Luke 3:24, commentary and pictures

This link of Matthat, Levi, Melchi, Janna and Joseph stands as successive father-to-son steps in the genealogy of Luke 3:23-38, which traces backward from Jesus toward Adam and reverses Matthew's forward order. It belongs to the line that descends from David through his son Nathan rather than Solomon. Luke gives Jesus' descent through Mary while Matthew gives His descent through Joseph, Mary herself being unnamed because genealogies were traced through men, with Heli her father reckoned under Jewish law as Joseph's father by marriage so that Jesus listed as Joseph's son was in fact Heli's grandson through Mary. The genealogy thus shows that the Son of God truly became the Son of Man, tracing His human line backward through David and Abraham to Adam the son of God and on to God the Creator. By going back beyond Abraham to Adam, unlike Matthew who goes back only to Abraham, it presents Him as given for the whole human race and Saviour of all nations and humanity, while together with Matthew's royal pedigree it fortifies the proof of His Messiahship as the promised Seed.

Names and Literary Setting

The verse gives five successive links in the direct father-to-son line of Jesus' ancestry, Janna as the son of Joseph, Melchi as the son of Janna, Levi as the son of Melchi, and Matthat as the son of Levi. Each step counts one generation from father to son, and the whole reckoning runs to seventy-five generations from Christ to Adam, establishing Jesus' human ancestry and His identity as the promised Messiah and Seed of Abraham. Unlike Matthew's list, which presents the royal succession, Luke's list follows the direct natural ancestry.

The verse belongs to the genealogy of Luke 3:23-38, placed in chapter 3 after the account of Jesus' birth. That genealogy traces backward from Jesus through Heli and David's royal family to Abraham, to Adam the son of God, and on to God the Creator. In doing so Luke reverses Matthew's forward order, fitting his presentation of Christ as the Son of Man.

This line descends from David through his son Nathan rather than through Solomon, and it is Christ's literal blood line through Mary. Forty names are counted from David to Joseph in this descent. The centuries between the Old and New Testaments are compressed into six verses of genealogy in Luke 3:23-38, which records the family line to establish Jesus' royal descent but does not provide an inspired account of the events of those centuries.

Mary's Line Explained

Luke's list is Mary's line, giving Jesus' natural descent through His mother, while Matthew's list is Joseph's line. The two records stand together to be harmonized and do not contradict, with Luke tracing the line on the mother's side and Matthew on the father's side to establish Messiahship and descent from Judah. Mary herself is not named because reckoning ran through the male and inheritance passed through males, so Joseph is named in her place as her husband and the male member of the house belonging to the same tribe. Luke therefore names the male relatives back through Heli and David to Abraham, Adam, and God, calling Joseph the supposed, reputed and legal son while the fleshly descent comes through Mary.

Heli was Mary's father and immediate ancestor, and by marriage to Mary Joseph became Heli's son-in-law reckoned under Jewish law as Heli's son. When a family line passed through a daughter her husband could be entered as the son of his father-in-law, which explains why Joseph is called the son of Heli in Luke and the son of Jacob in Matthew. Jesus listed as Joseph's son was in fact Heli's grandson through Mary, with His human ancestry and blood line coming through her from David through Nathan rather than Solomon. Those who held other explanations taught that Heli may have been another name for Joseph, or that both lists are Joseph's genealogies with Luke giving a private line.

On the account held by the weight of the passages, Matthew presents royal succession and legal heirship to David's throne through Joseph, while Luke presents natural blood descent through Mary. By Luke Jesus is literally the Son of David according to the flesh and the son of man back to Adam the son of God, and by Matthew He is legally the Son of David and heir to the kingdom with claim to David's throne. The difference in the number of generations is accounted for because the line through Mary contains more names than the line through Joseph.

Christ's Ancestry Established

The genealogy shows that the Son of God truly became the Son of Man. It belongs to Luke's presentation of Christ as the Son of man, placed after the account of His birth. In tracing His human descent back to Adam it presents Him as the true and perfect Son of man.

It traces His human line backward through David and Abraham to Adam the son of God and on to God the Creator. The line runs through the female side of the race and includes Enoch and Noah. In this way it connects the history of Israel with creation, Eden, and the patriarchal age. Together with Matthew's forward royal pedigree from Abraham through David and Solomon to His birth, it bears witness to Jesus as the promised Deliverer and seed of the woman.

It establishes His descent from Abraham and identifies Him as the promised Seed. That descent comes through David, and on Mary's side through David's son Nathan rather than Solomon, with Matthat, Levi, Melchi, Janna, and Joseph named in the successive line. Joseph is named in place of Mary because reckoning ran through males, while Heli was Mary's father and Jesus was in fact Heli's grandson through Mary. So Jesus is literally the Son of David according to the flesh through Mary, while Matthew's line through Joseph shows Him legally the Son of David and heir to the kingdom.

It shows His Jewish descent, from Jewish parents, of the house of David and the tribe of Judah. His lineage is preserved through the tribe of Judah as ruler, traceable on both His mother's side and His father's side with Matthew 1, while the genealogies of Judah and Levi as ruler and priest were preserved when the other tribes were scattered and their genealogies lost. That preservation held the tribe of Judah together until Jesus came as Shiloh of the tribe of Judah to whom the gathering belongs. The parallel line on Mary's side fortifies the complete forty-two-generation record in Matthew ending with Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ, establishing His Messiahship.

By going back beyond Abraham to Adam, unlike Matthew who goes back only to Abraham and presents Christ as the perfect Jew, it presents His life as given for the whole human race. It traces His line back to Adam to present Him as the Saviour of all nations and of all humanity. It shows God preserved the family line of promise despite efforts to destroy it, so that His descent could be traced back through David, Judah, Jacob, and Abraham. It presents Adam and the other named ancestors as real people and literal history, in a genealogy traced through Genesis to the very beginning that cannot be verified without Genesis.

Generations and Chronology

The line to which this link belongs is counted as seventy-five generations from Christ back to Adam, each generation tracing a father to his son. Counted in the opposite direction it is about seventy-six generations from Adam forward to Christ. Counted as names between the two endpoints, it is seventy-four names between Adam and Christ, exclusive of both. The generations from Adam to Christ are thus relatively few, supporting the stated biblical chronology rather than claims of extreme human antiquity. Together with Genesis 11 and Matthew 1, this genealogy gives the Bible rule for counting generations from father to son. Counted that way, six thousand years from creation do not make two hundred generations, so a thousand generations would require twenty-four thousand years yet future from 1868. Since more than a thousand generations are meant, the promise means unlimited time from generation to generation, proving that the keeping of the Ten Commandments is perpetual.

Doctrine and Human Kinship

Luke 3 traces Christ's human pedigree from Adam onward, and by giving Him a recorded ancestry it distinguishes Him from Melchizedek, who is left with no recorded pedigree. It places Jesus within a human family line whose members were subject to the iniquities common to humanity. That line connects Him in real kinship with humanity through ancestors whose lives included both evil and good, showing His descent within the human family through David and Abraham to Adam. He took human flesh with its liability to sin and met temptation under the inherited burdens of that lineage, the Son of God having entered flesh in order to conquer sin on humanity's behalf.

The genealogy traces His human descent backward through the female line of the race to Adam the son of God, including Enoch and Noah, to prove Him the seed of the woman, while Matthew 1 traces the royal pedigree forward from Abraham through David and Solomon to His birth to prove Him the promised Deliverer. Together these long genealogies bear witness to the divinity of Scripture.

The genealogy in Luke 3 stands alongside the genealogy in Matthew 1 to be harmonized with it, the two distinct accounts showing different aspects of Jesus rather than contradicting each other. Luke gives His descent through Mary while Matthew gives it through Joseph. Heli was Mary's father and, Joseph being Jesus' legal father under Jewish law by marriage to Mary, Joseph was reckoned as the son of Mary's father, so Jesus was listed as Joseph's son though His fleshly descent came through Mary, while the teaching held by others was that Heli may have been another name for Joseph. Luke's scope reaches back to Adam and presents Him as the true and perfect Son of man, whereas Matthew's scope reaches back only to Abraham and presents Christ as the perfect Jew.