Event 3 — The Genealogies of Jesus
Two Gospel writers open the story of Jesus with a family tree. To us a list of names looks like something to skip; to their first readers it was the legal proof of who Jesus had the right to be.
A real family tree for a real king
Matthew begins his Gospel not with a star or a manger but with a register of names, because for a Jewish reader that register answered the only question that mattered first: by what right does this man claim to be the Messiah? Matthew’s answer is “son of David, son of Abraham” — the rightful heir of the throne and of the covenant promises. Luke runs the line the other way, back past Abraham all the way to “Adam, the son of God,” widening the frame from the king of Israel to the rescuer of the whole human family. Same Jesus, two family trees, two true claims.
The text
The full lists run many verses; here are the lines that frame them (read the complete genealogies at the links below). Underlined words (like son of David) link to their original-language card below.
Matthew — from Abraham down to Jesus
1The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham… 16Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. 17So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
Luke — from Jesus back to the beginning
23When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli… 38the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Matthew 1:1, 16–17; Luke 3:23, 38 (NASB95)📖 Read the full genealogies
Matthew’s line (Abraham → Jesus): Matthew 1:1–17. Luke’s line (Jesus → Adam → God): Luke 3:23–38. The two lists differ between David and Joseph; the oldest explanation is that Matthew gives the legal/royal line of succession through Joseph, while Luke gives a natural descent (many take it as Mary’s line) — two angles on the one family of Jesus.
What the original words mean
Three details a first-century reader caught instantly — and one they had to count to see.
Matthew’s first words echo the refrain of Genesis — “these are the generations of…” (the Greek Old Testament uses this exact phrase in Genesis 2:4; 5:1). He is signaling that the story of Jesus is a new beginning, the next chapter of the book that started at creation.
↑ Back to the passageNot just an ancestor — a title. God had sworn that David’s heir would reign forever (2 Samuel 7). To call Jesus “son of David” was to call Him the rightful King, the Messiah Israel was waiting for. “Son of Abraham” reaches back further still, to the promise that through Abraham’s seed all nations would be blessed.
↑ Back to the passageMatthew arranges the whole tree into three sets of fourteen. In Hebrew, letters double as numbers, and the three letters of “David” (D-V-D) add up to fourteen. The very shape of the list spells David’s name three times over — a built-in, memorizable signature: this is the son of David.
↑ Back to the passage🏺 Four women in a man’s list — and why that was scandalous
Jewish genealogies traced fathers; Matthew breaks the pattern to name four women — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and “the wife of Uriah” (Bathsheba). Every one of them carries a whiff of scandal or the mark of an outsider: Tamar posed as a prostitute (Genesis 38); Rahab was one, and a Canaanite; Ruth was a Moabite; Bathsheba’s name is left out and replaced with “the wife of Uriah,” pointing straight at David’s great sin. In a culture obsessed with pure lineage and honor, Matthew deliberately writes Gentiles, outsiders, and broken stories into the King’s family tree — quietly announcing, before chapter one is over, that this Messiah came for exactly such people.
What each genealogy is showing you
Matthew and Luke aren’t competing; they’re aiming at two different first audiences with two different needs.
🏺 Why a genealogy was a legal document, not trivia
In Israel, your family line determined almost everything: which tribe you belonged to, whether you could serve as a priest, what land you inherited, and — for one family — whether you had any claim to the throne of David. After the Babylonian exile, families guarded these records carefully (Ezra and Nehemiah even excluded priests who couldn’t prove their descent). So when Matthew and Luke open with a genealogy, they are filing Jesus’ credentials. The claim “Messiah, son of David” was not a slogan; it was a legal assertion their readers could, in principle, check.
How it ties to the rest of Scripture
| Passage | Connection |
|---|---|
| Genesis 12:1–3 | The promise to Abraham that through his offspring all nations would be blessed — “son of Abraham.” |
| 2 Samuel 7:12–16 | God’s oath that David’s throne would last forever — the basis of “son of David.” |
| Ruth 4:18–22 | A Moabite woman written into the royal line — one of Matthew’s four surprising mothers. |
| Romans 5:18–19 | Jesus as the new Adam who undoes the first Adam’s fall — the point of Luke’s line back to Adam. |
Resources to explore
Play the video here, then dig into the text and its background.
🎬 Watch & listen
- Video: BibleProject — Matthew 1–13Overview with study notes and downloads.
- Podcast: An Intro to Reading the GospelsHow the Gospels present Jesus as a real figure in history.
📖 Study tools
- Matthew 1:1 interlinear + Strong’sSee “book of the genealogy” in the Greek.
- Both genealogies (NASB95)Matthew and Luke side by side on Bible Gateway.
🔗 Cross-reading
- 2 Samuel 7The promise behind “son of David.”
- Genesis 38Tamar’s story — one of the four mothers.
Discussion questions
- For a first-century Jew, a genealogy was a legal credential. What was Matthew claiming about Jesus simply by opening with “son of David, son of Abraham”?
- Matthew shapes the whole tree into three sets of fourteen — the number-value of “David.” What does it tell you that he built David’s name into the very structure of the list?
- Matthew breaks Jewish custom to include four women, most of them outsiders or scandalous. What was he signaling to his readers about the kind of Messiah Jesus would be?
- Matthew traces Jesus to Abraham; Luke traces Him all the way to Adam. Why might each writer have chosen his stopping point for his particular audience?
- Genealogies anchored Jesus in real, checkable history. Why does it matter that the Gospels present Him as a real man with a real lineage, not a timeless legend?