Luke 3: 23-38
The Genealogy of Jesus

by Gary DeLashmutt

Introduction

Previously, we studied the ministry of John the Baptist, who predicted the imminent coming of Messiah and prepared the Jewish people for his coming by proclaiming their need for forgiveness. He also announced Jesus as the Messiah by baptizing him. God ordained this because, even though Jesus was not a sinner, he had come to forgive people’s sins by identifying himself with them.

Matthew and Mark move from this event to Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, which we will cover next week. But Luke stops at this point to give us Jesus’ genealogy (read vs 23ff.). 

This is boring material for most of us—the kind of material that ruins resolutions to read the whole Bible.

This stuff, however, was not boring to the Jews. They kept very exact records. We know from Josephus that they kept public archives at the temple (OLDEST TO YOUNGEST), and private records in their own homes (YOUNGEST TO OLDEST) passed down from generation to generation. They did this, in part so people couldn’t get into roles they weren’t qualified for by ancestry.

See Ezra 2:61-63 and Neh. 7:63-65, where certain priests were disqualified because they couldn’t prove their Levitical ancestry.

Kings also had to certify lineage from Judah. And in particular, the Messiah (God’s “anointed” King) had a very specific predicted lineage that flushed out all potential fakers, as we will see.

Unfortunately, Jesus’ genealogy has some significant problems . . . 

Two Big Problems

Read Matt. 1:1-16—keep a finger in both passages. Note especially Joseph’s immediate ancestors.  Compare this to Luke’s genealogy, which runs the opposite direction. Clearly, Matthew’s genealogy contradicts Luke’s genealogy from David to Jesus. These two lists are completely different from Jesus back to David. Even though these genealogies are not exhaustive, they cannot be reconciled. They have different grandfathers (JACOB vs. ELI), and they descend from David through two different sons (SOLOMON vs. NATHAN).

If the Bible were only claiming to be a human-originated history or religious speculation, this wouldn’t be so troubling. But the fact that it claims to be inspired by God makes “contradictions” like this seriously problematic. If we can’t trust it (because of internal contradictions) where we can test it, why should we trust what it says about spiritual truths that we can’t test? You certainly wouldn’t want to entrust your life to a book that can’t even get the ancestry of its main figure right!

But it gets worse. There is a second problem with the Messiah’s genealogy: Even the Old Testament’s prediction of Messiah’s genealogy contradicts itself. This takes some time to appreciate. One of the ways God safeguarded the Messiah from impersonation is by making most of the predictions impossible to fake. One of these safeguards was the lineage.  God began to cut down the range of who was allowed to be the Messiah very early on.

Gen. 22:17-18—The Messiah must descend from Abraham and be a member of the Jewish nation (“seed” promise was reiterated to Isaac and Jacob) >> RIVER OF HUMANITY WITH A STREAM 1/100TH OF THE FLOW.

Gen. 49:10—The Messiah must descend from Judah, one of the twelve tribes of Israel >> 1/12th OF SMALL STREAM (but still tens of thousands of people)

Isa. 9:6-7—The Messiah must descend from David >> SMALL PORTION OF JUDAH.

2 Sam. 7:12-16—David had several wives and maybe as many as a hundred sons, but the Old Testament specified that Messiah had to come from one of his sons, Solomon. Actually, this limits it to the first-born sons of Solomon’s ancestors, since only they would be eligible to rule.

When you look at Matt. 1, you see these people mentioned in vs 2-7. The people in vs 7-11 were kings of Judah.  Now notice what he says about king Jeconiah (v. 11). At this point in Israel’s history, God exiled Judah to Babylon for their idolatry as he had warned them (approx. 600 BC). Jeconiah was a horribly apostate king, and God cursed him >> read Jer. 22:28-30. God ordains the end of Jeconiah’s line. “Childless” here is defined by the following statements—none of his descendants will rule Israel. They gradually returned, and Jeconiah’s descendants continued and were recorded—but none of them ruled as king (vs 12-16).

This is the second problem. God said earlier that the Messiah would have to come from this kingly line—then he cursed that line and never replaced it! “Unless you come from Jeconiah’s line, you’re disqualified—and if you come from Jeconiah’s line, you’re disqualified!?!” It looks like God has painted himself into a corner . . . Not only do we have the two genealogies of Jesus contradicting themselves; the Old Testament itself can’t even agree on the line of the Messiah!

If you were a fake Messiah trying to fake your way through, how would you deal with this problem? . . . 

Resolution

Let’s take a closer look at Lk. 3:23. The NASB says “ . . . being supposedly . . . ” The NIV says “ . . . so it was thought . . . ” Nomizo, when used by Luke, almost always means that the situation is not what people think it is. Why does Luke insert this qualifier? Most likely, he is really referring to Mary, who was Jesus’ actual human ancestor. This is likely for several reasons:

Luke has already made it clear that Joseph is not the father (1:31-35), so his readers would understand nomizo in the above way..

Luke has probably interviewed Mary, so it makes sense that he would provide her family’s genealogical record.

NOTE: The official records always went from the earliest descendent down, while the personal records went from the most recent descendant back.[1] Thus, it would appear that Matthew is working from the official records, while Luke is working from personal records from Mary’s family.

Since Jewish genealogies usually didn’t mention mothers, this would be an appropriate way to state it. (Matthew mentions some of Messiah’s female ancestors—probably to emphasize God’s grace to sinners.)

Interestingly, the Talmud contains a possible reference to Mary, and names her father as “Heli” (Chagigah 77:4).[2]

So if Lk. 3 is Jesus’ genealogy through Mary and Matt. 1 is his genealogy through Joseph, there is no contradiction between them.  On the contrary, these two genealogies provide us with the full picture of Jesus’ ancestry. This deals with the first problem.

By the way, most apparent contradictions between the gospels are resolved through careful examination of the texts and additional historical background (EXAMPLE: old and new Jericho and the synpotic accounts of Jesus healing the blind men).

But what about the problem with the cursed line of Jeconiah?

Because Jesus is the adopted son of Joseph, he is still legally in the kingly line. According to Jewish law, the first-born son, whether natural or adopted, had the right of inheritance.[3]

But because Jesus’ human blood lineage goes back to David through Nathan, he avoids the curse! 

SUMMARIZE: In spite of seemingly irreconcilable problems, it all works out!! This is an example of the marvelous consistency of the Bible. Even apparent contradictions get resolved in ways that demonstrate the sovereign wisdom of its ultimate Author.

So what?

Look at Lk. 24:44-46. This refers to a whole complex of predictions (300+) covering 2000+ years, many of which were impossible to self-fulfill.  Not just Messiah’s LINEAGE, but also his PLACE OF BIRTH, TIME OF COMING, MANNER OF DEATH, and even his RESURRECTION). 

The odds of even one of these predictions being fulfilled by chance are very low; the odds of all of them being fulfilled by chance are astronomical. You can believe that explanation if you want—but you would be exercising BLIND FAITH!

God went out of his way to make these predictions and preserve them in writing so you and I could have the evidence we need to identify the Messiah—so we can have a RATIONAL FAITH in Jesus as the Messiah. This kind of evidence is superior to experience, which can always be doubted later.  But we can go back to these predictions over and over again, check them with history, etc.

So how does God want you to respond to this evidence?  With amazement? Yes. With intellectual assent? Yes. But with something more . . . 

Read v. 47. God wants you to realize that through Jesus Christ he is offering you forgiveness of your sins.

And God wants you to respond to his offer with “repentance.” This means a change of mind/direction—to choose to come to God personally versus staying at a distance, to receive a gift of complete forgiveness versus trying to earn his acceptance.

There is a point in time before which we are alienated from God and under his judgment, and after which we are eternally forgiven and united with him. And the point in time that separates those two states is the point of decision about Jesus.

God has set everything up for you—now it’s your turn to do something. Don't miss your chance!!

NEXT: temptations >> key lessons in spiritual warfare

Footnotes