NATIVITY By Mike Herron

Chapter 5: THE GENEALOGY OF LUKE - Luke 3:23-38 (December 18th)

uke’s family history of Jesus is considered by many to be the genealogy of Mary while Matthew’s genealogy is the history of Joseph, the legal father of Jesus. The humanity of Jesus is shown through Luke’s record while Matthew’s account affirms his divinity. In Matthew’s account the names descend from Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation down to Jesus. In Luke’s account the names ascend from Jesus up to Adam, the father of the entire human race. This is in keeping with Luke’s emphasis to present the good news to all of the Gentile nations and Matthew’s intent to validate Jesus as the Messiah to the Jews. 22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” This family history actually begins at the baptism of Jesus where God himself introduces His son, the second Adam. It then traces his descent from Mary’s father back to the first Adam, who is God’s son by creation. The important names in this genealogy are: JESUS the son of God; HELI the grandfather of Jesus; DAVID; ABRAHAM and ADAM. 23 N ow Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, THE SON OF HELI… Most translations have a parenthesis around the words (as was supposed) causing the whole genealogy to appear to be that of Joseph. With the parenthesis placed in this way, it appears that Heli is Joseph’s father. This is a problem in that Matthew’s genealogy says that Jacob is Joseph’s father and presents an almost totally different set of names.