Heli

Heli (meaning ascending; climbing up) is listed in Luke's genealogy of Jesus as the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary (Luke 3:23). This creates an apparent discrepancy with Matthew's genealogy (Matt. 1:16), which names Jacob as Joseph's father. Several solutions have been proposed: that Luke gives Mary's genealogy while Matthew gives Joseph's, making Heli Mary's father; that the levirate marriage custom accounts for the two lines; or that one is a legal and the other a biological descent. Heli is distinct from Eli the high priest of Shiloh whose name is similarly spelled in Greek.