Luke 3:23-38--The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

Luke 3:23-38
English Standard Version
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The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
23 Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, 27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, 29 the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, 38 the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

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I feel like today's article will be more explanatory than expository, so let me start off with a key takeaway right away.  "God is faithful, even when we are unfaithful."  We're going to see some names here that will jump out at us, and many that will not, but none of them are "worthy" to be in the lineage of the Messiah.  However, God chooses to use humans to accomplish His good gospel-centered purposes, and He still is doing that today by way of the Church and The Great Commission.

​This is the last genealogy that we'll see in the Bible (we see other references to what people group or tribe someone is from, but never see the whole family tree like this that traces back to Adam).  So, why did Luke give this at part of his introduction to the life of Christ?  First, Luke it establishing that Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, but just as important as establishing Jesus' divinity is to establish His humanity.  He had a family tree much like anyone else, with the exception of God being His Father and only having his mother's side of the family tree to look at since He wasn't related to Joseph, so this is Jesus' biological genealogy as opposed to the "legal" one given in Matthew which is given through Joseph.

Mary and Joseph's lineage was the same up to David, but Joseph's lineage was through the kingly line of Solomon while Mary was through another son of David, Nathan.  This is an important difference as we won't see Bathsheba (the wife of Uriah) mentioned in Luke's genealogy for this reason since Bathsheba was the mother of Solomon.  There also was in issue where one of the kings of the Old Testament was cursed and told that none of his descendants would ever sit on the throne.  But how can this be true if we look at Matthew's genealogy and Joseph was a direct descendant of that person and the throne belonged to Jesus?  The easy answer is that while Jesus' claim to the throne may have legally come from Joseph being of the royal line, He was not the descendant of Jechoniah (the bad king that led Israel into their deportation into Babylon) even though Joseph was a descendant of Jechoniah.  Both prophecies were fulfilled in a way that didn't make sense to anyone but God.  David would have a descendant of his on the throne forever, but that descendant would not be through his son Solomon, even though the throne belonged to them originally.

Luke does not include any of the other names like Tamar or Rahab that would have stuck out to a Jewish person and made them blush, but we know those people are still in Mary's genealogy but just the husband's names only are given as that is what was traditional.  Luke is more interested to say that if we were really interested, we could do that research and see that this is Jesus' family tree and He is a direct descendant of Adam.  He is human like us, yet without an earthly father (notice the text says that Jesus was supposed to be the son of Joseph, but the next person given in the list is the father of Mary, not the father of Joseph--we know the father of Joseph from Matthew's account, and this is not a situation where they are the same person with a Greek name and a Jewish name, as we've already talked about the divergence since Joseph is from one son of David and Mary from another son of David).

We can somewhat follow the covenant and the history of Israel through this genealogy and as I said before, there are no more genealogies after this because all genealogies were to show us that we were on the path to Messiah coming.  God was being faithful to fulfill His covenants and we were being shown which branch of the family tree we should follow.  In the Old Testament we knew we were to follow Seth, then Noah, then Shem, then Abram/Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, then Judah.  Yes, we'll find some minor differences in some of them as some of the genealogies were structured in a way where it was easier for people to memorize them and help them remember key historical figures and events, and getting every person in-between wasn't the main issue--they were a sign of God's faithfulness to His covenant, His covenant people, and to His promise to bring forth a Messiah.  We have the fulfillment of that here, so there is no more need for genealogies to look forward to the fulfillment of these promises and prophecies.  The fact that these genealogies cease is a sign to us that Jesus is the one that we've been waiting for.

Now, Luke did include something interesting about Jesus in the very beginning of this genealogy that I skipped over.  He was thirty years old when He started His ministry (usually marked by His baptism by John and His temptation in the wilderness).  This would be about the same age as other Rabbis who would have come out of the equivalent of our seminaries.  We know he already knew as much as them when He was 12 years old because of what Luke told us about when Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were in Jerusalem for the Passover that year, but now we'll see that He won't be so well-received by the religious leaders who have gotten fed up with John the Baptist and Jesus sounds a bit too much like John for them--for they are afraid that John and Jesus will upset the political balance that has left them in control of the people, and they, like politicians today, don't want to lose their power.  The thought of the true King, the Son of David being there and that He might come and set up His government, and that it wouldn't include them was terrifying to them, so they would have to figure out how to get rid of Him.