and Luke seem to be confused as to who Joseph's father was? Well, a third-century writer named Africanus said that he understood the answer as given to him from the kinsmen of our Lord.

That means he spoke with those who were descended from Jesus' half-siblings, the children of Mary, Jesus' mother. It's quite a resource, saying that he could talk to those who were descended from Jesus' half-siblings.

The words of Africanus are recorded by the Christian historian Eusebius in his fourth-century work Ecclesiastical History. And here is what Eusebius wrote according to Africanus. As Joseph is our proposed end, we are to show how it happened that each of these two, Jacob and Heli, is recorded as his father.

Also how it happened that these two, Jacob and Heli, were brothers. And moreover, how the fathers of these, Methan and Methat, being of different families, are proved to be the grandfathers of Joseph.

Methan and Methat, having married in succession the same woman, had children who were brothers by the same mother, as the law did not prohibit a widow, whether she became such by divorce or the death of her husband, to marry again.

Methan, therefore, who traces his lineage from Solomon, first had Jacob by Esther, for this is her name as known by tradition. Methan dying, and Methat who traces his descent from Nathan, though he was of the same tribe but of another family, having as before said married her, had a son, Heli.

Thus then, we shall find the two of different families, Jacob and Heli, brothers by the same mother. In case you didn't follow all of that, that's basically the conclusion that we come to. So Eusebius continues on.

Of these, the one Jacob, on the death of his brother, marrying his widow, became the father of a third, Joseph, his son both by nature and calculation. Wherefore, it is written, Jacob begot Joseph, but according to the law, he was the son of Heli, for Jacob being his brother raised up seed to him.".

Are you with me so far? Maybe not. Well, toward the end of chapter seven of his book, Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius summed up Africanus' explanation like this, quote,. "...Methan, whose lineage is from Nathan, by marrying the widow of the former, had Heli.

Hence, Heli and Jacob were brothers by the same mother. Heli, dying childless, Jacob raised up seed to him, having Joseph, according to nature belonging to himself, but by the law to Heli. Thus, Joseph was the son of both.".

This is the law of Leveret marriage. Beginning in Deuteronomy 25 .5, we read,. "...if brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger.

Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.".

So according to the law, when a man and a woman got married and before they had children, something tragic happened and the husband died childless, the woman, now a widow, must not remarry outside the family.

She must marry her husband's brother, who must fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law with her. The first son that she gives birth to must carry on the name of the dead brother, so that the dead brother's name will not be blotted out of Israel.

The child is an inheritor of everything that belonged to the dead brother, including his name. The living brother begat the child, but the child is heir to the dead brother by law. Matthew 1 .16 says,.

"...and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.". In the Greek form of this verse, we find the word agonesin, which means begat. That same word does not appear in Luke's genealogy, where it simply says, Joseph the son of Heli, Luke 3 .23.

So according to Matthew, Jacob is Joseph's biological father. According to Luke, Heli is Joseph's father by law. Now perhaps this seems confusing. It probably would have been easier to follow along with this if I could have drawn you a chart of some kind.

But just following along with the reading, it can be a little hard to track. But it shows that Matthew and Luke do not contradict each other. It is instead a testament to the seamless perfection of Scripture and the foreordained plan of our sovereign God.

Jesus was begotten and he was seed who was raised up and he was adopted. Remember, Jesus is not the flesh and blood son of Joseph. He is Joseph's adopted son. At the same time, Joseph is a direct descendant of Jacob, but a legal descendant of Heli.

Jesus is the adopted son of Joseph, who is the descendant of Jacob, but he is the son of Heli by law. In even these seemingly minute ways, Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets.

Jesus said, as we read in Matthew 5 .17,. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill them. And we see this accomplished even in his genealogy.

Regarding the genealogies of Christ, R .C. Sproul has said,. What this beginning lacks in literary punch, it makes up for in theological significance. Among other things, the genealogical tables of the New Testament place the gospel squarely on the plane of history.

Jesus was born in the fullness of time. His ministry is defined and interpreted against the background of Old Testament history. And that's what we have listed here in Jesus' genealogy. Now, this is the explanation of why Joseph had two different fathers, one being Jacob and one being Heli.

One of the common explanations for the differences in the two genealogies is that one genealogy traces Mary's lineage and the other genealogy traces Joseph's lineage. John MacArthur, as a matter of fact, is one of such Bible teachers who has presented this particular theory.

I don't know if he still holds to it, but it was in his Jesus Answer Book, which I have a copy of. So MacArthur says in that book,. In Matthew, the genealogy is paternal, going through Jesus' earthly father, Joseph, and Joseph's father, Jacob, back to David.

In Luke, the genealogy is maternal, going through Jesus' mother, Mary, and Mary's father, Heli, back to David. Now, I offer this critique with great humility. John MacArthur is way smarter than I could ever be and has covered way more ground in teaching through Scripture than I have.

But the reason the two genealogies are different is not because one is tracing the genealogy of Joseph while the other is looking at Mary. Luke's genealogy doesn't even mention Mary. But both genealogies do mention Joseph as the legal earthly father of Jesus.

The maternal argument also doesn't make sense from a Jewish standpoint since genealogies were traced through the father, not the mother. Remember also from back in our study in Matthew that he was writing to a primarily Jewish audience.

So he started with a genealogy to show that Jesus Christ is a Jew in the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. He also showed that Jesus is a descendant of King David, which makes him the rightful heir to the throne of Israel.

This was necessary to establish that Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with David. Matthew's genealogy shows how Jesus, David's descendant, and the eternal king who sits enthroned in heaven is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant where the Lord said to David, your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever.

It's established forever through the eternal one, Jesus Christ who sits upon it. This was incredibly significant to a Jew, but it is no less significant for us today since all who have faith in Christ are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise as we read in Galatians 3 .29.

We have the whole Bible, the prophetic word more fully confirmed, 2 Peter 1 .19. While Matthew's audience was Jewish, Luke's audience is primarily Gentile. Luke addressed his gospel to a single man, Theophilus, which is a name meaning loved of God or friend of God.

Matthew traced Jesus' lineage through David to Abraham to show that Jesus is a true Jew and a rightful heir to the throne of David. But Luke went beyond that through David and Abraham to Adam. And in so doing, Luke means to convey that Jesus Christ is the second Adam.

Luke was a physician, a missionary friend of the apostle Paul. And this gospel that Luke wrote is essentially the gospel that Paul preached explaining that Jesus Christ is the last Adam. And this is common to Paul's teaching.

We see this in 1 Corinthians 15. I'm going to read several portions here, verses 21 to 22, verse 45, and verses 47 to 49. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust.

The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

So just as all who are under Adam are born into unrighteousness, so all who are under Christ are born again into righteousness. Just as all who are born of Adam will die, so all who are born again in Christ will be made alive.

Where Adam had failed, Christ has succeeded. So through Matthew's genealogy, we recognize that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. Through Luke's genealogy, we come to recognize that Jesus Christ is the last Adam and the Savior for all men.

So those are the reasons for the differences in the genealogies and how we see, even through Luke's genealogy, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Let us look unto Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith, that we may be forgiven our sins and given the promise of everlasting life, that we may live forever with him in glory.

He has taken away our sin. He has given us a new nature, no longer desiring the carnal, fleshly ways of Adam, but we desire the heavenly ways of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. So let us walk after him today.

Closing Prayer and Benediction

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read. And even through this genealogy, a long list of names, we are pointed to the Savior who fulfills everything that was spoken about in the Old Testament, so that through him, we might have our sins forgiven and be made right with God.

And now, if we are followers of Jesus Christ, teach us to walk in his ways. It is Jesus who has saved us. It is Jesus who sanctifies us. It is Jesus who will deliver us, ultimately, in his eternal kingdom.

It is in his name that we pray. Amen.

Join us again tomorrow for more Bible study, when we understand the text.