Here's Why the Genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels are Different

The New Testament writers were more focused on theological revelation and prophetic fulfillment than on statistical features.

A set of questions often asked by Bible students and church parishioners alike around this time of year is: why do the Gospels offer us not one but two genealogies of Jesus, and why are they different?

There are several reasons why the genealogies of Jesus vary in Matthew and Luke, including theological and historical factors, as well as motives related to the original intentions of the biblical writers. As a way of honoring the birth of the Messiah and the wonderful blessings of the Advent season, we will endeavor to answer these questions while further illuminating the beauty of Jesus’ genealogies in the Gospel records.

Both Matthew's and Luke’s genealogies were written with very specific purposes in mind. Matthew’s intention was to show Jesus as the rightful King of Israel and the fulfillment of all God’s promises to His covenant people. Luke writes with a completely different purpose: to demonstrate that Jesus, while the rightful heir to David’s throne, is the Savior of the world and the one who redeemed humanity from the consequences of Adam’s fall.

Matthew’s genealogy travels through Joseph all the way back to Abraham, the father of the Jewish race and the one to whom God promised, “in you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). He traces Jesus’ ancestry through Joseph, a man whose paternal lineage includes King David. Jesus comes from the only kingly line in Jewish history to which God made a promise that their throne would always endure: “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16).

Many first-century Jews expected the Messiah to come from the kingly line of David, but none could have guessed how God would accomplish this. Through the incarnation and Joseph's adoption of Jesus, the husband of Mary, God ensured that Jesus’ paternal lineage was both Davidic and divine. He was the son of Joseph by any legal standard, but in reality, God was the source behind the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary. He is the Son of God and the Son of Man simultaneously, and Matthew is careful to mention Jesus’ mother as the source of his humanity (1:16). While fathered by God himself, Jesus is a true Israelite through maternal descent.[1]

As R.T. France adeptly points out, Matthew successfully demonstrates that Jesus is the one who brings “the history of God’s people to its climax.”[2] His retelling of Jesus’ birth, as well as the genealogy of Jesus’ ancestry, both work toward this end. Matthew’s Gospel (and his genealogy) begins with the words, “book of genesis” (biblos geneseos in Greek). According to France, “The effect (of this) on a Jewish reader is comparable to that of John’s opening phrase, ‘in the beginning…’ The theme of the fulfillment of Scripture is signaled from the very start, and these words suggest that a new creation is now taking place.”[3] Jesus is not just the rightful Davidic King; he is the one whose life will accomplish the full and final redemption of Israel.

Further evidence of Matthew’s fulfillment objective can be found in the structuring of the genealogy. It reads as a survey of Israel’s history from Abraham to the Messiah, arranged into three periods of fourteen generations each. These are not meant to be strict statistical captures of every individual in the familial line from Joseph to Abraham; ancient genealogies rarely emphasized strict statistical accuracy. Rather, the three periods of fourteen represent the major historical movements in Israel’s history. From the promises to Abraham to the Kingship of David, from David to the deportation of Judah to Babylon, and from exile to the final redeemer, the one who would redeem his people not only from physical exile but from the bondage of sin and death. While the Babylonian exile ended in 538 BC, many first-century Jews still considered themselves living in exile, waiting for the Messiah to deliver them from their enemies and liberate them once and for all.

The core differences between the two genealogies center around their length and the person at the opposite end of the ancestry. Luke’s intention is less to demonstrate Jesus’ Davidic kingship (though he is concerned about that) and more to show that Jesus is the son of Adam. Yes, Jesus is the son of God from eternity past, but his human lineage can also be traced straight back to the first man, the one whose failure Jesus came to set right.

Luke’s genealogy contains 77 persons in all, a far cry from Matthew’s 42. Part of the difference can be accounted for in the generations between Abraham and Adam, which are not included in Matthew’s version. Still, it is important to remember that while accuracy was important in the writing of ancient history, methodology was quite different. Both Matthew and Luke’s primary concern was to demonstrate the theological weightiness of Jesus’ existence, not to offer a perfect numerical rendering.

This might best explain the other striking difference between the two genealogies. While Matthew traces Jesus’ ancestry through David and his son, Solomon, using the simple formula “A was the father of B, and B was the father of C,” Luke traces Jesus’ lineage through a different paternal relative of King David while using a different formula altogether: “F was the son of E, and E was the son of D.” While Matthew is sure to outline Jesus’ ancestry through the Judean Kings for reasons mentioned above, Luke’s genealogy runs through a different son of David, Nathan.

Why did Luke choose this son of David, as opposed to Solomon, to place in his genealogy? Several theories exist, but the best explanation is offered by New Testament scholar Mark Goodacre, who suggests that Luke intended to juxtapose Jesus with his kingly ancestors to demonstrate the fulfillment of a major messianic prophecy.

Many of the individuals between Solomon and Jesus represent dubious, unfaithful leaders in Judah’s history. The nation was eventually taken into captivity by the Babylonians in part due to the unfaithfulness of its kings and their unwillingness to uphold God’s righteous standards for the nation. Yet Isaiah prophesied years before the Babylonian exile that a “root would come forth from the stump of Jesse (father of David), and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1). By tracing Jesus’ genealogy through a different son of David, Luke may be implying that while Jesus’ ancestry is certainly Davidic, it’s unlike that of the offspring of Solomon. Jesus is “the root come forth from Jesse,” who is unlike the corrupt kings of Judah’s past. He is the one on whom “the Spirit of the lord rests, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2).

Does this theory accurately reflect Luke’s intention in listing Nathan as the Davidic ancestor of Jesus instead of Solomon? There is no way to know for sure. But one thing we can know is that both genealogies were written by men full of the Holy Spirit, with very specific intentions in writing them as they did. We can glean a great deal of theological insight from the genealogies of Jesus, and together they offer us a remarkably detailed picture of who Jesus was, why he came, and what he accomplished.

[1] Jewish matrilineality, the custom which states that authentic Jewishness is passed on through one’s mother (as opposed to one’s father), did not become an official observance in Judaism until the time of the Talmud. However, the custom, based on passages such as Deuteronomy 7:3-4 and Ezra 9-10, may already have existed among Jews in the first century.

[2] R.T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007), 28.

[3] Ibid, 28.

Sources

France, R.T. The Gospel of Matthew. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007.

Here's Why the Genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels are Different

Blake Barbera is the founder and Lead Teaching Minister at That You May Know Him. He has been teaching the Bible for more than two decades and has served the Church in various capacities during that time, including as a missionary and pastor. Along with his work for That You May Know Him, he teaches New Testament and hermeneutics at a Bible College and Seminary.

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