Luke

3:23-38

The mission of Messiah, 1:5-9:50

2. Testimonies to the Messiah, 2:41-4:30

iv] The witness of Jesus' genealogy

Synopsis

In Jewish culture a person's genealogy is important. In fact, for a priest, four generation are need to prove that nothing disqualifies them from service. So, Luke now traces out Jesus' genealogy, from Joseph to Adam to God.

 
Teaching

Jesus is not only the son / heir of David and a son / descendent of Abraham, he is the messianic son of God, the second Adam.

 
Issues

i] Context: See 2:41-52. The episode before us, The witness of Jesus' genealogy, is the fourth in a group of six witnesses, or testimonies to Jesus found in the second section of Luke's gospel, Testimonies to the Messiah, 2:41-4:30.

 

ii] Interpretation:

The difference between the genealogies provided by Matthew and Luke has cause no end of problems:

One of the oldest theories is that Luke lists the royal heirs and Matthew the natural descendants of Joseph. The ancient historian Eusebius quotes Julius Africanus, who proposed this theory way back in AD 225. A more modern version of the theory reverses the argument. See Carson for his take - legal heir / physical heir.

One popular theory, promoted in more recent times by Godet and Hendriksen, is that Matthew follows Joseph's genealogical line and Luke follows Mary's. In Luke, the statement that Joseph "was supposed" to be the father of Jesus implies that Joseph is not actually part of the list (unlike all the others in the list, "Joseph" is anarthrous, ie., without the genitive article tou).

Another theory is that Joseph has an adoptive relationship in one of the lines and a physical descent in the other. There are different versions of this theory, eg., see Nolland.

It is likely that this problem will never be resolved and this is particularly so because the ancients took a different approach to historical research than we do today. Both Matthew and Luke rested on Genesis and 1 Chronicles, and local genealogical information, to make their own particular inspired point. For Matthew, Jesus is the messianic king of the kingdom through David and Abraham. For Luke, Jesus is the messianic second Adam, Son of God and yet one with all humanity.

 

iii] Synoptics:

Only Luke and Matthew record a genealogy for Jesus. Matthew, who runs from the oldest to the youngest generation, does not record any names earlier than Abraham. From Abraham on, Matthew has forty-one names and Luke has fifty-seven names. Between David and Joseph, Matthew and Luke agree with only Shealtiel and Zerubbabel. Unlike Matthew, Luke presents a list of names without comment, and includes no women.

Clearly, Luke is not using Matthew as a source, but rather, both are using Genesis and 1Chronicles and some other local genealogical source.

 
Text - 3:23

The witness of Jesus' genealogy, v23-38.

kai "Now" - and. Transitional. Again, Luke uses kai to indicate narrative transition.

wJsei "about" - [jesus he = himself was] about [of thirty years old]. This comparative, when used with numbers, expresses approximation, here followed by the genitive of time "thirty years." A person's age is usually counted in multiples of five. Luke's point is that Jesus has reached his maturity. Note that the verb to-be h\n could go with the participle arcomenoV, "beginning", so forming a periphrastic construction, but it is best taken with "about thirty years old."

arcomenoV (arcw) pres. part. "when he began" - beginning his ministry. The participle is adverbial, best treated as temporal.

w]n (eimi) "he was" - being [the son]. The genitive is adjectival, attributive, limiting "Jesus", "who was the son"; "being the son", Rieu.

enomizeto (nomizw) mid. imperf. "so it was thought" - it was supposed, thought. The implication of this parenthetical remark is that Jesus is not the biological child of Joseph, but his legal child.

Iwshf "of Joseph" - of joseph. Proper genitive, adjectival, relational.

tou hli gen. "the son of Heli" - of heli. The genitive is relational, standing in apposition to the proper genitive "Joseph"; "who was the son of Heli."

 

Luke Introduction

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Exegetical Commentaries

 

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