Luke 3:31, commentary and pictures

Luke 3:31 traces Jesus' descent from David through Nathan, Solomon's brother and another son of David, running through Mattatha, Menan and Melea to Nathan. It belongs to Luke's genealogy, which is Mary's maternal, literal blood line running in reverse from Heli, her father and Jesus' grandfather, back through David and Abraham to Adam who was the son of God. Joseph is named in Mary's place and called the son of Heli because he was her husband, son-in-law and legal head, since Jewish usage reckoned genealogies and heirship through males and did not name women. While Matthew gives Joseph's legal, royal line descending through Solomon, Luke gives Mary's flesh descent ascending through Nathan, so Jesus is naturally a descendant of David through Mary and legally in the royal line through her marriage to Joseph, His reputed father. Thus the verse presents Him preeminently as the Son of man of the human family and the Deliverer who was to be of the seed of the woman, in an unbroken line back to Adam the first man and to God, and establishes Him as the promised Seed of Abraham and Son of David according to the flesh.

Mary's Line Through David

The line runs from David through Nathan, not through Solomon, ascending through Melea and Menan and Mattatha to Nathan, a son of David and Solomon's brother, another son of David. Luke's list is a step-by-step father-to-son genealogy distinct from Matthew's record of royal succession, which traces the royal inheritance from David through Solomon down to Joseph, and the two lines later meet at Salathiel and Zerubbabel, explainable by marriage. Matthew traces Joseph's own line through Solomon, through whom rulership would have come, while Luke follows the direct line through Nathan.

Luke's genealogy is Mary's maternal line, her literal blood descent back to Adam, running in reverse order from Heli her father back through David and Abraham to Adam who was the son of God. Heli was Mary's father and Joseph's father-in-law and Jesus' grandfather, so Christ called the supposed son of Joseph was in reality the maternal grandson of Heli. By this line Jesus is naturally a descendant of David through Mary and legally in the royal line through her marriage to Joseph, His reputed and legal father, with both parents connected to David's royal branch and both lines uniting in Abraham. It presents Him as Son of man and seed of the woman, tying Him to the promise of the seed of the woman, and doubly assures that on the fleshly side He is the promised Seed of Abraham and Messiah and heir of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and renewed to David.

Joseph is named in Mary's place and called the son of Heli because he was Mary's husband, her son-in-law, and her legal head. Jewish usage, law and custom required genealogy and heirship to be reckoned through males and descended through the male line, did not customarily name women or count through women, and could list a daughter's husband as her father's son. Thus the husband of Mary stands in for Mary herself, and Heli, evidently the father of Mary, is named in her place, while Matthew by contrast gives the kingly side through Joseph as legal father to show the right of rulership and rightful heirship. Luke thereby gives the mother's side and flesh descent through Heli back to Adam to show Jesus was of man, of the human family, while Matthew gives the royal legal descent through Joseph back to David and to Abraham, so Jesus is literally the Son of David according to the flesh and legally a Son of David and heir to the kingdom.

Those who held the differing explanation taught that Matthew gives the mother's lineage while Luke traces the lineage through Joseph the legal father, with both mentioning Joseph because genealogy is reckoned legally through the father, and with Luke naming Nathan rather than Solomon as ancestor in contrast with Matthew 1:6. In another description the genealogy simply traces backward through Joseph to Adam, who is called the Son of God. The placing of Jesus in David's family through Nathan supports that His parents were Jews belonging to the tribe of Judah.

Matthew's Line Compared

Matthew gives Joseph's own legal and royal line of rulership descending from Abraham through David and Solomon to Joseph, while Luke gives Mary's flesh descent ascending through Heli and Nathan to Adam. The line in Luke runs through Mary though she herself is not named, because Jewish usage, law and custom required genealogy and heirship to be reckoned through males and did not trace through women, so Heli, evidently the father of Mary, is named in her place and Joseph is named as the son of Heli because he was Mary's husband, her son-in-law and her legal head standing in for Mary herself. Through Heli the descent passes through the royal family of David by Nathan son of David, Solomon's brother and another son of David, and continues up through the seed of Abraham to Adam the very first man and progenitor of the race and beyond Adam to God, showing the Son of God was truly the Son of Man, of man and of the human family. Thus Jesus is naturally a descendant of David through Mary and David's Seed according to the flesh, and legally in the royal line through her marriage to Joseph, His reputed and legal father through whom rulership would have come, with both Mary and Joseph belonging to David's family and connected to David's royal branch, Matthew giving the kingly side through Joseph as legal father to show Jesus is the rightful King and rightful Heir of Abraham.

Luke does not present Jesus as heir to David's throne in the manner of Matthew, but traces His ancestry back to Adam. Luke's list is a step-by-step father-to-son genealogy distinct from Matthew's record of royal succession, while Matthew traces the royal inheritance from David through Solomon and down to Joseph and Joseph's separate genealogy establishes Jesus' royal succession through David. The two lines later meet along their course at Salathiel and Zerubbabel, explainable by marriage. Both lines unite in Abraham, and more names are found in Mary's line than in Joseph's, which accounts for the difference in the number of generations.

Matthew gives the complete line of forty-two generations from Abraham through David and Solomon to Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. Luke's parallel genealogy through Mary fortifies that record and strengthens the proof of Jesus' descent and Messiahship, a record His enemies seeking every pretext to deny Him never dared to attack in the open. Luke's genealogy compresses the centuries between the Old and New Testaments into a brief family history whose purpose is to present the royal family lineage, including the family line from David through Nathan showing Jesus' descent through David's royal family.

Son of Man for Humanity

Luke's genealogy presents Jesus preeminently as the Son of man, the true and perfect Son of man, showing that the Son of God was truly the Son of Man, of the human family. It traces His human descent in reverse from His mother back to Adam the very first man and to God the Creator of man, through the female portion of the race, showing He is the Deliverer who was to be of the seed of the woman. The line is Mary's human line through Nathan son of David, though she herself is not named because it was not customary to trace genealogy through women and Jewish usage and law required the genealogy to come through the male, so her husband Joseph stands in for Mary herself and Heli, evidently the father of Mary, is named in her place. This human line through Melea, Menan, and Mattatha to Nathan is distinct from the kingly side and royal genealogy that gives the right of rulership through the male from Abraham down through David and Solomon to Jesus through His legal father Joseph, to show Jesus is the rightful King and rightful Heir of Abraham. Read with Matthew 1, which takes up the line from Abraham and traces it down to the birth of Jesus, Luke showing His line through Adam and Enoch and Noah and David gives His royal pedigree, and the long genealogy bears mighty witness to the divinity of the Word.

As one link in that human line the verse traces Him back to Adam the very first man and progenitor of the race and beyond Adam to God, with Adam called the son of God, in an unbroken human line. The genealogy runs in reverse order from Heli, her father, back through David and Abraham to Adam, identifying Jesus as descended from David and, together with the link to Abraham, establishing Him as the promised Seed and Messiah. Christ is called the supposed son of Joseph but was in reality the son, that is the maternal grandson, of Heli, with Luke 3:31 giving the link through Nathan to David while Matthew 1:1-16 gives Joseph's line down from Abraham through David to Joseph. Both lines unite in Abraham, making it doubly sure that Christ on the fleshly side is the promised Seed of Abraham and the Messiah and heir of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and renewed to David.

Together with the line back to Adam, descent through Nathan places Jesus in David's family and human family line, showing Him as David's Seed according to the flesh and connecting Him to the human race, while Joseph's separate genealogy establishes His royal succession through David. Descent through Nathan with the link to Abraham establishes Him as the promised Seed linked to Abraham, and the genealogy traced back to Adam presents Him as the Savior of all nations and the Saviour for all people. The lineage runs through real, literal, historically real ancestors, including Joseph and Mary and their parents, as real as later figures in Jewish history. His human ancestors shared the iniquities common to humanity, and His genealogy runs through both wicked and righteous ancestors from David and Abraham and Adam.

By being born of a woman He entered the human family and took flesh subject to inherited weakness and temptation, bore the consequences of humanity's sin, and entered human flesh to conquer sin and overcome temptation on humanity's behalf. The distinct tracing of Christ's ancestry from Adam through David and Nathan shows that Christ has a pedigree and entered this world by birth into the human family. Unlike Melchizedek, who as priest has no beginning of days as an infant and no end of life, Christ was both born and died, and this traced human genealogy proves Melchizedek of Genesis and Christ are distinct individuals, with Christ as another priest after the same Melchizedek order.

Messiah and Covenant Promises

Luke 3:23-38 proves Jesus is rightly called the Son of David, for He was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, though Scripture commonly calls a person the son of an ancestor removed by many generations. The link through Nathan to David identifies Him as descended from David, and together with the genealogy's line back through David and Abraham to Adam it establishes Him as the promised Seed and Messiah. Both lines unite in Abraham, making it doubly sure that Christ on the fleshly side is the promised Seed of Abraham and the Messiah.

Read in connection with Matthew 1, the genealogy gives His royal pedigree, Luke showing His line through Adam and Enoch and Noah and David, and Matthew taking up the line from Abraham and tracing it down through David and Solomon to His birth. Matthew traces Joseph's own line through Solomon, through whom rulership would have come, while Luke gives the flesh descent through Heli back to Adam, with the descent running through Nathan the son of David. Joseph is named as the legal head because all reckoning runs through the male and heirship descended through the male line, yet though Joseph was not Jesus' literal father he was His reputed and legal father, and Heli was the father of Mary and the legal father of Joseph as Mary's husband. Thus Jesus is legally a Son of David and heir to the kingdom through Joseph, and literally the Son of David according to the flesh through Mary, with both Mary and Joseph belonging to David's family and both parents connected to David's royal branch.

The genealogy traces His earthly lineage literally and legally back to David and shows that God preserved the promised line through which the Deliverer was to come, despite attempts to destroy it. Judah was held together and its genealogy was preserved with Levi's while the other tribes were scattered and their genealogies lost, which made it possible to trace His lineage through both His mother's side and His father's side through David and the tribe of Judah. This proves that Shiloh came from Judah and from that time became the center of the gathering of God's people.

Both lines uniting in Abraham makes it doubly sure that He is heir of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and renewed to David. Tracing a lineage to Abraham showed an Israelite's citizenship in the Jewish nation and right to the covenant blessings. The long genealogy bears mighty witness to the divinity of the Word.

Chronology and Historic Defense

Luke's genealogy counts about seventy-five generations from Christ back to Adam, each generation traced from father to son. The same reckoning is also described as about seventy-six generations from Adam to Christ. Counting the names between Adam and Christ, exclusive of both, gives seventy-four. It is Mary's line and not Joseph's, with Mary's father called Joseph's father because Joseph was Mary's husband, while Matthew traces the line through Joseph; more names are found in Mary's line than in Joseph's, which accounts for the difference in the number of generations as given by Matthew and Luke.

The count shows the generations from Adam to Christ were far fewer than commonly guessed. That short count supports a much shorter human history than claims of extreme antiquity. The named ancestors are real, literal, historically real persons, including Joseph and Mary and their parents, as real as later figures in Jewish history. By connecting Adam and the patriarchs with Israel's later history, the accounts of creation, Eden, and the antediluvian and patriarchal ages are shown to be records of real events, not allegories.

Counted by this Bible rule of father-to-son genealogy with Genesis 11 and Matthew 1, six thousand years from creation yield fewer than two hundred such generations. The verse records Nathan as the son of David in that father-to-son genealogy from Adam to Christ. Therefore the thousand generations of those that love God and keep His commandments must reach more than twenty-four thousand years beyond 1868. That thousand generations in fact means unlimited time, generation to generation, proving the ten commandments stand fast forever and ever.