The Genealogy of Jesus Christ of Nazareth

Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary as a descendant of the royal house of King David and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, is without question, one of the most widely accepted in all Christendom. Both the gospels of MATTHEW and LUKE list the genealogy of Jesus back to Abraham (Matthew 1: 1-16), and Luke takes it much further, going all the way back to “Adam.” (Luke 3: 23-38). In comparing the two accounts recorded in the gospels and taking note of the discrepancies, although the official or traditional explanation is the author in LUKE is listing the lineage through Mary’s ancestry; which is unlikely because Luke presumably traces the royal bloodline through David’s son Nathan, and not Solomon (Cp. Luke 3: 31; I Samuel 3: 10-19).

Matthew 1: 3-6; Luke 3: 32-33
And to Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamar; and to Perez was born Hezron; and to Hezron, Ram; and to Ram was born Amminadab, Nashron; and to Nashron, Salmon; and to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab; and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth; and to Obed, Jesse; and to Jesse was born David the king.

NOTE: Matthew 1: 11-12; Luke 3: 27 mention Shealtiel and Zerubbabel but that’s about the only thing in common between the two accounts since starting with Perez and continuing through David.

Matthew 1: 12-13a
And after the deportation to Babylon, to Jeconiah was born Shealtiel; and to Shealtiel, Zerubbabel; and to Zerubbabel was born Abiud.

Luke 3: 27
. . . The son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri.

I Chronicles 3: 19
The sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel and Shimei. The sons of Zerubbabel were Meshullam, Hananiah, Shelomith their sister.

NOTE: Matthew uses priestly sounding names such as Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, and Jacob (Cp. 1: 14-16a) and Luke includes the names of priests, Levites, prophets, and others unknown: Matthat, Amos, Mattathias, Nahum, Naggai [Haggai], Semein, Josech, Joda, Joanan, Eliezer, Cosan, Melchi, Elmadam, Jorin, Melea, and Menna (Cp. 3: 24-31). A few of the names that Luke uses are included in Ezra 10: 26-43.

The books of JUDGES through NEHEMIAH contain the genealogical history of the kings, Levites, and priests of Israel as well as Judah, but very little information beyond King David is consistent with the records found in MATTHEW and LUKE.

Ezra 10: 44
“All these had married foreign wives, and some of them had wives by whom they had children.”

Nehemiah 7: 5-6, 61b, 64
Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials, and the people to be enrolled by genealogies. Then I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up first in which I found the following record. These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city. They could not show their father’s houses or their descendants, whether they were of Israel. These searched among their ancestral registration, but it could not be located; therefore they were considered unclean and excluded from the priesthood.

Nehemiah 13: 23-24
In those days, I also saw that the Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but only in the language of his own people.

When thousands of Jews [“land of Judah”] were carried away into Babylonian captivity they simply did not keep accurate genealogical records and scrolls containing family histories, or if they did, these were lost, damaged, or destroyed. On top of that, many of them intermarried and assimilated into the foreign nation where they were held captives; including speaking a different language, changing their names and other such practices alien to them and their ancestors; thereby, abandoning many of their ancient religious customs and cultural traditions.


Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA
June 29, 2008