Luke 3:27, commentary and pictures

Luke 3:27 is one link in the genealogy of Luke 3:23-38, given when Jesus began to teach at about thirty years of age and running backward from Jesus up toward Adam and to God. It names a literal father-to-son descent from Neri through Salathiel and Zorobabel to Rhesa and Joanna. Luke traces His human, fleshly, maternal blood line through Mary, with Joseph reckoned as the son of Heli because Jewish genealogies were counted through men and Heli was Mary's father and Joseph's father-in-law by marriage, while Matthew traces His legal, royal line through Joseph to show heirship to Abraham and David's throne. Luke's line comes through David's son Nathan and Matthew's through Solomon, the two meeting at Salathiel and Zorobabel by marriage and shared ancestry. So the verse helps present Jesus as Son of Man of the human family and seed of the woman, even Son of Adam and Son of God as the second Adam, and at the same time as natural descendant of David and Abraham according to the flesh and heir of the covenant.

Text and Context

The verse belongs to the genealogy in Luke 3:23-38, placed after the account of His birth and baptism. That genealogy closes Luke 3 after the baptism of Jesus and begins with Jesus when He was about thirty years of age when He began to teach, being the son as was supposed of Joseph. It runs backward upward from Jesus through Joseph toward Adam rather than forward as in Matthew, giving the line in reverse order. It is a comprehensive account of His human lineage as the Son of man, serving as a brief family history linking Jesus through His ancestors to establish His family line.

The verse names one link in that line, from Neri through Salathiel and Zorobabel or Zerubbabel to Rhesa and Joanna. It is part of the direct ancestral line traced by Luke rather than a record of royal succession. The named ancestors are presented as real people in a literal father-to-son descent running back to Adam. The lines associated with Luke and Matthew meet at Salathiel and Zerubbabel, a convergence explained by marriage and shared ancestry.

The genealogy is traced distinctly from Adam and ultimately beyond Adam to God. Genesis supplies the earlier record needed to verify and understand that genealogy traced through Genesis back to the beginning. In this way the lineage connects the history of Israel with the earlier history of the patriarchs.

Counted father-to-son, the genealogy of Luke 3:23-38 gives seventy-five generations from Christ to Adam. Counted without counting Adam or Christ, it gives seventy-four names between Adam and Christ. This illustrates the Bible rule for counting generations used with Genesis 11 and Matthew 1.

Two Lines Compared

Luke's list is the human, maternal, fleshly blood line through Mary, while Matthew's list is the legal, royal, kingly line through Joseph as legal father to show rightful heirship to Abraham and to David's throne. Luke traces the humanity through Mary's line through Nathan a son of David, distinct from Matthew's line through Solomon, and presents Jesus preeminently as Son of Man, whereas Matthew gives the kingly side through Joseph as legal father to show He is the rightful King and rightful Heir of Abraham. Through Mary's marriage to Joseph He also belongs legally to that royal line, being a natural descendant of David's royal family, and the parallel line in Luke fortifies Matthew's complete forty-two-generation record from Abraham through David and Solomon to Joseph the husband of Mary. Joseph is reckoned next to Christ for the legal relationship, since heirship comes through the father.

Joseph is named in place of Mary because Jewish genealogical lists did not include women and descent was counted through male members of the family. When a family line passed through a daughter, her husband could be recorded as the son of her father, so though the names listed are male they stand for the female line. Heli, named as Joseph's father, was Mary's father and Joseph's father-in-law by marriage to Mary, making Jesus the maternal grandson of Heli. Joseph as Mary's husband was treated as Heli's son and as Jesus' supposed and legal father under Jewish law, named because he was Mary's husband and because reckoning runs through the male. The line gives Christ's literal blood line through Mary and establishes Him as the promised Seed of Abraham, with this verse naming a link from Neri through Salathiel and Zorobabel to Rhesa and Joanna.

Luke's line comes through David's son Nathan, Solomon's brother, while Matthew's royal line comes through Solomon. The two lines meet in the course of time at Salathiel or Shealtiel and Zorobabel or Zerubbabel, naming Joanna, Rhesa, Zerubbabel, Salathiel and Neri in the direct ancestral line rather than a record of royal succession. That convergence is explained by marriage and shared ancestry, so that both Joseph and Mary shared ancestry through both lines. The line through Mary contains more names than the line through Joseph, and this explains the difference in the number of the generations given by Matthew and Luke. As a lesser-held alternative, Heli may be another name for Joseph himself.

Humanity and Kingship of Jesus

Luke's list is the human, mother's-side line showing Jesus to be of man and of the human family, with the male names standing for the female line because genealogies were not customarily traced through women and Joseph is named in place of Mary. It is a comprehensive, unbroken human pedigree by birth into the fallen human race, placed after the account of His birth because Luke presents Him preeminently as the Son of Man. This is distinct from Matthew's genealogy, which gives the kingly side through Joseph as legal father to show Jesus as rightful King and rightful heir of Abraham, in contrast to Luke's presentation of Him as Son of man and seed of the woman rather than as the perfect Jew from Abraham. Joseph is called His father as supposed, while Heli is understood as Mary's father through whom the descent is traced though Mary herself is not named.

That human line runs all the way back to Adam the first man and beyond Adam to God, so the Son of God is shown to be truly the Son of Man. Counted backward through its ancestors He is identified as the Son of Adam and ultimately the Son of God, the second Adam and Deliverer whose promised line God preserved despite efforts to destroy it. The ancestry is carried upward through Mary's line toward David and Abraham and ultimately Adam, with Zorobabel and Salathiel standing within that line to establish His descent and identity as the promised Seed of Abraham and heir to the covenant.

The names in this verse place Him as a natural descendant of David's royal family according to the flesh, literally the Son of David through David's seed down to Mary, born of the seed of David many generations removed. His parents were Jews descended from David and belonging to the tribe of Judah, and through Mary's marriage to Joseph He also belongs legally to that royal line, with Joseph named in the reckoning because reckoning runs through the male while Heli was Mary's father and Joseph's legal father by marriage. Luke thus traces the maternal grandson of Heli through David and Abraham to Adam, naming in this verse one link from Neri through Salathiel and Zorobabel to Rhesa and Joanna. Read together with Matthew 1, this parallel Marian line fortifies the complete forty-two-generation record from Abraham through David and Solomon to Joseph the husband of Mary, giving His royal pedigree from Abraham through David and Solomon and showing His coming through Enoch and Noah down to His own birth.

The same backward tracing through the female line of the race shows Him to be the seed of the woman, with Luke carrying the pedigree back to the beginning to the promise of the seed of the woman. From that standpoint Luke presents Him as Saviour of all nations and as a Saviour for all, tracing the genealogy to Adam the son of God. His human ancestors belonged to the fallen human race and were subject to its common iniquities, and the record of both wicked and righteous ancestors shows He truly shared human flesh and blood with inherited liability to sin. That ancestry mattered in His temptations and life in the flesh, for He entered humanity in order to conquer sin on humanity's behalf.

Preservation Proof and Use

Luke 3 gives the earthly lineage of Jesus, which could be traced literally and legally through the line of promise back to David and Judah and Jacob and Abraham. That unbroken tracing bears witness that God preserved the promised line through which the Deliverer, the second Adam, was to come, despite efforts to destroy it.
While the other tribes were scattered and their genealogies lost, the genealogies of Levi for the priesthood and of Judah for the rulership were preserved. The preserved genealogy of the tribe of Judah therefore traces the lineage of Jesus, so that His lineage could be traced on both His mother's side and His father's side. Together with Matthew 1 it shows the tribe of Judah was held together until Jesus came, when He became the center of the gathering of God's people.
Such long genealogies through honorable characters bear mighty witness to the truth of God's word. They connect the history of Israel with the earlier history of the patriarchs, and they established an Israelite's citizenship and right to the blessings of the covenants. Read with Matthew 1, the genealogy shows His royal pedigree from Abraham through David and Solomon down to His own birth, and through Enoch and Noah, while tracing His human descent backward through the female line of the race to Adam the son of God as the seed of the woman. The ancestors named here through Zorobabel, Salathiel, and Neri are real people in a literal line of descent back to Adam.
That Christ had such a pedigree and entered this world by birth into the human family, and both was born and died, proves the Melchizedek of Genesis was not Christ but a distinct individual. Melchizedek has no pedigree, no beginning of days as an infant and no end of life, and did not enter the world by birth into the human family, while Christ is another priest after the same order.
The genealogy from Adam to Christ gives seventy-four names between them without counting Adam or Christ, so the generations from Adam to Christ were far fewer than might be guessed. Those comparatively few generations support a comparatively recent origin of mankind and vindicate the Scripture account of the Flood.
This genealogy supplies the Bible rule for counting generations father-to-son, as used also with Genesis 11 and Matthew 1. Counted in that way, six thousand years from the creation do not make two hundred such generations, so the thousand generations that keep the commandments mean more than a thousand literal generations and stretch unlimited time into the future. That proves the keeping of God's commandments continues from generation to generation without end.