Genealogy of Jesus Christ

The genealogy of Jesus Christ is set down in two forms in the Gospels — descending in Matthew 1:1–17 and ascending in Luke 3:23–38. Both establish that Jesus is truly descended from David and Abraham, the rightful heir of the covenant promises, and root the incarnate Son in real human history rather than myth.

Matthew opens his Gospel, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1), and traces the line downward from Abraham through Judah to David, then through the royal kings of Judah — Solomon, Rehoboam, and their successors — down to "Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born" (Matthew 1:16). It is arranged in three artful sets of fourteen generations (Matthew 1:17), presenting Jesus as the royal Messiah and legal heir to David's throne. Remarkably it names four women — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and "the wife of Uriah" (Bathsheba) — outsiders and sinners through whom grace flowed, foreshadowing a salvation reaching Gentiles and the unworthy.

Luke gives his genealogy after Jesus' baptism, ascending from Jesus, "being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph" (Luke 3:23), back through David — by way of David's son Nathan rather than Solomon — to Abraham, and beyond to "Adam, the son of God" (Luke 3:38). Where Matthew presents the King of the Jews, Luke presents the Son of Man and second Adam, the Savior of all humanity, tracing his descent back to the head of the whole race.

The two lists diverge between David and Joseph, and the church has long reconciled them in two main ways. Some hold that both trace Joseph's line — Matthew giving the legal, royal succession and Luke the natural descent, a levirate marriage accounting for the differing fathers of Joseph. Others hold that Matthew records Joseph's line while Luke records Mary's, Heli being her father, so that Jesus is David's son both legally through Joseph and by blood through Mary. On either view the Gospels jointly affirm his genuine Davidic descent.

These genealogies are no dry catalogue. They show God keeping his ancient promises — that in Abraham's offspring all nations would be blessed (Genesis 22:18) and that David's throne would be established forever (2 Samuel 7:12–16). Matthew carefully breaks his pattern at the last link — not "Joseph begot Jesus" but "Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born" — guarding the virgin birth while securing Jesus' legal sonship of David. So the lines converge on the One "descended from David according to the flesh" (Romans 1:3), "born of woman, born under the law" (Galatians 4:4), in whom the long generations of waiting reach their appointed goal.