The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

That was about Abraham...what about David? In II Samuel 7:16, God gave a covenant to David, promising that David's house, his kingdom, and his throne would be established forever. This covenant was reaffirmed in Psalms 89:1-4. Matthew, therefore, was calling our attention to the fact that Jesus Christ came to fulfill the covenant that God had made with Abraham and David. But how do you explain the differences between Matthew's genealogy and Luke's genealogy? Luke has his genealogy in Luke 3:23-38. Why are there discrepancies with these two genealogies?

Matthew begins with Abraham and traces Jesus' lineage to Joseph, Mary's husband. But Luke, on the other hand, begins with Joseph and traces Jesus' lineage back to Adam. Why? Commentators have stressed that Matthew was a Jew; he was writing his gospel primarily for Jews. He was concerned to establish that Jesus was descended from Abraham because the Jewish people considered Abraham as the father of the Jewish nation. But Luke, who was not a Jew (he was a gentile; he was a Greek), was primarily writing his gospel for the Gentiles or non-Jewish readers. Therefore, he wanted to establish that Jesus' ancestry runs all the way back to Adam, the father of the human race. The reason Luke traces Jesus' genealogy all the way back to Adam was to represent Jesus to this world as the Second Adam or the Last Adam. It solves the ethical problem of the gospel. The real problem is not the matter of getting sinful man to a holy God, but of getting a holy God to accept sinful man without violating His justice. In other words, how can God justify sinners and still maintain His integrity to the Law which condemns sinners? It is always difficult for us to understand how an innocent person can die for a guilty one and set him free. No court or judge in the United States would allow that to happen. But, in order to save mankind, God first had to qualify Christ to be a our substitute before He could live and die in our place. God did this by uniting Christ's divinity to our corporate humanity at the incarnation. Through this union Christ became the Second, or Last Adam. This qualified Christ to lawfully represent the human race He came to redeem. That's why Luke traces Jesus' genealogy back to Adam.

Now there's another question we need to ask concerning the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and that is, how can we explain the fact most of the names Matthew lists for the period from David to Joseph are different from the names Luke gives? One explanation is that Matthew and Luke are tracing Jesus' ancestry through two different lines...entirely two different lines. Matthew clearly follows the ruling line of the royal family from David to the Babylonian Captivity. We can assume, then, that he does the same thing from the Captivity to Joseph. Luke, on the other hand, seems to follow a non-ruling or blood line of the family back to Nathan, another son of David by Bathsheba. David had two sons, remember? Solomon and Nathan. Matthew follows Solomon's line (which was the royal family) and Luke follows Nathan's line (non-ruling) branch of the family. May I also add that these two lines, the royal line and the blood line, could not intermarry until after several generations had pased. I believe at least fourteen generations. So Mary, who was born from the line of Nathan, and Joseph, through the line of Solomon, were engaged to be married. The Bible says, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters (Galatians 4:4-5)." Through Nathan's line, Mary was born, and through Solomon's line, Joseph was born. These two families could not intermarry. But, Joseph and Mary could in fact marry because they had passed the fourteen generations which were required by the Jewish law. When the fullness of the time had come, when the time was right, Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married. It is interesting to note that the Jews were very careful to maintain genealogical records which were preserved in the temple until its destruction in A.D. 70. The gospel writers had access to these temple records and could accurately trace the genealogy of Jesus from them. It is also significant to note that when Jesus offered Himself to Israel as the Messiah, His claim to David's throne was never challenged. The Jews, I believe, must have consulted the records to see whether the One who made such claims for Himself had the right to make those claims. However, had they found any flaw in His descent, they would have been quick to accuse Him of being an imposter. Even though the nation of Israel rejected Him, it was not because He was outside the line of David, and therefore, ineligible to claim David's throne.

Why is there no genealogy included in Mark and John? Mark did not attach great importance to the family tree. He was concerned mainly with the practical outcome of the life of Jesus. The Roman readers would not consider the genealogy of Jesus Christ as an important factor. All they were concerned with were the great works of Jesus that showed Him to be the Son of God. John dealt with the philosophical world, and he must define the place of Jesus in the cosmic scheme. He was writing primarily to the Greeks, to the Gnostic readers. So he goes back into the eternities and relates Jesus as God. The Old Testament contains many genealogies, four long ones in Genesis alone. To the ancient Hebrew, lineage was crucial. If your veins held even a trace of foreign blood, you would lose your right to call yourself a Jew. For example, by the 1st century, priests were required to produce an unbroken and pure lineage that stretched all the way back to Aaron. And the women they married needed to show pure lineage for a mere five generations. Herod the Great (you know him, don't you), was despised by Jews because he was half Edomite. Consequently, he had the official records destroyed so that no one could produce a purer pedigree than his own. He was not a "complete" Jew, so he destroyed all the records. Jews were typically capable of reciting their lineage, for it was central to their identity. It made the difference between success or failure on the socio-economic ladder of ancient Israel. That's why the genealogy of Jesus was very important to the Jewish readers.

Let's look at Matthew's genealogy a bit closer. The names are divided for convenience into three groups of fourteen generations, corresponding to the three periods of the national history of Israel:

1. From Abraham to David, there were fourteen generations. That period was called the Period of Theocracy.
2. From David to the Babylonian Captivity, were also fourteen generations. That period was called the Period of Monarchy.
3. From the Babylonian Captivity to the time of Christ were fourteen generations. That period was called the Period of Hierarchy.

Such a division was holding in accordance with the Jewish custom. But do you know what bothers me, or what amazes me (it doesn't bother me...), is that Matthew gives the names of four women in the list. This was contrary to Jewish custom. And three of these women were also guilty of gross sin, and two of them were foreigners. Now that tells me that Matthew did not simply copy the records, but selected the names with a purpose. The names of these women identified Christ with a sex and with national divisions of race and with a sinful humanity. Women had few legal rights in Israel because they were considered the property of their husbands. And do you want to know something? A common morning prayer of a Pharisee was to thank God that he was not a Gentile, not a slave, not a dog, and not a woman. ...In that order. So, listing women in our Lord's lineage would appear to be folly to Matthew's predominantly Jewish audience. But even more remarkable is the identity of the women. Tamar. Rahab. Ruth. Bathsheba. Commentators often call these "the four irregular women". And they call them this for good reasons.

Let's look at Tamar. Who was Tamar? She was the Canaanite widow who disguised herself as a prostitute in order to seduce her father-in-law and have children by him. You can read that story in Genesis 38. What about Rahab? A Gentile from Jericho. She was actually a prostitute whom God used to help in Joshua's conquest of Jericho. Refer to Joshua 2. And Ruth? She was similarly an alien, specifically a Moabite woman, a descendant of Lot (Abraham's nephew). Mentioning a Moabite woman in the list was quite low on the social register of the racially proud Jews. Even the law of Moses had disparaging things to say about the Moabites. No Moabite nor any of his descendants to the tenth generation shall enter the assembly of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:3). And finally, we see Bathsheba, a Hittite woman, whom King David seduced, and whose husband he had killed in order to have her for himself. That story is recorded in II Samuel 11. Notice then, that Matthew 6 emphasizes Bathsheba. Look at the way Matthew puts it: "David was the father of Solomon whose mother had been Uriah's wife," not David's wife, thus, underlining the sinfulness of that link in the lineage.

The inclusion of these four women is obviously deliberate, for it establishes a theme Matthew follows throughout the rest of his gospel. God's love, manifested in the life and lineage of His Son, breaks down and transcends the barriers erected by human pride and sin. Including the four alien women challenges the racial barrier between Jews and Gentiles, anticipating that Jesus is our piece who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. Ephesians 2:14 spells that fact.

The genealogy of Jesus also breaches the sexual barrier between men and women. In no ordinary, respectable lineage would there be the names of such women found. But such are found in the family tree of the Lord. The One who will treat women with dignity and honor. However, the most significant barrier challenged by the genealogy of Jesus is that of sin. These "four irregular women" tell us that not only was Jesus born for sinners, Jesus was also born through sinners. A message that spells hope for you and me. This is a constant theme for Matthew, for Jesus came not to call the righteous, but He came to call the sinners (Matthew 9:13). The genealogy of Jesus Christ spells hope for you and me. Remember the purpose of Jesus coming was to bring hope to a people in despair. Through the sin of Adam, the whole human race was plunged into a darkness of sin and despair. But the Christ of Christmas came, not only to be born the perfect man, but to live the perfect life, fulfilling the law of God, to rescue man from the guilt and penalty of sin. Romans 8:24-25 states, "For we were saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, what doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." This hope sustains the Christian in this life and comforts him or her at the grave. Because of Christ's first coming, we have hope of forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. Because of Christ's promise to come, we have the hope of eternity. I want you to go home and read I Thessalonians 4:13-18. It talks about the promise of His Second Coming. We have that hope that burns within our hearts. And finally, Christmas means salvation. The truth is that Jesus did not come just to be born, but rather to die for the sins of the world. The Bible declares that God demanded an adequate, perfect sacrifice for sins. Since man in his sinful state was incapable of providing such a sacrifice, God in His love and wisdom provided His own sacrifice in the perfect person of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "Sacrifice and offering thou would not, but a body has thou prepared for Me (Hebrews 10:5)." The context of this passage in Hebrews proves beyond doubt that a perfect sacrifice for sins was required. That sacrifice could only be provided by God in the flesh. Salvation was the main issue behind the birth of the Christchild. Let me leave these words of assurance with you: if you and I can learn one thing in these lists of names in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, I want you to keep this one fact in mind, Jesus was very much a part of the human race. Though He was God, He became one with us. Hebrews 4:15-16 states, "We do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin."

Let us then approach the throne of Grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Pastor Abraham Swamidass

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