From David to Jesus

This post was first published on ROOTSS on Monday, 3rd March 2008

The genealogy of Jesus is recorded in both Matthew's as well as Luke's gospel.

Matthew's gospel was to portray Jesus as the King of the Jews, hence the need to show his audience that Jesus was indeed a descendent of both Abraham and King David.

Mark's gospel was to portray Jesus as the Suffering Servant. A servant's lineage is of no importance, hence no genealogy was recorded.

Luke's gospel was to portray Jesus as the Son of Man, hence Luke traces Jesus' lineage all the way back to the first man, Adam.

John's gospel was to portray Jesus as the Son of God. Since God exists in the beginning even before Abraham was, the concept of genealogy would not make sense.

Hence, Jesus' genealogy is only recorded in Matthew and Luke.

While Matthew traces the line downwards from Abraham, Luke does the reverse and traces the line upwards all the way to Adam.

But the most fascinating part of Jesus' genealogy is that from David to Jesus.

While Matthew traces it via the kingly line from Solomon downwards to Joseph, Luke traces it via Nathan to Mary.

Shown on the right is a chart I came across that shows these 2 lineages in pictoral form.

The two lines actually converge at Shealtiel and Zerubbabel (the governor of Judah who led the rebuilding of the Temple) and then again at Mary and Joseph.

I will talk more about Matthew's account tomorrow, and about Luke's account thereafter.