Genealogy of Jesus according to the Gospels

In this article we will talk about the genealogy of Jesus , as well as how it is described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, following the lineage of both Mary and Joseph.

Genealogy of Jesus

In the Holy Scriptures, specifically in the New Testament, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are located, where the genealogy of Jesus is described.

However, some differences can be observed in both, which we will study more deeply throughout the article.

Matthew's begins the timeline with Abraham, unlike Luke's, which begins the timeline with Adam. During the period of time from Abraham to David, both are the same, and from this point they evolve totally different.

It is said that this is because Matthew takes the lineage of Jesus for Joseph, while Luke takes it for Mary, although both mention Joseph and even disagree on the name of his father.

It should be noted that, after David and up to Joseph, the Gospel of Matthew speaks of twenty-seven generations, while Luke lists forty-two, having very few coincidences between them.

This has resulted in the fact that some critics have considered that both genealogies described are inventions and the exact ancestry of Jesus is not known.

Genealogy of Jesus according to the Gospel of Matthew

Although the official genealogy of the entire Jewish people was kept under wraps until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 BC, Matthew revealed in his gospel the ancestry of Jesus based on the line of the Kings of the House of David.

During this time, these kings were known as the rightful rulers and authorities of Israel. This genealogy is described at the beginning of the gospel, where all the generations are shown in Matthew 1:1-17, which begins:

1 Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.

2 Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers.

3 Judah begat Phares and Zara of Tamar, Phares of Esrom, and Esrom of Aram.

And so on until reaching Jesse who gave rise to King David and this to Solomon. The gospel continues until it reaches Jacob, who fathered Joseph, who is the father of Jesus. In verse 17 he tells us the following:

17 So that all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen; and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, fourteen.

This confirms what was previously said, that from David to Joseph there were twenty-seven generations. There has been some controversy surrounding the title given to Jesus in this passage, in the 1960 Reina Valera version, verse 16 says:

16 and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called the Christ.

They call him the Christ, a term that identifies the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which in turn means anointed; therefore, he was considered the "Anointed King".

This can make us understand the reason why Jesus is a descendant of King David, since according to the scriptures, he was the expected or anointed king.

On the other hand, Matthew calls him the son of David, which represents the royal title that Jesus had, but in turn he also calls him the son of Abraham, so that the promises that God had offered to David would be fulfilled.

This is evidenced in 2 Samuel 7:1-17, where God promises him that after he died, his descendants would occupy the throne forever and be established in the kingdom.

There God tells him that his kingdom will continue until eternity, which speaks directly that the son of God, eternal king, would be among his descendants.

As for Abraham, this is found in Genesis 12:3, where God tells him that all the families of the earth will be blessed by him; this promise is later confirmed by Paul in Acts 3:25-26.

This text expresses: “That we are the children of the prophets and of the pact that God made with our fathers, when he told Abraham that through his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. Sending his son to bless us ».

According to Matthew, the genealogy of Jesus is distributed as follows, indicating below the name that represents each of the generations: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and Tamar, Phares, Esrom, Aram, Aminadab, Naasón, Salmón and Rahab, Boaz and Ruth.

The latter are followed by Obed, Jesse, King David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jeconiah, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Aquim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matán, Jacob, José and Jesus.

It can be noted that the genealogy that Matthew speaks of is more complex and organized than that of Luke, since it is divided into three periods of 14 generations each.

It should be noted that, throughout the writing, several annotations can be noted that enrich the reading, mentioning four names of mothers. These were Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah's wife, who was Bathsheba, from whom King David fathered Solomon.

In the same way, he mentions the brothers of Judah and Jeconiah, making the clarification of when the time of the deportation from Babylon begins.

Although it is believed that, to achieve these 42 generations, some names were omitted, and in this way achieve the symmetry of the three periods of 14, it is known that this number is twice 7.

The 7 represents perfection and God's covenant with his children. All this could be considered a reason why some names were omitted from it.

Another point to highlight is the translation of some of these names, as a result of which they have been identified with some characters in history. One of them is King Asa, who is believed to coincide with the one who was known as the psalmist Asaph.

The same is true of King Amon, who is believed to be the prophet Amos himself. Although they could be simple similarities, there is a historical record that indicates that he could be the same person.

If you want to read a little more about the life of King David , learn about his history and legacy, click on this link and learn about this biblical figure that we have all heard of at some point.

Omissions in the genealogy of Jesus according to Matthew

When analyzing the genealogies written by Mateo, it can be noticed that in the first place three consecutive kings are omitted, these were: Ocazías, Joás and Amasías. They continued after Uzziah.

One guess as to why they were excluded from the original list is that these three kings were considered evil and their lineage cursed. The next omitted king is Jehoiakim, this was the father of Josiah.

Although the reason why it was excluded is not exactly known, it is said that it was so that the generations after King David would span exactly fourteen generations.

Genealogy of Jesus according to the Gospel of Luke

In this gospel, the genealogy of Jesus is presented in Luke 3:23-38. After recounting his birth, presentation of him in the temple and childhood, comes passage 3 where he speaks of his baptism and then begins to mention the entire genealogy from Jesus to Adam.

This fragment of the Bible begins by highlighting the age of Jesus at the time, which was thirty years old, as we see below:

23 Jesus himself at the beginning of his ministry was about thirty years old, the son, it was believed, of Joseph, the son of Eli,

24 the son of Mathath, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Hanah, the son of Joseph,

25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Nagai.

According to Luke, the genealogy of Jesus is distributed as follows (we will mention the names that represent each of the generations):

Jesus begins followed by José, Elí, Matat, Levi, Melqui, Jana, José, Matatías, Amós, Nahum, Esli, Nagai, Maat, Matatías, Shemei, José, Judah, Joana, Resa, Zerubbabel, Salatiel, Neri, Melqui, Adi, Cosam, Elmodam, Er, Joshua, Eliezer, and Jorim, Matat.

Then Levi, Simeon, Judah, Joseph, Jonan, Eliakim, Melea, Mainan, Matata, Nathan, David, Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Salmon, Nahshon, Aminadab, Aram, Esrom, Perez, Judah, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, and tare

The last of the geneology are: Nacor, Serug, Ragau, Peleg, Heber, Sala, Cainan, Arfaxad, Shem, Noah, Lamech, Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Mahalaleel, Cainan, Enos, Set, Adam, God.

We see then, that the descendants of David are directed by the line of his son Natan, who is a son little known and mentioned in the Old Testament, unlike Matthew who develops it by the line of King Solomon.

Another aspect to take into account is that we notice that it mentions 77 generations from God to Jesus. This number can be interpreted as the forgiveness of all sins, it was probably something that Luke knew about and that is why he presents it that way.

An important feature is what the evangelist mentions in verse 23, at the time of writing "as believed", which affirmed the fact that Jesus had been born by the work and grace of the Holy Spirit.

Due to this, it was considered that his birth was virginal, in the same verse it says "Joseph, son of Elí", a translation that is not literal from the Greek, since in this version the word son does not exist. Elí was not the paternal grandfather of Jesus, but maternal, thanks to this, it is believed that Luke describes the genealogy of Jesus, through Mary.

Comparison of both genealogies

In the previous extracts, each one of the names that represented the generations according to each one of the evangelists were indicated. Next, let's do a recount to compare both genealogies:

First of all, Matthew starts with Abraham and Luke starts with Adam, so there are 20 generations that Matthew doesn't mention. Then they coincide completely in the period from Abraham to King David.

Subsequently, the divergences begin in Matthew, continuing the genealogy with: Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzías, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jeconiah.

While Luke continues it this way: Nathan, Matata, Mainan, Melea, Eliakim, Jonan, Joseph, Judah, Simeon, Levi, Matat, Jorim, Eliezer, Joshua, Er, Elmodam, Cosam, Adi, Melchi, Neri.

Both coincide with Salatiel and Zorobabel, followed by another period of differences; in Mateo the genealogy continues with: Abiud, Eliaquim, Azor, Zadok, Aquim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matán, Jacob.

For his part, Lucas continues with Resa, Joana, Judá, José, Semei, Matatías, Maat, Nagai, Esli, Nahum, Amós, Matatías, José, Jana, Melqui, Levi, Matat, Elí. And in this way both reach Joseph, who was the father of Jesus.

Different theologians and fathers of the Church who have stopped to study these scriptures, support the idea that both stories are true and true, despite their noted differences.

In one of the writings made by Juan Damasceno, who was a Christian monk and priest, known to be a scholar in different fields such as law, theology, philosophy and music, reference is made to Elí.

It expresses that Eli, who is known as the grandfather of Jesus, died childless, so Jacob, who belonged to the tribe of Solomon, took his wife and raised offspring in his name.

This is based on what was known as the Levirate Law, which made his son Joseph by nature the son of Jacob, but by law he was Eli's. This would explain some of the generational differences that can be seen in both stories.

However, several Christian authors have argued that the differences are due to the fact that Joseph, the father of Jesus, had an adoptive and a biological father.

Therefore, in each story the genealogy is described, one following the biological line and the other the adoptive one, in this way a similarity is made between Joseph and Jesus, since both would have an adoptive father.

Maternal descent according to both gospels

According to what has been stated for years, the Gospel of Luke follows the genealogy of Mary, since Eli was known to be her father. This could not be written verbatim in the book, because the ancient Hebrew culture did not allow women's names to be mentioned in generation tables.

As a result of this, in that story they enter her husband as the son of his father, who was actually his father-in-law.

The explanation for this argument is taken from the Talmud, which is a book that brings together Jewish laws, customs, important stories, traditions, etc.

In it there is a story that says: "Mary, the daughter of Eli", although the veracity of these writings is not known and there is no documentation of who is referred to by the name Maria.

There are also other writings that argue that María is the daughter of Joaquín. According to the Old Testament, Elí is the abbreviated name of Eliakim, which is an alternative to Joacim, which is synonymous with Joachim.

However, these are all assumptions and there is no text to support this information. Although the fact that Matthew describes the genealogy based on the lineage of Joseph has been maintained, there are a small number of people who think differently.

They consider that, contrary to what has been believed for years, Matthew really represents the lineage of Mary and that the evangelist shows two Josephs, one who was the father and the other who was the husband. This theory has lost steam over time, as the original scriptures say otherwise.

Women in Matthew's story

It is important to highlight why the evangelist takes into account only four women, ignoring great characters and mothers of the faith such as: Sara, Rebeca or Leah.

It is mainly because these four women had something special, in them it was seen how God manifested himself in particular and how they were chosen to be part of the genealogy of Jesus.

The first woman mentioned is Tamar, who conceives Perez after seducing her father-in-law Judah. Rahab was a harlot who mixed with Joshua's spies, she was the mother of Boaz.

On the other hand, Ruth the Moabite, unexpectedly marries Boaz, since even though they loved each other, there was priority in a closer relative. However, they got married conceiving Obed.

Another important woman was Bathsheba, who was the wife of Uriah and conceived Solomon, from adultery with King David.

This is the importance of why the evangelist takes these women into account and they are the only ones mentioned in the story.

If you would like to read more about other biblical stories, such as the 10 plagues of Egypt , and learn about their artistic interpretation, click here and receive what God has in store for you.