Luke 3:37, commentary and pictures

Luke 3:37 is one link in Luke's genealogy that traces Jesus backward in reverse order from Jesus through David and Abraham to Adam and to God. It is Christ's maternal, natural blood line through Mary showing His human descent as Son of Man, distinct from Matthew's paternal, royal, legal line through Joseph showing heirship and kingship, though held by some to trace His lineage through His father's side alongside Matthew. By Jewish usage Mary's name is omitted and her husband Joseph is named in her place as son of Heli, though Heli was Mary's father and Jesus' maternal grandfather. The link itself carries the line from Adam down toward Jesus through Methuselah son of Enoch son of Jared son of Mahalaleel son of Cainan, in the line of promise through Abraham and David's son Nathan to Mary. In this way it shows the Son of God is truly Son of Man of the fallen human race and son of Adam, come in real flesh to conquer sin and to save the whole human race of all nations. It identifies Him as the Messiah, the promised Seed of Abraham and of the woman born of the seed of David according to the flesh, proving God preserved the predicted seed despite Satan's effort to destroy it down to the virgin Mary.

Lineage and Wording

Luke 3:37 belongs to the genealogy that traces Jesus backward in reverse order, from Jesus through Heli through David and Abraham to Adam the first man and progenitor of the race, and beyond Adam to God the Creator of man. The line runs from Adam down to Jesus and from Jesus back to Adam, step by step through Heli and Matthat and through the royal family of David and the seed of Abraham, carrying the maternal descent forward through Mathusala and Enoch and Jared and Maleleel and Cainan. Christ is called the supposed son of Joseph but is in reality the son, that is the maternal grandson, of Heli, and the genealogy ultimately identifies Him as Son of Adam and Son of God, come through the human race including its female line.

That genealogy is Christ's maternal, natural, literal blood line through Mary, showing His human descent as Son of Man and that He is of man and of the human family. It is distinct from Matthew's paternal, royal, legal line through Joseph, which establishes legal heirship and kingship, while Luke presents Him preeminently as Son of Man in contrast to that royal legal genealogy through Joseph. Together with Matthew's genealogy through Joseph, it shows Jesus' connection to the family line and covenant promises and identifies Him as the promised Seed of Abraham.

By Jewish usage and law genealogies were reckoned through males and inheritance passed through males, and genealogy was not customarily traced through women. Therefore Mary's name is omitted and her husband Joseph is named in her place and counted as son of Heli, though Heli was Mary's father and Joseph's father-in-law by marriage and Jesus' maternal grandfather. Under Jewish law Joseph was Jesus' legal father so he is named as Jesus' father, while Jesus' physical descent came through Mary, who is treated as Joseph's father's daughter because she was Joseph's wife.

The verse gives one link in that maternal descent: Mathusala or Methuselah son of Enoch son of Jared son of Maleleel or Mahalaleel son of Cainan, tracing the line through Enoch and Jared to Adam the common father of humanity. It carries the line from David toward Joseph and from Adam down to Jesus through David's son Nathan on Mary's side, Joseph being named as Mary's husband, with both Matthew's and Luke's lines meeting in the stream of time and uniting in Abraham to make doubly sure of that descent from Abraham. Luke places this genealogy in chapter 3 after his comprehensive account of Christ's birth, tracing step by step and presenting Jesus as Son of man. The difference between Luke's and Matthew's accounts has raised questions about how they fit together, with Luke's line through Mary containing more names than Joseph's line, which accounts for the difference in the number of generations. One teaching treats the passage as tracing Jesus' lineage through His father's side, alongside Matthew, as evidence His lineage could be traced.

Humanity and Messiahship

Luke's genealogy is the human genealogy of Jesus through His mother Mary, presenting Him preeminently as the Son of Man, of man and of the human family. It runs in reverse order from Jesus down to Adam and back, carrying His descent from Adam the very first man and progenitor of the race clear back to God the Creator of man, so that the Son of God is shown to be truly the Son of Man, the Son of Adam and the Son of God. The mother herself is not named because genealogy was not customarily traced through women and by Jewish usage and law reckoning runs through the male, so male names are given instead of female names and Mary's husband Joseph is named in her place and counted as son of Heli, though Heli was the father of Mary and the father-in-law of Joseph by marriage and the line through Heli is Mary's line through the royal family of David and the seed of Abraham. Unlike Matthew's royal male line from Abraham through David to Joseph as legal father and heir to David's throne, Luke names Joseph only as the male member of the house in order to show Jesus as son of Adam, son of man, with the promised Deliverer come through the human race including its female line. His ancestors belonged to the fallen human race subject to its iniquities, and through this real line of descent through Mathusala, Enoch, Jared, Maleleel and Cainan He entered humanity in real flesh with its liability to sin in order to conquer sin on humanity's behalf.

The genealogy is given to trace His ancestry on the fleshly side backward from Heli through David and Abraham to Adam who was son of God, identifying Jesus as the Messiah, the promised Seed of Abraham and heir of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and renewed to David. Together with Matthew's genealogy through Joseph the two lines meet and unite in Abraham to make doubly sure of that descent, with Luke's line running back through Heli to Adam himself and Matthew's running back through David to Abraham, so that Jesus is legally a Son of David and heir to the kingdom and literally the Son of David according to the flesh from David's seed through Mary. Son in Scripture commonly means a descendant separated by many generations, which is why He who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh is called the Son of David, with the names in this verse carrying that maternal descent forward through Mathusala and Enoch and Jared and Maleleel and Cainan as Christ the supposed son of Joseph but in reality the maternal grandson of Heli the son of Matthat. It shows His parents were Jews, of the family of David and the tribe of Judah.

By carrying the lineage to Adam, Luke connects Jesus with the whole human race and presents Him as Saviour of all nations and all people. Luke's parallel genealogy on the side of Mary the mother of Jesus fortifies Matthew's complete forty-two-generation record from Abraham through David and Solomon down to Jacob begetting Joseph the husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ, leaving the Messiahship of Jesus with a genealogical proof its enemies never dared to attack openly.

Promise and Preservation

Luke's list is Mary's line, though reckoned in male names as genealogies were reckoned, with Heli as Mary's father and by marriage Joseph's father-in-law and Jesus' grandfather. While Matthew gives the legal pedigree through Joseph, Luke carries the descent back to the beginning to the promise of the seed of the woman.

This name is one link in the literal and legal earthly lineage of Jesus traced backward through the line of promise to David, to Judah, to Jacob, to Abraham. The unbroken genealogy proves that God preserved the predicted seed through which the second Adam, the Deliverer of the seed of the woman, was to come. That preservation held despite Satan's centuries-long effort before the first advent to destroy that seed and its channels. His attack ran through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, David, Solomon, down to the virgin Mary, by deception, idolatry, error, and persecution. It was aimed at all the seed of Abraham but especially at the tribe of Judah and the family of David.

History and Doctrine

Luke 3:23-38 traces real, literal progenitors in an unbroken father-to-son line back to Adam, and the link from Methuselah through Enoch, Jared, Mahalaleel and Cainan places those named ancestors as real persons in the line leading to Jesus. That genealogy depends on Genesis for its record and cannot be verified without it. Luke's brief genealogy, with six verses covering the centuries between the Testaments, establishes Jesus' family history and royal line without giving an inspired account of the events of those centuries.

The genealogy is counted as seventy-five generations from Christ to Adam, each generation running from father to son. Counted from Adam to Christ it is reckoned as about seventy-six generations. Counted another way it contains seventy-four names between Adam and Christ, exclusive of both, showing the generations from Adam to Christ were fewer than might be guessed and supporting the time assigned by Moses before the Flood.

Together with Genesis 11 and Matthew 1 the unbroken line supplies the Bible rule for counting a generation. Counted that way, six thousand years from creation do not make two hundred generations, so eight hundred more generations to make a thousand require twenty-four thousand years yet beyond 1868, and since more than a thousand was meant, it means unlimited time from generation to generation, proving the keeping of the Ten Commandments is perpetuated forever.

The distinct tracing of Christ's ancestry from Adam shows He had a pedigree and entered this world by birth into the human family. This stands in contrast to Melchizedek as priest, who had no beginning of days as an infant and no end of life and no pedigree, and the contrast proves the Melchizedek of Genesis was not Christ but a distinct individual, with Christ being another priest after the same order. The mention of Enoch here, together with six short verses in Genesis, one verse in Hebrews, and two verses in Jude, is all the Bible tells about Enoch, one of the best men who ever lived. Of his first sixty-five years nothing is recorded except that he begat Methuselah and pleased God, and after that he walked habitually with God three hundred years in all the duties of daily life, not in trance or vision, as a father supporting a family and mingling with ungodly men in ordinary business, with God ever present in his thoughts and deeper experience as iniquity increased, longing day by day for closer union until God took him and his earthly walk continued through the gates of the holy city as the first man to enter there.