Genealogy and Birth of Jesus
1-17. Genealogy of Jesus: cp. Luke 3:23. The two genealogies of Jesus, which are constructed on quite different principles, require careful comparison and study, if their purpose and significance are to be understood. In both, the descent of Jesus is traced through Joseph, not Mary, partly because the claim of Jesus to the throne of David could only be established through His foster-father Joseph; partly because, in genealogies, the Jews took no account of female descent. The genealogies are not inspired documents. They are the work of Jewish pedigree-makers who did their best to fill the gaps of records which were frequently fragmentary. They are inserted by the evangelists as honest attempts to ascertain the truth. Their accuracy or inaccuracy does not affect the main point at issue, our Lord's descent, through His legal father Joseph, from David. Joseph's family certainly claimed descent from David, and even the enemies of Jesus admitted the claim (see Matthew 9:27; Matthew 12:23; Matthew 15:22; Matthew 20:30; Matthew 2:19; Matthew 22:42 and parallels). As Jewish families were particularly tenacious of family traditions, and were accustomed to preserve genealogical records, our Lord's Davidic descent through Joseph may be regarded as established. His Davidic descent through Mary is more doubtful, but, on the whole, probable. Luke 1:36, taken alone, might suggest that she belonged to the tribe of Levi, but Luke 1:32 and Luke 1:69 lose much of their point, unless it be supposed that Mary herself was descended from David. The OT. prophecies and the Apostolic Church regarded Christ as descended from David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3; Psalms 132:11; Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5), and if Jesus were born of a virgin, His actual descent could only be upon the mother's side.
Both genealogies reflect current rabbinical ideas about the Messiah's descent. It was disputed, for instance, whether He would be descended from David through Solomon, or whether, owing to the curse on this line (Jeremiah 22:28; Jeremiah 36:30), through another son, Nathan (1 Chronicles 3:5). Accordingly St. Matthew's genealogy traces our Lord's descent through Solomon, St. Luke's through Nathan. Other rabbinical features are the omission of links in the genealogies, especially in St. Matthew, and the artificial arrangement of the names in numerical groups, probably as an aid to the memory. St. Luke's source probably grouped the names in multiples of ten (20 generations from David to the captivity, 20 from the captivity to Christ). This was the commonest method. St. Matthew employs multiples of seven (14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the captivity, 14 from the captivity to Christ). St. Matthew's list is a genealogy only in appearance. It is really an early Jewish-Christian attempt to construct a list of successive heirs to the throne of David, and so to exhibit Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, as the rightful king of Israel. Thus Shealtiel (Salathiel), Matthew 1:12, was not the actual son of Jechoniah, who was childless (Jeremiah 22:28), but the next heir to the crown, and probably for that reason adopted by Jechoniah: see 1 Chronicles 3:17. According to St. Luke, Shealtiel's real father was Neri.
St. Luke's list, on the other hand, aims at being a true genealogy, and that not of Mary, as a few authorities still maintain, but of Joseph: see on Luke 3:23. We are thus faced with the serious difficulty that Joseph's father is called by St. Matthew 'Jacob,' and by St. Luke 'Heli.' Have we here an error made by one or both evangelists? It is, of course, possible, but hardly likely, this being only the second step of the genealogy. Assuming both genealogies to be in this point correct, and taking into account the special character of St. Matthew's list, the statements are best harmonised by supposing that Jacob, the true heir to the throne, being, like Jechoniah, childless, adopted the next male heir Heli, who belonged to the other branch of the family, that, namely, which descended from Nathan. A less probable supposition is that Heli and Jacob were brothers, and that, one of them dying childless, the other took his wife and raised up seed to him by what is called a Levirate marriage: see Deuteronomy 25:6; Matthew 22:23. The point in favour of this view is that the fathers of Heli and Jacob, Matthat and Matthan, have nearly the same name. The point against it is that Matthat and Matthan have different fathers, and so were different persons, unless we again make use of the expedient of a Levirate marriage, or something similar.