Genealogy of Jesus Christ
Health warning
The apostle Paul warned Titus to avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law.
Why are genealogies recorded in the Bible?
The principle reason are to demonstrate the fulfillment of prophecy and to establish property rights.
God had promised several people that the messiah would be one of their descendants. To prove this descent, it was important to maintain accurate genealogical records. Matthew established that Jesus was the long promised Messiah by demonstrating that he fulfilled the prophecy in Genesis 22. 17-18. He records the fulfillment in Matthew 1.2 and verse 6.
The Jews carefully maintained accurate genealogical records so that property rights could be linked to family heritage. When the Jews settled in Israel, the tribes were given portions of the land as an inheritance. Families within each tribe were given areas of that land. Property law provided that a jubilee should be celebrated every 50 years. At this time every disposed family could reclaim the land that was originally owned.
Reliability of genealogies
Many first century Jews were opponents of Christianity and they had access to the original genealogical records. Had the genealogies been inaccurate, it would have been easy to prove errors. The silence of Jews about the accuracy of the genealogies is a testimony to the accuracy of the gospel writers.
Differing genealogies in Matthew and Luke
The two writers had different aims and different audiences in mind. Matthew wrote for a
Jewish audience. He presented Jesus as King of the Jews. He showed that Jesus was a legal heir to the throne of David, by virtue of his lineage. He established this in the first verse of the gospel. Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. Jews used the term ‘son of’ in a loose way to indicate a ‘descendant of’.
Matthew traces the genealogy of Jesus through Joseph.
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Luke, in contrast, wrote his gospel for Greek Christians. Luke's readers were less concerned about prophecy related to Jews, so his genealogy focused on Jesus' descent from God.
Luke traces his genealogy through Mary. In 3.23 he says: “Jesus … was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph.
The missing ancestors
Neither Matthew nor Luke gives a complete genealogy, listing every generation. This practice, known as abridgement, is used by Ezra, 7.3 compared with 1 Chronicles 6.3.
Ezra omitted a block of 6 of his ancestors. They included Amaziah and Azariah who both did right in the eyes of the Lord. It is argued that Ezra was not concerned to show a complete genealogy, but that he wanted to demonstrate that he was descended from
Aaron.
A group of three ancestors, kings of Judah, are omitted in Matthew 1.8. They are
Ahaziah Joash and Amaziah. The record is in 2 Kings 8.15 to 15.6. Azariah did not do what God wanted him to do, but Joash and Amaziah both did ‘what was right in the sight of the Lord’.
Amaziah’s mother was Athaliah, daughter of Ahab. It is probably that Numbers 14.18 came into force here. ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.’ The three omitted ancestors were within the fourth generation.
A further group of three ancestors are omitted in Matthew 1.10: Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. They were the last three rulers before the nation of Judah was overrun by
Babylon in the 6 th century.
They were probably omitted because of a curse on Jehoiachin. Jer 22:24 "As surely as I live," declares the LORD, "even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. Jer 22:26 I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die.
The curse also meant that no descendant of Johoiachin could be a king of Judah. Joseph was a descendant, so a son of Joseph could not become a king. Because Jesus was not the son of Joseph this curse did not apply; the virgin birth overcame the curse.
Jesus was both the heir to and the offspring of David, without being the genetic descendant of Jeoiakim.
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