GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 3:24-27
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ – Since the Captivity
24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, 27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,
In this part of Jesus’ genealogy, just four verses, there are 20 generations, taking us backward almost 700 years from Jesus’ parents to the time of the Babylonian Captivity. Since we know from Scripture when the 18th and 19th names (Zerubbabel and Shealtiel) fell historically, we can date the whole section with some accuracy. They were grandson and grandfather, so there is at least one name missing (1 Chronicles 3:17-19), but if we assume that no other names are missing down to the time of Heli, and guessing that Zerubbabel’s grandson Joanan was born in time to see completion of the second temple, that leaves about 30 years for each generation, with each one’s date of birth approximately as follows (all dates BC of course):
Neri, 680
Shealtiel, 650
(Pedaiah, 620 – 1 Chron. 3:18)
Zerubbabel, 590
Rhesa, 560
Joanan, 530 (temple is completed in 516, Ezra 6:15-18)
Joda, 500
Josech, 470 (about the time Esther was written)
Semein, 440
Mattathias, 410 (this was about the time of Malachi)
Maath, 380
Naggai, 350
Esli, 320 (this was about the time of Alexander the Great)
Nahum, 290 (not the prophet)
Amos, 260 (not the prophet)
Mattathias, 230
Joseph, 200 (Antiochus III conquers Palestine)
Jannai, 170 (Antiochus IV forbids Judaism in Israel; Maccabees revolt)
Melki, 140
Levi, 110
Matthat, 80 (Roman rule of Judea begins in 63)
Heli, 50
Mary? 20
If there are names apart from Pedaiah which are omitted, there still is room for them, but those kinds of omissions do not change the point Luke makes. This was the line of Jesus, father to son, from the time of the exile all the way to the birth of the Savior himself. These men and their families saw difficult times. They witnessed the fall of Judah, and its mediocre rebirth. It was hardly more than an echo of its former self—just as the line of Jesse was no longer a flourishing tree but just a dead stump (Isaiah 11:1). Yet God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Their weakness and mediocrity only showed God’s glory in its brightest light. Here, in this crushed and crumbled kingdom, God kept his impossible promise. In a nation that survived simply because its enemies hadn’t quite bothered yet to swat them like insects, God kept the line of the Savior going, from the Babylonian captivity to the Persian release, through Greek incursion and Roman oppression. The line continued, the Baby was born of a virgin girl, and our Savior became flesh to rescue us all from our sins.
Many Christians and others have misunderstood or doubted the humanity of Jesus Christ over the centuries. The Docetists like Marcion denied that Jesus had any body at all, and described his physical shape as a phantom. The Arians claimed he had a body but no soul. Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea (died 390) tried to distinguish that Jesus had a body and a soul but no spirit (three synods held during his lifetime countered this teaching). A group called the Monotheletes taught that Jesus had a body and a soul but not a human will. Valentinus, a Gnostic, taught that Jesus had some kind of spiritual body higher and radically different from ours. This teaching was picked up again in the 16th and 17th centuries by the Anabaptists, Puritans, Non-Conformists, and Mennonites, and it is still maintained today in various forms by General Baptists, Particular Baptists, and Congregationalists. No teaching that denies the natural human nature of Jesus can stand on Scriptural grounds. The teaching of the Bible in this genealogy cannot be ascribed to anyone other than a human being. No angel or animal could be included in this lineage. Neither could God, without taking on human flesh through a natural mother. This is what the Second Person of the Trinity did, so that his mother’s physical ancestors became his ancestors. The fathers of Jesus’ parents were his grandfathers. His grandfathers’ fathers were his great-grandfathers. And so the line is reckoned for us. The Son of God became the Son of Man, for our sakes.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota