Q: The genealogy of Jesus according to Matthew 1 does not match the genealogy given in Luke 3. How can that be?
Q: The genealogy of Jesus according to Matthew 1 does not match the genealogy given in Luke 3. How can that be?
A: This one used to bother me. I had heard that one was through Joseph and the other through Mary. This satisfied me only until I read the lists again and realized both refer to Joseph. Obviously there has been a mistake, right? Not necessarily. According to ancient law birthright passed through the father.
Note that Luke does not even mention Mary in the list
of generations, but Heli is presented as the father of Joseph. Since Matthew
names Jacob as the father of Joseph, this would appear to be a contradiction.
However, if a man had no sons, his birthright could be passed to his son-in-law.
This appears to be what has happened here. In this way Yeshua - who, according
to the New Testament had no physical biological Father - could legally inherit
the lineage of his biological ancestor "Heli"
David Brown
AMF International
http://www.amfi.org