As we prepare to celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus as a man, I want to look back at the genealogies of Jesus. This is not your usual Christmas story, but my preaching is not normal. I try and bring out the neglected things in scripture. Today people are often using DNA to try and find out their ancestry, but in the days of Jesus genealogies were well recorded for all to verify as who your dad was was very important in some cases such as we will see with Jesus. At the time of the birth of Jesus the genealogy of a person was very important to the Jews as well as many other countries. The genealogies of the Jews were well recorded and in the case of Jesus it was especially important because he claimed to be the son or descendant of king David. He told his disciples that one day he would reign as king from the throne of David. In order to do that he would have to prove that he was eligible to do so. The genealogy of Jesus could easily be verified as to whether his claim was legitimate. We are given three accounts of the genealogy of Jesus in the gospels. Most people only claim there are two accounts, but I will show you there are actually three as to who Jesus is. The accounts vary in details and we will see that this is important and is not an error in scripture or a contradiction.
The Jews were looking for the Messiah to come and knew that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem as the descendant of David or as a son of David as they referred to him. (Jeremiah 23:5 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.) (Matthew 22:42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.) A son in scripture does not always necessarily mean a literal son, but in this case just a descendant. (Matthew 1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.) To prove he was the Messiah, Jesus would have to proof that he had fulfilled all of the prophecies concerning the Messiah starting with the right to rule on the throne of David as his son. The genealogy of Jesus was never doubted that he was the son of David as he was referred to as that and the people wanted him to take the throne at that time and overthrow the Romans. I already said they could easily go to the temple and verify the genealogy of Jesus and the people did. The Jews of Jesus’ day never questioned why there were two different accounts of Jesus’ genealogy as they understood that both were legitimate. It was clear that Jesus was a son of David. Here are some verses showing they understood Jesus was a rightful heir of David’s throne. Two blind men know Jesus is the son of David. (Matthew 9:27 ¶ And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.) The people knew Jesus was the son of David as he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as they were hoping he was coming as king. (Matthew 21:9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.) Since the people understood that Jesus was a legitimate son of David and rightful heir to the throne then they wanted to make him king even if they had to force him to become king as they wanted to remove the authority of Rome. (John 6:15 ¶ When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.) Jesus will one day claim the throne of David, but that will not be until his second coming when he will reign from Jerusalem for one thousand years during the Millennium. Jesus came the first time, not to be king even though he had that right, but rather to be the Saviour of mankind.
The first genealogy account that we will look at is found in Matthew 1. There are differences in opinion about these genealogies. Matthew 1 shows the genealogy of Jesus from David by his stepdad Joseph from David’s son Solomon. (Matthew 1:6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;) (Matthew 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.) (Matthew 1:20
But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.) This genealogy will show Jesus is the legitimate son of David because Joseph has taken Jesus as his adopted son and therefore he gets all the rights of a natural son as Joseph was his legal dad. The only problem was Jesus was disqualified from the throne since there was a king in this line that was cursed by God who said he would never have a descendant to reign on the throne. This is where the second genealogy account will come into play later. The cursed king was Jeconiah who was also known as Coniah and Jehoiachin. (Jeremiah 22:30 Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.) Because of this curse Jesus would be disqualified from the throne except for his line through Mary. There are people who claim that Jesus was still not disqualified since he was not a blood descendant of Joseph and therefore was not a part of the curse. Since Joseph was the legal dad of Jesus it is said that he is thus still eligible. It is said that Jesus could claim the throne as the legal son of Joseph because of what is known as the levirate marriage rule where if a brother died without any children then the next brother was expected to marry his brother’s widow and give her children. This first child would be considered as the offspring of the dead brother with any additional children as the children of the living brother. This was done to keep the family name alive. The first child would retain all rights of the dead brother. (Deuteronomy 25:6 And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.) Others have claimed they believe that the curse only applied to the lifetime of Jeconiah or to his son and did not continue on. They say this can be seen in Zerubbabel who was the governor of Judah upon the Jews return following the end of the Babylonian captivity. It is believed that Zerubbabel was the grandson of Jeconiah as mentioned in my Zechariah study. (I Chronicles 3:16-17 16 And the sons of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son.
17 ¶ And the sons of Jeconiah; Assir, Salathiel his son,) (Haggai 1:1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,) It is true that Zerubbabel was made governor, but this is still not the same as king and there is no evidence that his governorship was passed down to his sons and on down the line. Others have said that Jeconiah repented during the Babylonian captivity and thus God ended the curse. They also use the example of Zerubbabel as governor as well as the fact that Jeconiah was elevated by the Babylonian king to no longer be in prison, but rather to eat at the king’s table. (II Kings 25:27-30 27 ¶ And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil–merodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;
28 And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon;
29 And changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life.
30 And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.) It is possible I suppose that any of these possibilities about Jeconiah are true and that Jesus was still eligible for the throne by Joseph due to legal rights, but I believe that it is most likely from Mary that Jesus obtained those rights and that is why we have the second genealogy account in Luke. Luke’s account may have just been to show that Jesus is well qualified as he is qualified by both his mom and stepdad, but I think it is by Mary which is why God told Moses the rule about women by Zelophehad’s daughters which would come into play with Mary.
The second genealogy of Jesus as a man can be found in Luke 3. This second genealogy shows Jesus as a blood descendent of David by his mom Mary by David’s son Nathan rather than Solomon by his mom Mary. This genealogy leaves no doubt that Jesus has a rightful claim to the throne of David which he will assume during the Millennium. (Luke 3:23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,) (Luke 3:31 Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David,) Verse 23 shows Jesus as the supposed son of Joseph since he was only the adopted son of Joseph and not his biological son. It says Joseph and not Mary since the man was the head of the house, not the wife and this is how genealogies were determined. There are some who say that Mary is not mentioned since this genealogy still applies to Joseph rather than Mary and this is seen by his name being mentioned. They say this genealogy shows the Levirate laws in effect as Heli may have been the father-in-law of Joseph and was considered the adopted son of Heli. These things may be true, but I tend to believe that Luke’s genealogy shows the bloodline of Jesus by Mary. I believe the fact that Jesus is able to claim the throne of David by his mom Mary is the reason that God told Moses how to handle the situation with Zelophehad’s daughters. Zelophehad had had five daughters, but no sons. He died in the wilderness and his daughters said to Moses that they should be entitled to their dad’s property or else it would be removed from the family because there were no sons. God agreed and told Moses that they were to get their share of land, but that they had to marry men within their own tribe so that the land would stay in the tribe. (Numbers 27:6-8 6 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
7 The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them.
8 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.) By God allowing this exception this would then later allow Jesus to assume the throne by a woman Mary rather than through a man. I do believe that most likely Heli was the dad of Mary and that as I said Joseph was the adopted son of Heli who probably had no daughters and by adopting Joseph he could pass along the line of David by Nathan as well as Joseph’s own line by Solomon. Joseph would have been the son in law of Heli, but he is referred to as son since this was how they believed unlike the way we do today. Also there was no specific word in Greek for son in law unlike in Hebrew so son would be used. Zelophehad’s daughters were required to marry within the tribe so that the land stayed in the tribe and the same still applies here which it did. Mary and Joseph were both of the tribe of Judah so Mary obeyed by marrying within her tribe. Some try to say Mary was a Levite since her cousin Elisabeth was a Levite, but that is not true. (Luke 1:5 ¶ There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judæa, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.) Most likely Mary’s dad Heli married a Levite who was the sister of either the mom or dad of Elisabeth and thus Elisabeth was her cousin, but they were from different tribes. Those who claim that Mary was a Levite say this shows how Jesus is entitled to be both king by Joseph and priest by Mary, but Jesus gets his priesthood by God, not Mary. It was very unusual for the genealogy to be traced by the mom rather than the dad, but then again Jesus was not your ordinary son in having been born of a virgin. People often claim the Bible is sexist against women as it is a patriarchal society, yet Christianity gives more opportunities to females than any other religion and here we see how the important genealogy of Jesus to prove he has a right as the Messiah to the throne of David comes from a female and not a man so this claim is false. Jesus will one day soon rule and it will be by his bloodline through his mom and not by a man. The fact that God allowed Zelophehad’s daughters the right of inheritance and then later continue on to other women including Mary shows God’s grace and love for women as much as men.
A third genealogy of Jesus is found in John. Most people miss this genealogy. The two genealogies in Matthew and Luke are relevant to Christmas as they show the birth of Jesus as a man and his earthly connection to man as a man. This shows Jesus was a man just like any man today and he had descendants and ancestry just like us. Jesus could clearly trace his ancestry back to David and beyond and he had every right to claim to be the Messiah and he will have every right to reign as King one day soon. John does not show the genealogy of Jesus as a man, but rather as God. Unlike the Matthew and Luke genealogies which show a beginning for Jesus as a man, John shows that as God Jesus has always existed. This genealogy does not show the creation of Jesus as God, but rather that he as God has always existed and created everything else. (John 1:1-3 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.) It is important to include this genealogy as Jesus was not a mere man when he was here on earth, but rather was the God-man who became a 100% man just like any man, yet he still retained his 100% being God. (John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.) (Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.) It is by the fact that Jesus as God was willing to become a man and die for our sins and rise again from the grave on that third day that we are able to be reconciled with God.
There are two genealogies listed for Jesus as a man to clearly show that Jesus is the son of David which was never disputed and he does have the legal right to reign as king. This was also never disputed. We also see a third genealogy in John showing how Jesus has always been God and only became a man when he was born in a virgin birth by Mary. As we will soon celebrate Christmas, remember how Jesus will one day reign as king and remember his genealogical record bears proof that he is the Messiah and son of David. Remember that there are no contradictions or errors found in the King James Bible and we see again this is true with two completely different genealogies of the same person. All things are in scripture for a reason, even the seemingly unimportant things such as Zelophehad’s daughters. This also shows how all scripture is about Jesus. We need to just study scripture and learn from it so that we may understand the coming future events. Praise God that he allowed Zelophehad’s daughters the right to an inheritance so that Jesus was allowed his rightful inheritance because of this law by his mom Mary. God truly is a righteous and loving God.
