Luke 3:32, commentary and pictures

This link in the line names Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Salmon and Nahshon in the ancestry leading through Jesse to David. It belongs to the genealogy that closes Luke 3 after the baptism of Jesus when He was about thirty and began to teach, given backward from Heli through David and Abraham to Adam the son of God. Luke gives His maternal, fleshly line through Mary and her blood descent back to Adam, while Matthew gives His paternal, legal succession through Joseph to show Him the rightful King and Heir of Abraham. The line shows He is truly of the human family and the Son of Man, literally the son of David according to the flesh and naturally a member of David's royal family. Tracing Him back to Adam presents Him as Savior of all nations and the second Adam, and was necessary to establish His identity as the Messiah, the promised Seed of Abraham and heir of the covenant renewed to David.

Setting and Order in Luke

Luke 3:32 belongs to the genealogy that closes Luke 3 after the baptism of Jesus, when He was about thirty years of age and began to teach, being called the son as was supposed of Joseph. Luke delays this comprehensive genealogy until chapter 3 in order to present Jesus as the Son of man. From Joseph it traces Him backward through the ancestors named in this verse onward to Adam, the son of God.

The genealogy is given backward in reverse order from Matthew's, inverting the order Matthew followed. It traces from Heli backward through David and Abraham to Adam the son of God and beyond Adam to God. Luke thus carries the line through Adam and Enoch and Noah, while Matthew takes it up from Abraham and traces it down through David and Solomon to the birth of Jesus Himself. In this period the genealogy serves to establish His royal descent.

It is an unbroken human genealogy and a direct line of descent in which each step runs from father to son as a literal flesh line from the human side of His nature. Counted by that father-to-son rule it is reckoned as seventy-five generations from Christ to Adam. It records real people and actual events, not allegory, establishing literal descent. It connects the histories of creation, Eden, and the antediluvian and patriarchal ages with Israel's later history, and is connected to the record in Genesis, without which it cannot be verified.

Mary and Joseph Lines

Luke 3:32 belongs to the genealogy that traces Jesus' fleshly, human-side descent through Mary and her blood line back to Adam the first man and beyond Adam to God, showing He is of man and of the human family as truly the Son of Man, while Matthew's genealogy traces His paternal, legal, royal succession through Joseph to show He is the rightful King and Heir of Abraham. Luke's line is given on Mary's side and fortifies and confirms Matthew's complete forty-two-generation record ending with Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. It names Jesse, Obed, Booz or Boaz, Salmon, and Naasson in His ancestry through David's royal family and Abraham to Adam, descended from David according to the flesh, whereas Matthew traces His royal succession through Joseph.

Heli is Mary's father, and Joseph is listed as Heli's son because he was Mary's husband and son-in-law, Heli being his father-in-law and his legal father by marriage. Jesus is called the supposed son of Joseph but was in reality Heli's maternal grandson, counted as Joseph's son under Jewish law and by marriage. Through Mary He is naturally a member of David's royal family, and through Mary's marriage to Joseph He is also included legally in that line.

Male names stand for Mary because it was not customary to trace genealogy through women or to name women in Jewish tables, with all reckoning through the male members instead of female, through whom inheritance passed, so Mary's husband is named in her place and counted as the son of Heli as the male member of the house. Luke therefore gives Jesus' literal blood descent through Mary but presents the genealogy through Joseph, with Heli named as Joseph's father understood as Joseph's father-in-law and Mary's real father. This is why this line differs from Matthew's kingly line of legal descent through Joseph.

Luke traces Mary's side from David through Nathan, while Matthew traces Joseph's legal side from David through Solomon, the two genealogies intersecting in the lines of David's sons and meeting along the stream of time. Luke's is a direct father-to-son line of human descent through David's line by way of Nathan, distinct from Matthew's royal descent through Joseph, with Luke tracing back through Heli to Adam and Matthew tracing back through David to Abraham. Together with Matthew 1 the two lines give His full pedigree, Luke showing His line through Adam and Enoch and Noah and Matthew taking it up from Abraham and tracing it down through David and Solomon to the birth of Jesus Himself. They are to be harmonized, uniting in Abraham and confirming each other as doubly sure proof that Christ is the promised Seed, naturally of David's house through Mary and legally heir to David's throne and kingdom and to the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and renewed to David through Joseph.

Ancestors Named by Verse

The verse supplies one link in the backward line to David, naming Jesse, Obed, Booz or Boaz, Salmon, and Naasson or Nahshon in that order of ancestry. It belongs to the unbroken human genealogy that traces descent through Mary back to Adam and shows descent from David according to the flesh, while Matthew traces royal succession through Joseph. Because Jewish tables reckoned through males and did not name women, Mary is represented by her husband Joseph, who is listed as the son of Heli though Heli was Mary's father and Joseph's father-in-law, so Christ called the supposed son of Joseph was in reality Heli's maternal grandson. Luke carries that fleshly side backward from Heli through David and Abraham to Adam, and Matthew carries the legal side forward, with Luke's descent running from David through Nathan and Matthew's through Solomon, the two meeting along the stream of time and uniting in Abraham.

This link places Jesus in the Jewish line through David's family and royal house and the tribe of Judah. It connects Jesse through Obed and Boaz to Salmon and Naasson, extending back through Judah, Jacob and Abraham and forward through Enoch and Noah to Adam the son of God, joining with Matthew 1 to give the full pedigree. Luke gives the line in reverse order from Matthew's, tracing backward to Adam through Enoch and Noah where Matthew takes it up from Abraham and traces down through David and Solomon to the birth of Jesus. It is part of the preserved genealogy of Judah that keeps the line of rulership given not to Judah personally but to Judah and his posterity on both mother's and father's sides, while the genealogies of Judah the ruler and Levi the priest were preserved when the other tribes were scattered and their genealogies lost. That preservation proves Judah was held together until Jesus came, so that in Him as Shiloh the scepter promise is fulfilled and He becomes the center of the gathering of God's people, and the tracing was necessary to establish His identity as Messiah, the promised Seed of Abraham and heir of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and renewed to David.

In Scripture son commonly means a descendant removed by many generations, which is how the genealogy proves Christ is rightly called the Son of David by being born of the seed of David according to the flesh.

Humanity and Messiahship of Jesus

Luke's link through Jesse, Obed, Booz, Salmon and Naasson belongs to the unbroken genealogy that traces Jesus back to Adam the first man and beyond Adam to God, giving His mother's human side and showing He is of man and of the human family by birth with a pedigree. In this line He is presented as the Son of Man, the true and perfect Son of Man, so that the Son of God is truly the Son of Man. This birth into humanity, completed by His dying, marks Him as a distinct individual from Melchizedek, who as priest had no pedigree, no beginning of days as an infant, and no end of life.
The Jesse to Naasson links are part of that literal flesh line through David, so Jesus is literally the son of David according to the flesh and naturally a member of David's royal family through Mary's family line. Through Mary's marriage to Joseph He is also included legally in that line, so legally He is a son of David and heir to David's throne and kingdom through Joseph, whose royal descent Matthew traces down through David to Abraham while Luke traces human descent back through Heli to Adam. Together with Matthew's genealogy this shows His descent from David and His claim to David's throne, with son in Scripture commonly meaning a descendant removed by many generations.
Tracing Him back to Adam presents Him as Savior of all nations and for all, as the Deliverer who is the seed of the woman come through the female portion of the human race and as the second Adam, whose family line God preserved despite attempts to destroy it so His lineage could be traced both literally and legally. Joined with the first chapter of Matthew it gives His full pedigree, Luke showing His line through Adam and Enoch and Noah and Matthew taking it up from Abraham and tracing it down through David and Solomon to the birth of Jesus Himself. Coming in David's human family line, He entered the same human family and inherited human flesh with its liability to sin, since His ancestors shared the sinful condition common to humanity and their lives were marked by both good and evil, which gives significance to His temptations and life in the flesh.
The tracing was necessary to establish His identity as the Messiah, the promised Seed of Abraham and heir of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and renewed to David, with both genealogies uniting in Abraham to make it doubly sure He was the promised Seed. These long genealogies back through so many honorable characters bear mighty witness to the divinity of the Word.

Prophecy Doctrine and Proof

God preserved the family line of promise through David, Judah, Jacob and Abraham despite attempts to destroy it, so that the lineage of Jesus as the promised Deliverer and second Adam could be traced both literally and legally. The whole list in Luke reaches back to the beginning to the promise of the seed of the woman, while Matthew gives the legal pedigree through Joseph. It is the genealogy of Mary and not of Joseph, with Heli as the father of Mary and the father-in-law of Joseph and thus the grandfather of Jesus, and the names run through men, including Jesse, Obed, Booz, Salmon and Naasson, because genealogies were reckoned through males.

The preserved genealogy of Judah in Luke 3:32 traces Jesus through Naasson, Salmon, Booz, Obed and Jesse and, with Matthew 1, shows His lineage through the tribe of Judah on both His mother's side and His father's side. It keeps the line of rulership given not to Judah personally but to Judah and his posterity, and the genealogies of Judah the ruler and Levi the priest were preserved while the other tribes were scattered and their genealogies lost. This proves the tribe of Judah was held together until Jesus came, so that in Him as Shiloh the scepter promise is fulfilled and He becomes the center of the gathering of God's people. His distinct tracing of ancestry from Adam proves Christ had a pedigree and entered this world by birth into the human family, and this birth into humanity, completed by His dying, marks Him as a distinct individual from Melchizedek, who as priest had no pedigree, no beginning of days as an infant, and no end of life.

The genealogical names establish literal descent and connect the histories of creation, Eden, and the antediluvian and patriarchal ages with Israel's later history as a record of actual people and events, not allegory. In this period the genealogy serves to establish His royal descent, connecting Jesse through Obed and Boaz to Salmon and Naasson in reverse order from Matthew's. It shows how Christ descended from David and proves He is rightly called the Son of David because He was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, with son in Scripture commonly meaning a descendant removed by many generations.

The parallel line in Luke 3 is given on the side of Mary the mother of Jesus, which fortifies and confirms the complete forty-two-generation record in Matthew 1 ending with Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. Luke counts seventy-five generations from Christ to Adam, with each generation running from father to son. This line through Mary contains more names than Matthew's line through Joseph, which accounts for the difference in the number of generations, since the father of Mary is called the father of Joseph because Joseph was the husband of Mary. There are seventy-four names between Adam and Christ, excluding both, showing that the generations from Adam to Christ were fewer than might be guessed. Each link such as Jesse, Obed, Booz, Salmon and Naasson is one father-to-son step in the Bible rule for counting generations given in Genesis 11, Matthew 1, and Luke 3:23-38, and counted by that rule six thousand years from creation do not make two hundred generations, so a thousand generations require twenty-four thousand years yet beyond 1868, meaning the keeping of God's commandments continues from generation to generation without end.