The Book of Luke: The Genealogy of Christ (Luke 3:23-38)
We are going to look at the genealogy of Jesus Christ here today. The genealogies are just as much a part of the Bible as any other part. The Bible teaches us that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. We have a tendency to want to skip genealogies but there should no part of the scripture that we just pass over because we don’t think it is useful. We are not going to skip over the genealogy but we are going to look at these verses. Genealogies are in the Bible for a reason.
One thing we see with genealogies in the Bible is sometimes they skip people. We come in with this preconceived idea that every person must be mentioned. However, genealogies often skip certain people in the lineage. We will go into more details about this later in the sermon. God has a reason for skipping certain people. Sometimes you compare genealogies and certain people are missing or don’t seem to match up and there is a reason for it. With the Lord Jesus Christ, we have a genealogy in Luke 3 and also in Matthew 1. One of them is a patriarchal genealogy through Joseph and one of them matriarchal through Mary.
I will give you 5 statements here today. The first statement as we compare and contrast these 2 genealogies, the genealogy in Matthew 1 is what we would refer to as a descending genealogy that starts at a certain point (Abraham) to the Lord Jesus Christ. The genealogy in Luke is an ascending genealogy that starts with Joseph and Mary and goes back.
Luke 3:23 “23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,”. As we start there with Joseph at the time of Christ, it goes all the way back to Adam which is an ascending genealogy. Matthew 1:1 “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;”. In Matthew we have a descending genealogy from Abraham down to Jesus Christ. Another thing to notice is that the genealogy of Luke is a genealogy of Mary. Matthew is the genealogy of Joseph. We will prove this throughout the statements that we make today. Those are the first 2 statements and we will spend more time on the rest of the statements.
Statement 3 – The genealogies are given to us for a purpose. In Matthew, the purpose is to prove to us that Jesus is the King of the Jews. The genealogy in Luke 3 is meant to teach us that Jesus is the Son of Man. This means that he is a descendant from Adam, the first man. Notice Matthew 1:1 “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”. Right there in the first verse it shows us that the purpose is to show that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham. Being a descendant of David would make him the King. Proving that the lineage of Jesus goes past David to Abraham is showing that he is a Hebrew which shows us that Jesus is the King of the Jews. This genealogy also focuses on the Kings of Israel. Matthew 1:6 “6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;”. Notice the emphasis on being the king.
By the way, each gospel has a different emphasis. The Gospel of Matthew has a theme to show that Jesus is the King of the Jews. For example, the word “kingdom” is used 54 times in Matthew. There are 16 times it refers to Jesus as the son of David. However, that phrase is only used 3 times in Mark and 3 times in Luke. Why? To point back to the fact that Jesus is a king. Matthew gives us the genealogy of Joseph. We understand that Joseph was not the literal father of Jesus. However, Joseph is the adopted father of Jesus and as a result of being adopted into that family, Jesus would legally have a claim to the throne by his connection with Joseph.
When you compare this genealogy to Luke, you will notice a difference. The genealogy of Luke is making a different point of proving that Jesus is the Son of Man. With the genealogy of Luke, it is an ascending genealogy that goes past David and Abraham all the way to Adam. It is proving that Jesus is the Son of Man. Notice Luke 3:38. “38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.”. Jesus was 100% God but he was also 100% man and this genealogy proves this. Mary’s genealogy goes back all of the way to Adam. Joseph’s genealogy goes through Solomon. Mary’s genealogy goes back to David through a different son.
Luke 3:31 “31 Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David,”. Go back to Matthew 1. Matthew 1:6 “6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;”. David had more than 1 son. However, Solomon was the son that took the kingly line. In Matthew 1 it continues through the kingly line “7 And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa; 8 And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; 9 And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; 10 And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;”. With Mary’s genealogy, we have a different son of David which was Nathan. If you remember, there was a prophet that rebuked David named Nathan and he took it well and even named a son after him.
By the way, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God, the Son of Man and the Son of David. Son of God proves his divinity. Son of man proves his humanity. Son of David proves his kingly line. What is interesting is that the term “Son of man” is mentioned more times than the “Son of God”. We see the genealogy of Matthew proves he is the King of the Jews and the genealogy of Luke proves he is the Son of man and traces back to Adam.
Now my opinion is the genealogy in Matthew belongs to Joseph and the genealogy in Luke belongs to Mary. If someone has a different opinion then I don’t want to argue with them. Sometimes people get confused because both genealogies have the name Joseph. Why does it not mention Mary but instead mentions Joseph? Usually genealogies exclude women so it is mentioning Joseph as he represents Mary. They mention different fathers in the different genealogies which is why we know that one of the genealogies belongs to Mary.
How do we know that Luke belongs to Mary and Matthew to Joseph? Several different things we can look at. If you study the gospels, not only does Matthew emphasis the kingdom and Luke on the humanity of Christ but the gospel of Luke gives us the most descriptive information about the humanity of Jesus. In addition to that, there are only 2 gospels that give us the Christmas story which are in Matthew and Luke. We see that the Christmas story in Matthew focuses on Joseph and the Christmas story in Luke focuses on Mary.
Matthew 1:18 “18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.”. Joseph finds out that he is married to Mary but they have not yet consummated the marriage. Under the law of Moses, he can divorce her.
Verse 20 “20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”. When you study the Christmas story in Matthew, we see the Christmas story through the eyes of Joseph. Let me give you another example in Matthew 2. Matthew 2:13-14 “13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:”. We see that Matthew gives us the story from the perspective of Joseph which is in contrast to the story in Luke.
Luke 1:26 “26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”. We see the perspective is in Mary’s eyes as opposed to Joseph’s eyes.
That is 1 reason why I have come to this conclusion that Matthew is Joseph’s genealogy and Luke is Mary’s genealogy. Others have also come to this same conclusion.
Here is another reason. The genealogy in Matthew says “begat” where as the genealogy in Luke says “the son of”. Let me just go through these terms with you a little bit. “Begat” means to bring a child into this world by the process of reproduction. In the genealogy of Matthew, you see this word “begat”. Matthew 1:16 “16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”. It makes sense that someone named Jacob would name their son Joseph knowing the story in Genesis.
When you compare these phrases “begat” and “the son of”, the word “begat” is the stronger term. This word can not be used to refer to an adoption but it must be genetically begat. Luke 3:23 “23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,”. It says “as was supposed” because he was not the physical father genetically. The term “the son of” is a weaker term because it could be an adopted son or a son-in-law. This doesn’t contradict scripture when it says “the son of”. It can be used more than just a physical, genetic relationship. When it says “son of Heli”, it means “son-in-law” of Heli.
Here is what we need to understand. Matthew uses the stronger term of begat. However, Luke is the stronger genealogy because it goes all the way back to Adam and is missing no names. Matthew is the weaker genealogy as it goes the way back only to Abraham and skips a lot of names. You could easily wonder why names are missing. Because the term “begat” is the stronger term, it allows the genealogy to skip names. When you are going through a line of people that are begotten, you can’t put in adopted children or sons-in-law. You can skip people though and still use the term begat. For example, my father begat me and I begat my sons. What is also a true statement is that my father begat my sons. They come through that same line.
Some people ask why the genealogy of Matthew skips names. I can’t give you an exact answer but I can give you my thoughts. Remember the purpose of the genealogy in Matthew is to give people the link where the kingly Messiah comes. The way it is written in Matthew is a “mnemonic”. A “mnemonic” is a memory device use to help memorize ideas or phrases with patterns.
Matthew 1:17 “17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.”. This is not the literal number of exact generations but it is written in a way to help you remember. “The carrying away into Babylon” is significant because that is when they stopped being kings. In order to make this work, some names had to be skipped. In general, the people skipped were not extremely significant. The fact that the word “begat” is used allows the writer to skip names in the genealogy.
We see that the genealogy in Matthew says “begat” while in Luke it says “the son of”. Let me show you something about this genealogy. In Luke, there are no names skipped because it is proving the genealogy all the way back to Adam. We actually see a name added in the genealogy in Luke which is missing in Matthew. Luke 3:35 “35 Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala, 36 Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech,”. In verse 36, we see that this lineage is getting us all the way back to Noah. Let us compare this to Genesis 11.
Genesis 11:10-12 “10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: 11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:”. In Luke 3, we have an added name of Cainan in between Arphaxad and Salah. People look at this and think it is a Bible contradiction. Of course we know that both of these books are inspired by God and are correct. What this shows us that in Genesis 11:12, Arphaxad is not the father but the grandfather of Salah. Why was Cainan removed from the genealogy? I’m not for sure but the term “begat” can be used for your grandchildren. Luke is making a point to show that Jesus goes all the way back to Adam which is why it doesn’t skip any names.
When you explain this to people, people will say that you can’t skip the names. Show me where the Bible says that you can’t skip any names in a genealogy. You can show people how the term “begat” can be used for your grandchildren. Then people will say this “Arphaxad lived 5 and thirty years and begat Salah so he was 35 years old”. They think it is crazy for Arphaxad was a grandchild at the age of 35 but that is completely possible if you get married as a teenager. It seems crazy in our society but people used to get married at earlier ages.
However, it makes even more sense when you look at the context of this. Genesis 11:10 “10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: 11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:”. Remember this is right after the flood and God tells them to be fruitful and multiply and rebuild the earth. Shem begat Arphaxad 2 years after the flood. Then Arphaxad has his first son around 17 years old. This makes sense when there are only around 10 people on Earth at the time. They aren’t going to college or anything like that. Their main job is to re-populate the Earth.
You say, why doesn’t God make it more clear by not skipping in the genealogy? Because God wants you to believe things by faith. He wants to test if you are just trying to find errors or if you are willing to just believe what the Bible says.
I’ll give you another example of this. I didn’t bring this up in the Christmas story but if you remember, Joseph and Mary are in Nazareth and have to go to Bethlehem for the taxing. Though Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he was raised in Nazareth. People criticize and question him being the Messiah because he was in Nazareth. Why does God do this? Because God wants you to believe by faith. People question and say “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. Cainan was the son of Arphaxad but he is missing in the genealogy of Genesis. It is good for us to read and study and try to come up with answers but at the end of the day, even if I don’t understand something, I still believe it is the word of God and correct.
What is the importance of the genealogy? The genealogies show that Jesus fulfilled prophecy, show the humanity of Christ, that Jesus is the #1, main character. What we see is that everything before Christ is leading up to Christ. Everything after Christ is looking back toward Christ. The genealogies show us that Jesus was a natural human being that had a family.
Our world hates Jesus. They try to deny the importance of Jesus. I remember a while back that I was preaching a sermon and I looked up on Google, “The most influential people in history.”. Several lists came up. I am thinking #1 Jesus, #2 The Apostle Paul. Jesus was on every list but never #1. Some lists say Muhammad #1. Some lists say Gandhi #1. The only lists making Jesus #1 were Christian based. People want to deny the importance of Jesus Christ. Here is why the genealogies are important. They prove to us when he was born. Our entire system of calendars and how we document dates is based on the birth of Christ. It is January 9, 2022 which means it is 2022 years since the birth of Christ. Everyone who wants to deny Jesus Christ must acknowledge him every time they write a check. Every contract or even a google account must acknowledge the year Jesus was born.
Every person must acknowledge that Jesus is the most significant person in history. The world has tried to change it. They changed it from BC to BCE. BC = “Before Christ” and now they say “Before the Common Era”. AD = Anno Domini meaning “The Year of our Lord”. Now they changed AD to CE meaning “Common Era”. It is still based on the birth of Jesus Christ.
When you are reading through the Bible, don’t skip these genealogies. They show that Jesus Christ is the #1, undisputed, main character of history. Any time you put a date on anything whether Muslim or Hindu or Atheist, you are acknowledging the Birth of Christ. He is the #1 main figure of all time.
Let’s pray.