Luke 3:35, commentary and pictures

This verse is one link in the genealogy Luke places after the account of Jesus' birth, tracing backward in reverse order from Jesus as the supposed son of Joseph through David and Abraham to Adam the son of God and on to God the Creator. It names Saruch, Ragau, Phalec, Heber and Sala in direct father-to-son succession in Jesus' literal ancestral line as real people in real history. By Jewish usage the reckoning runs through males only, so Mary is not named and Joseph is named in her place as the supposed, legal son, being Heli's son-in-law by marriage while Heli was in reality Mary's father and Jesus' maternal grandfather, while those who held the other harmonization taught Heli was another name for Joseph himself. Luke thus gives Jesus' natural, flesh-and-blood descent through Mary to show He is of man and of the human family, while Matthew gives His legal, royal genealogy through Joseph to establish His kingship, Luke following David's line through Nathan and Matthew following the reigning house through Solomon. Carried back to Adam the first man and beyond Adam to God, it presents Christ preeminently as the Son of Man, truly the Son of Adam and the promised Seed of Abraham, and through Mary as literally the Son of David according to the flesh and heir to the kingdom.

Genealogy's Line and Reckoning

Luke places this genealogy after his account of Jesus' birth, and this verse is one link in it tracing backward in reverse order from Jesus as the supposed son of Joseph through Heli and David and Abraham to Adam the son of God and on to God the Creator. The line runs through males only from Heli her father back through the royal family of David and through the seed of Abraham to Adam the very first man and progenitor of the race, and still back of Adam to the Son of God and to God the Creator of man. Luke thus carries the record in reverse order from Adam down to the mother of Jesus, with Jesus at about thirty years of age entered as the supposed son of Joseph who was the son of Heli.

The five names are a direct father-to-son succession in Jesus' literal ancestral line, each step representing descent from father to son from David through Nathan to Joseph and ultimately to Jesus. Saruch, Ragau, Phalec, Heber, and Sala stand in Christ's human ancestry as real people, and the tracing of His lineage back to Adam presents the events connected with their times as real history. A lineage reaching Abraham in this way also established an Israelite's claim to citizenship in the Jewish nation and to the blessings of the covenants.

By Jewish usage and law genealogy was reckoned through males only and the mother was not customarily named, so Mary is not named and male names are given instead of female names. Joseph is named in her place as the supposed, legal son, called Heli's son as his legal son though he was Heli's son-in-law by marriage, because a daughter's husband could be recorded as her father's son-in-law and as her father's son. Heli was in reality Mary's father and Jesus' maternal grandfather, so Jesus was only the supposed son of Joseph but in reality the maternal grandson of Heli, with His fleshly descent and literal blood line coming through Mary while Joseph as Mary's husband was treated as the son of her father. As an alternative harmonization by which the different names need not be a contradiction, Heli may have been another name for Joseph himself.

The genealogy shows Jesus' parents were of Jewish descent through the tribe of Judah and the family of David, whose family line was preserved. Together with Matthew's genealogy it shows His descent could be traced through Judah and proves Christ descended from David and was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. He is therefore rightly called the Son of David though separated from David by many generations, illustrating the common scriptural usage of calling a distant descendant the son of an ancestor.

Counted father to son, the genealogy reckons seventy-five generations from Christ to Adam, with each generation running from father to son. Reckoned the other way it is about seventy-six from Adam to Christ, and counted exclusive of both Adam and Christ the names between them give seventy-four. More names are found in the line of Mary than in that of Joseph, and this greater number accounts for the difference in the number of the generations as given by Matthew and Luke.

Harmony with Matthew

Luke gives the natural, literal, flesh-and-blood descent of Jesus through Mary to show He is of man and of the human family, while Matthew gives His legal, royal genealogy through Joseph to establish His kingship and inheritance of the kingdom according to law. The Lucan line runs back to Adam the very first man and still back of Adam to the Son of God, so that the Son of God is shown to be truly the Son of Man, and it presents His life as given for the human race from the standpoint of Savior of all humanity. Because genealogy was not customarily traced through women and reckoning was through males only, male names are given instead of female names, with Mary herself not named and her husband Joseph named in her place as the supposed son and as the legal son of Heli. Heli was in reality the father of Mary and by marriage the legal father of Joseph as his son-in-law, and Joseph was the legal father of Jesus under Jewish law and counted as son of her father through marriage to Mary, though the fleshly descent came through Mary. Luke thus carries the human descent in reverse order from Jesus at about thirty years of age as the supposed son of Joseph who was of Heli, back through Heli through the royal family of David and through the seed of Abraham to Adam the progenitor of the race and on to God the Creator, while Matthew gives the royal genealogy through the legal father Joseph.

Luke follows the line from David through Nathan, Solomon's brother, as the literal blood line through Mary with Joseph named in place of Mary because genealogies customarily listed males and inheritance passed through them, while Matthew follows the reigning house through Solomon to Joseph. In this reckoning Saruch, Ragau, Phalec, Heber, and Sala stand in the direct father-to-son ancestral line tracing step by step within Luke's descent from David through Nathan and ultimately to Jesus. Joseph is named only as Mary's husband and as the male member of the house, leaving the Lucan line as Mary's lineage tracing Jesus as son of Adam and son of man back to Adam the son of God.

The two genealogies belong together and are to be harmonized, so their different names and lines need not be a contradiction. Matthew's genealogy traces the reigning house through David and Abraham to Joseph as the legal son and heir, while Luke traces the literal flesh lineage through Mary back through Heli to Adam himself, with Joseph named only because reckoning is through the male and counted as son of Heli, Mary's father, through marriage to Mary. In this harmony Jesus is shown to be legally a Son of David and heir to the kingdom, and literally the Son of David according to the flesh. Those who held the alternative harmonization taught that Heli may have been another name for Joseph himself.

Matthew traces forward from Abraham through David and Solomon to Jesus to show legal claim as lineal descendant of Abraham, while Luke traces backward in reverse order from Mary and Heli her father through David to Abraham and Adam, with Jesus only the supposed son of Joseph but in reality the maternal grandson of Heli. Both genealogies unite in Abraham to make doubly sure Jesus is the promised Seed of Abraham and heir of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and renewed to David, and Luke's parallel line through Mary His mother fortifies the complete forty-two-generation record in Matthew ending with Joseph the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born. Joined together, the royal pedigree traced forward and the long genealogy traced backward to Adam the son of God bear mighty witness to the fulfillment of the promised human descent of the Messiah as Deliverer and seed of the woman coming through the female portion of the race from Adam through Enoch and Noah onward to Jesus. Luke traces the genealogy through the names and generations recorded in Genesis, so without Genesis the genealogy cannot be verified.

Christ's Human Identity

Luke's genealogy presents Christ preeminently as the Son of Man by tracing His human descent in reverse order from Jesus as the supposed son of Joseph back through Heli to Adam the very first man and on to God the Creator of man. It is His natural, flesh-and-blood lineage through Mary, showing He is of man and of the human family and that His life was given for the human race. From this standpoint He is set forth as the Savior of all nations and of all humanity, the true and perfect Son of Man. Because Jewish usage reckoned genealogy through males only and did not name the mother, Jesus at about thirty years of age is entered as the supposed son of Joseph, who was counted as Heli's son as his legal son though in reality he was Heli's son-in-law and Heli was Mary's father.

Carried back to Adam the progenitor of the race and still back of Adam to the Son of God, the line shows the Son of God was truly the Son of Man. In His human nature He is thus the Son of Adam, who was the son of God. This unbroken human genealogy runs through Heli and again through the royal family of David and through the seed of Abraham to Adam, giving Christ's human descent while Matthew gives His royal genealogy through His legal father Joseph. Joined with that royal pedigree traced forward from Abraham through David and Solomon to Jesus, the long genealogy bears mighty witness to the fulfillment of the promised human descent of the Deliverer as the seed of the woman coming through the female portion of the race from Adam through Enoch and Noah onward to Jesus.

The named line places Jesus in a fleshly ancestry traced in reverse order from Heli, Mary's father, back through David and Abraham to Adam who was the son of God, so that He was only the supposed son of Joseph but in reality the maternal grandson of Heli. These named ancestors Saruch, Ragau, Phalec, Heber, and Sala stand in His literal line of descent as real people whose times are real history, like Joseph and Mary. Their names establish His identity as the Messiah, the promised Seed of Abraham, and connect Him to the covenant promise. Both genealogies unite in Abraham to make doubly sure He is the promised Seed of Abraham and heir of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and renewed to David, while a lineage reaching Abraham also established an Israelite's claim to citizenship in the Jewish nation and to the blessings of the covenants.

Through Mary the genealogy traces His literal flesh lineage down through David's seed to Mary, making Him a member of David's royal family. Unlike Matthew's genealogy, which gives His royal descent through David and Joseph as His legal father by which He inherits the kingdom according to law, Luke traces His natural descent through Mary back through Heli to Adam himself, with Joseph named only because reckoning is through the male. Thus He is legally a Son of David and heir to the kingdom, and literally the Son of David according to the flesh, rightly so called though separated from David by many generations, illustrating the common scriptural usage of calling a distant descendant the son of an ancestor. That real human ancestry before Abraham was subject to the iniquities common to humanity, and within this line of flawed ancestors He entered humanity's inherited condition, taking the same flesh and blood and liability to sin and being made flesh.

Promise, Preservation and Use

With Matthew 1 it traces His literal and legal descent through the line of promise through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, David and Solomon down to the virgin Mary, back to David, back to Judah, back to Jacob, back to Abraham. Coming through the female portion of the race from Adam through Enoch and Noah onward to Jesus as the seed of the woman, it traces Mary's pedigree, distinct from Matthew's legal genealogy of Joseph, back to the beginning to that promise. The genealogy shows God preserved the predicted seed of the woman, the line through which the second Adam would come as the seed of Abraham and especially the tribe of Judah and the family of David, despite Satan's efforts during all the centuries before the first advent to destroy those channels by deception, idolatry, error and persecution. Joined with the royal pedigree in Matthew traced forward from Abraham through David and Solomon to Jesus, the long genealogy tracing backward to Adam the son of God bears mighty witness to and proves He is the Deliverer and Messiah in fulfillment of the promised human descent.

It shows one link in the line that traces Christ's ancestry distinctly from Adam, proving Christ had a pedigree and entered this world by birth into the human family. Unlike Melchizedek, who as priest has no pedigree, no beginning of days as an infant, and no end of life, Christ was both born and died, and this difference proves the Melchizedek who met Abraham and Christ are distinct individuals, one priest and another priest after the same order. As one father-to-son link in Luke's genealogy, given as part of the Bible rule for counting generations with Genesis 11 and Matthew 1, it shows six thousand years from creation yield fewer than two hundred generations, so a thousand generations requires more than twenty-four thousand years beyond 1868, proving the promise to those who keep God's commandments means more than a thousand generations and perpetuates the ten commandments from generation to generation without end. The reckoning of about seventy-six generations from Adam to Christ, together with the generations since Christ, is used to estimate that fewer than one hundred generations had elapsed and to suggest that many generations remained. The count of seventy-four names between Adam and Christ, exclusive of both, is used to estimate the generations from Adam to Christ in vindication of the Scripture account of the flood.