The Genealogical Record of Jesus Christ (Part 1)

Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38: 

Similar, but, Strikingly Different

There has been much debate throughout the years relative to the genealogical lineage of Jesus Christ.  The NewTestament gospel records cite two.  Why?  Which is the actual line of Jesus?  Only one can be.  This document establishes which.

 Everything that God does is done for a reason.  Everything proceeds according to a set plan.  Nothing is ever arbitrary, nor is it an after thought due to some unforeseen, unexpected circumstance.  So it is with the birth of our Lord.

If, as stated previously in the opening remarks—Jesus Christ is a Man of Jewish descent—then, it must also follow that as such, He must also have a genealogical record.  The Biblical narrative actually records two such listings of His ancestry.  The question dogging the minds of the curious and the inquiring is, why? While conceivably, both records could be His, are they?  Should there not be only one?  Which, then, is the correct one?  Is there a solid, sound, biblical resolution to this apparent conflict?

The birth of Jesus Christ was not only the product of a definite, predetermined plan and purpose, it also followed, a specific route plan, in terms of His genealogical record.  Again, one might say, that plan (like the blue print for the creation itself) was formulated, and finalized long before the first ‘pillaric’ particles (quarks and electrons) upon which the entire universe rests were called into being (Eph. 1:4).  Thus, we conclude that following the satanically instigated Adamic fall, God set in motion His eternal plan—rooted in The Seed—with the promise to the devil behind it that, “while you will in the interim bruise His heel, He (the Seed) will in the finale crush your head” (Gen. 3:15).  This statement “hop-scotches” across the centuries and millennia to come—by-passing all of His (human) progenitors—to the time when satan will kill His pure, sin-free but mortal body of flesh, yet never touch His eternal Spirit and, in so doing, seal his own already sealed fate (“His heel” having been bruised, the death-nail, on which hangs the devil’s eternal destiny, has been driven home).

In addition to several groups of Old Testament listings, the New Testament gives two genealogical records of Jesus Christ of Nazareth:  one according to Matthew’s gospel, the other according to Dr. Luke’s gospel.  Each is strikingly different, yet, there are similarities.  One ultimately has positively nothing to do with the coming of Christ; the other is His biological lineage, as far as that goes, and demonstrates that God ultimately rules in the affairs of men, and that it is He who in the finale makes the decision as to who sits as king among men, regardless of one’s background (it does not matter who tradition or cultures says is next in line to be king; see II Kings 9:6; Daniel 4:17).  Which one is the correct record through which the world was given its Jewish Messiah, and why one, but not the other (consider also “Jesus’ Nationality”, p. 21)?

The Seed

Digging His Roots  

From Adam to Abraham

Officially, Adam being the first link in the chain of Jesus’ genealogy (Gen. 3:15), the next major link is Abraham.  Whereas it might be said that God first began to actively lay the groundwork for the advent of the Christ by issuance of the aforementioned promise to His created but powerful arch-enemy the devil, a.k.a., Lucifer, certainly, the next major event was that of the assurance given to Abraham on his 75th birthday.  At that ripe old age, God told him that every man, woman and child on earth would be blessed on his account (after his becoming a great nation!  See Gen. 12:3; 18:18).  Breaking the news to Abraham twenty-four years later, his still barren wife no more than 10 years younger, God simply, matter-of-factly, self-assuredly, calmly reiterated His earlier promise—then one quarter the age of the century old patriarch and father-to-be, of many nations (at 99 he was actually no longer childless, however, Ishmael, who at 13, was born when Abraham was 86, was not the “child of promise”).  Abraham laughed, so God told him to name his son Isaac, meaning ‘laughter. ’ Because He is Lord of the impossible, this “Laughter” was to born according to promise, one year later (Gen. 16:19).

Afterwards, within a short time, God appeared again, this time physically to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, making the same promise in the hearing of his wife Sarah (she having apparently not been told of Abraham’s previous encounter with the Lord), in which case, she also laughs.  It seems everyone but the Lord of Glory thought that His promise was a ridiculously, preposterous assertion.  Nonetheless, Jehovah (the Self-Existing One, who is eternal), “stuck to His guns”, holding fast to His original plan.  All the nations of the earth would be blessed from the loins of Abraham, through his wife Sarah (not by his son, Ishmael, born to her servant).  The Lord would give him a Seed, to facilitate this blessing (Gen. 22:18).  “And in your ‘Seed’ shall all the nations and families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 26:4; 28:14). 

Acts 3:25 and Gal. 3:16 affirm that this promise, its focus having flared from the singular, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to the multitudes of Israel (via the twelve tribes; see Gen. 35:9-12), finds its final resting place upon the shoulders of the Man from Galilee.  It is His blood that provides redemption for a world that would otherwise have perished in the wrath of the Living God, without even the slightest bit of hope.  What a blessing!  Sadly, many will still perish, given that they reject God’s Provision for their salvation.  Sadder still, many of the perishing will be Christians, who refuse service to God and to the Christ, on His terms (most Christians today refuse to get to know the Son, up close and personal, based upon the written word of God—though, like fools, multitudes can be found publicly, around the globe, praying and singing to the affect that they “…wish to know Him, more…”, as if they honestly think and expect Him to fall over in sheer delight, out of Heaven, out of the blue, just to establish a “chummy” relationship with them, on their demand—as when one scrubs a genie out of his bottle!  They apparently want the same “red carpet” treatment afforded to Abraham, failing to realize that there was David, Ezra, Nehemiah, etc., and others who never heard from God directly, nonetheless, they racked up impressive lives as faith-filled servants, registering and weighing in on Heaven’s Richter scales as those who mastered the art of spiritual, God-centered living, based squarely upon second-hand information.).  They will have come so close, in their relationship with the Lord, and yet in the end will land so ‘far way’ from an eternity in His presence—spending it instead in the Lake of Fire, with the devil, his angels and the lost who were never saved.

 Moses

Although Moses was a descendant of Abraham and at the upper echelon of the choicest of His chosen servants, the Seed was not progeny to Moses.  That is, Moses was not in the genealogical chain of progression.  Nevertheless—in provision of a glimpse as to the nature of this ‘Seed’—God saw fit to make him privy to the fact that He should be (among other things), a Prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15-19).  Like Moses himself, this ‘Seed’ would be from among the Israelis, walking and working in a servant’s role, speaking only what He was told and taught by the Almighty (Jn. 1:1, 14, 10-14; Heb. 1:1-3; Jn. 4:34; 5:19; 7:16; 8:28; see also “The Word, in His own words…” pp. 93 & 94).

King David

The House:  David’s Determination, God’s Promise 

With King David, however, the story is different than with Moses.  For him, the Abrahamic (Isaac and Jacob) theme of the ‘Seed’ is revisited.  Moreover, for him—in response to his desire to build a house in which the Lord was to live—God reversed his ambition, supplanting it with a long-term, permanent plan of His own.  “Tell you what”, God said to him, “instead of you building Me a place in which to live, let Me promise you that I will build the house, albeit, with you in mind.  Following your death, I will establish your Seed, who will be born of your descendant;, His kingdom will I establish.  I will be to Him a Father, He will be to Me a Son….thus will your house be established eternally, as will be your throne (II Sam. 7:11-16).”

At this point in the genealogical progression, the scriptures seem to hover repetitiously, as if for emphasis:  “And I will bring forth a Seed from within Jacob, and from within Judah One who will be the Inheritor of My mountains…” (Isa. 65:9).  “…There will come a Rod out of the stem of Jesse (David), and a Branch will bear fruit from within his roots…in that day there will be a Root of Jesse, who will stand like a signal for the people…” (Isa. 11:1-2, 10).  “And it will come to pass, in that day, that I will call My Servant Eliakim (El-yaw-keem:  God of raising)…and I will put the key of the house of David upon His shoulders…I will fasten Him like a Nail in a sure place…and that Nail…will be removed, cut down, and He will fall…” (Isa. 22:20-25). 

God’s Determination:  ‘Over-the-Top’, for all Who Heard

By these and similar Bible passages, we may be assured of David’s place in the genealogy of Jesus.  But, what or who after this?  The gospel record gives two possibilities.  Neither David the great king, and man after God’s own heart; none of his prophets; not even the wisest man ever—in his son Solomon—understood the far reaching implications of the prophecy the king was given.  In fact, no one living then knew that the promise was “far reaching”, as it were, nor did they understand that the House that God was building was, from mankind’s point of view, a figurative one (rooted in flesh and blood), not a literal one of sticks and stones.  Thus, all eyes and all bets were upon Solomon. 

King Solomon did indeed build the literal house; one that was anything but eternal.  However—in light of how David the king figures undeniably in the train of individuals running between Abraham and the Christ—what part did he play in the structure of the eternal house, in view of his well favored status in the eyes of God (in the early days of his kingdom)?  Many try to paint Solomon a place in the grand scheme of things, the big picture, but does he in any way, shape or form, or fashion, belong there, at all?