Luke 3:29, commentary and pictures

This link names Jose, Eliezer, Jorim, Matthat, and Levi in order as one step in the unbroken father-to-son line running backward from Jesus through Joseph to Adam, the son of God. It stands after Christ's birth and after his baptism with the people, his praying, the opening of heaven, the descent of the Holy Spirit in bodily form as a dove, and the voice declaring him the beloved Son, when Jesus was about thirty and beginning to teach, being as was supposed the son of Joseph. Luke gives his human descent through Mary back to Adam, while Matthew gives his royal and legal descent through Joseph back to Abraham, together confirming the descent of him who is called Christ. Genealogy was reckoned through males without naming women, so Joseph, Mary's husband of the same tribe, is named in place of Mary herself, Heli being Mary's father and Joseph's father-in-law by marriage. Traced through David's son Nathan to David and Abraham and on to Adam and to God, the line presents Christ as Son of Man of the whole human family and Saviour of all nations, truly Son of Man and Son of God, born of the seed of David according to the flesh and rightly called the Son of David.

Setting and Wording

The five names stand in order as a single link in a direct father-to-son ancestral line. Each step traces descent from father to son, and this line is distinct from Matthew's line of royal inheritance leading to Joseph. The whole genealogy runs backward from Jesus through Joseph to Adam, the son of God, and beyond Adam to God himself. It reverses the record from Adam down to the mother of Jesus, carrying human descent from Adam the very first man clear back to God the Creator of man.

Luke places this genealogy after his account of Christ's birth. It belongs after the baptism of Jesus with the people, his praying, the opening of heaven, the descent of the Holy Spirit in bodily form as a dove upon him, and the voice from heaven declaring him the beloved Son. It comes at the time when Jesus was about thirty years of age and beginning to teach, being the son as was supposed of Joseph.

The genealogy summarizes the centuries between the Old and New Testaments in six verses. It gives the family history of Jesus in order to present the lineage and establish his royal line. It traces his genealogy through earlier generations to the beginning, and this link depends on Genesis for its history and cannot be verified without it.

Mary's Line Versus Joseph's

Luke's list is the mother's side, giving Jesus' human descent through Mary back to Adam and beyond Adam to God to show He was of man, of the human family, while Matthew's list is the kingly side through Joseph, the legal father, back to Abraham the father of the faithful to show He is the rightful King and rightful heir of Abraham, and together the parallel records, Matthew's complete line for forty-two generations ending with Joseph the husband of Mary and Luke's line on the side of Mary the mother of Jesus, confirm the descent of Jesus who is called Christ. Luke traces the literal blood line from David through Nathan, Solomon's brother, while Matthew traces Joseph's royal line through Solomon to Joseph, and Luke's line runs on through David and Abraham to Adam himself, identifying Jesus as Abraham's promised Seed and proving He was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and rightly called the Son of David. The common scriptural use of son for a descendant removed by many generations is illustrated here.

Genealogy was not customarily traced through women but was reckoned through males according to Jewish usage and law, through whom inheritance passed, so the male members are named instead of the female and Joseph, Mary's husband from the same tribe, is named in place of Mary herself, with Jesus called the supposed son of Joseph which was son of Heli. Heli was Mary's father and Joseph's father-in-law, and Joseph is called and reckoned as Heli's son because he was Heli's son-in-law and legal son, when a family line continued through a daughter her husband could be listed as her father's son, so Christ was Joseph's supposed son but was in reality Heli's maternal grandson. On this more widely accepted view Jesus belongs to David's royal family naturally through Mary and legally through marriage into Joseph's family, so Luke's line shows He is literally the Son of David according to the flesh through Mary, tracing the pedigree back to the promise of the seed of the woman in the beginning, while legally He is Son of David and heir to the kingdom through Joseph His legal father by whom He inherits the kingdom according to law, Matthew tracing the legal pedigree through Joseph.

The two lines differ yet meet in the course of time, and Luke's line through Mary contains more names than Matthew's line through Joseph, which accounts for the difference in the number of the generations given by Matthew and Luke. Another possibility held is that Heli was another name for Joseph, just as Levi was another name for Matthew, which also removes contradiction between Luke and Matthew. One theory treats Luke's list, like Matthew's, as Joseph's genealogy, with Luke giving the private line of the heir to David's throne, supposing Mary and Joseph were first cousins.

Humanity and Kingship of Jesus

Luke's list is Mary's line, giving Jesus' human descent through David's seed to Mary, while Matthew's is Joseph's legal line; because reckoning went through males, Joseph, Mary's husband of the same tribe, stands in for Mary herself, with Heli as Mary's father and Joseph's father-in-law and legal father through marriage. In this form the genealogy presents Jesus as Son of Man, of man and of the human family, showing his connection to the whole human race as Saviour of all nations. Placed after the account of his birth, it emphasizes his humanity in comprehensive form. Luke traces this human descent from Adam down through David's seed to Mary, distinct from Matthew's royal descent through David and Joseph the legal father by whom he inherits the kingdom according to law; Luke therefore shows him literally Son of David according to the flesh, while legally he is Son of David and heir to the kingdom.

The human line runs back to Adam the very first man and progenitor of the race, and beyond Adam to God the Creator, reversing the record from Adam down to the mother of Jesus and ending by identifying Adam as son of God. This proves the Son of God was truly the Son of Man, descended from the human side of his nature through an unbroken human ancestry. Luke traces him not merely as Abraham's descendant or David's royal heir but as Son of Man back through Adam to Adam as son of God, with Joseph included as the male member of the household counted as Heli's son.

So traced, the genealogy shows the Deliverer is of the seed of the woman, coming through the female portion of the race from the beginning, through Adam and Enoch and Noah. It reaches back to the promise of the seed of the woman in the beginning, carrying the promised Deliverer, the second Adam, through the line of promise through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, David and Solomon down to the virgin Mary, especially through the tribe of Judah and the family of David.

The same line shows his descent from David and supports that his parents were Jews of the tribe of Judah. It helps prove he was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and therefore is rightly called Son of David.

The preserved genealogy traces his lineage through Judah, the tribe given rulership, alongside Levi, the tribe given the priesthood; while the other tribes were scattered and their genealogies lost, Judah was held together and its genealogy kept until Jesus came, so his lineage could be traced on both mother's and father's side. This preserved line shows he is Shiloh of Judah to whom the gathering of the people belongs, and from his coming he became the center of the gathering of God's people.

By contrast Matthew traces his royal pedigree from Abraham through David and Solomon to his birth, giving the kingly side through Joseph the legal father to show he is the rightful King and rightful heir of Abraham. Luke's ancestry through Mary's family back to Adam shows his connection to the whole human race, while Matthew's tracing of Joseph's royal line makes him heir to David's throne; Luke's family history thus summarizes the centuries between the Testaments to establish lineage, with Matthew going back through David to Abraham the father of the faithful and Luke back through Heli to Adam himself.

Through that human genealogy he descended through ancestors subject to the iniquities common to the race, entering human flesh to conquer sin on humanity's behalf. He shared human flesh and blood and inherited the human condition through Jose, Eliezer, Jorim, Matthat and Levi, in a line containing both the wicked and the righteous, bearing humanity's hereditary liability to sin.

These long genealogies through so many honorable characters bear mighty witness to the divinity of the Word. Luke's tracing of the pedigree distinctly from Adam shows he entered the world by birth into the human family as an infant and both was born and died, which proves the Melchizedek of Genesis was not Christ, since Melchizedek has no pedigree and no beginning of days as an infant or end of life; the two are distinct, Christ being another priest after the same order and the promised Deliverer, the second Adam.

So Matthew goes back only to Abraham to show Christ as the perfect Jew, Luke goes back to Adam to show the true and perfect Son of Man, Mark presents him as servant, and John begins at creation to present the Son of God and co-Creator made flesh to dwell among men. The genealogy illustrates the common scriptural use of son to mean a descendant removed by many generations. Its connection of Adam to the later history of Israel shows Adam and the other named ancestors were literal persons, and that the creation, Eden, antediluvian and patriarchal narratives record real events in the history leading to Israel.

Promise History and Chronology

Luke 3:29 is one link in the literal and legal earthly lineage through which God brought the promised Deliverer, the seed of the woman, the second Adam, down through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, David and Solomon to the virgin Mary, especially through the tribe of Judah and the family of David. Through all the centuries before the first advent Satan sought to destroy that predicted seed and the channels carrying it, including all the seed of Abraham, by deception, by idolatry, by error, and by persecution. God preserved the seed, so that at the birth of Jesus the lineage could still be traced back literally and legally to David, to Judah, to Jacob, to Abraham. While the other tribes were scattered and their genealogies lost, Judah was held together and its genealogy kept until Jesus came, so His lineage could be traced on both His mother's side and His father's side as shown in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. This preserved line through the tribe given rulership, alongside the line of Levi given the priesthood, shows Jesus is Shiloh of the tribe of Judah to whom the gathering of the people belongs, and from His coming He became the center of the gathering of God's people.

The genealogy counts seventy-five generations from Christ to Adam, each traced from father to son. Luke counts about seventy-six generations from Adam to Christ. Counting the names between Adam and Christ in this ancestry gives seventy-four, a figure used to estimate the number of generations before Christ. These father-to-son links give the Bible rule for counting generations, for counted together with Genesis 11 and Matthew 1, six thousand years from the creation of the world yield fewer than two hundred such generations. The thousand generations of those who love God and keep His commandments therefore require eight hundred generations more, or twenty-four thousand years yet beyond 1868, and in fact mean more than a thousand, generation to generation without end, proving the ten commandments perpetual.