The scriptural references are Matthew chapter 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-37. Matthew shows that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus was the son of David. In other words, he was David's descendant. Jesus is also the descendant of Abraham. Abaham was Isaac's father. Isaac was Jacob's father. Jacob had many sons and Judah was the first born son. Judah was Perez and Zera's father and Tamar was their mother. Perez was Hezron's father, and Hezron was Ram's father. Ram was Amminadab's father and Amminadab was Nahshon's father. Nashon was Salmon's father. Salmon was Boaz's father and Rahab was his mother. Boaz was Obed's father and Ruth was his mother. Obed was Jesse's father and Jesse was king David's father. David was Solomon's father and his mother had been Uriah's wife. Solomon was Rehoboam's father.Then Rehoboam was Abijah's father and Abijah was Asa's father. Asa was Jehoshaphat's father and Jehoshaphat was Jehoram's father. Then Jehoram was Uzziah's father. Uzziah was Jotham's father, and Jotham was Ahaz's father. Hezekiah was Manasseh's father, and Manasseh was Amon's father. Then Amon was Josiah's father. Josiah had several sons and Jechoniah was the first son. At that time an enemy took the Jewish people away to Babylon.
Then Jechoniah was Shealtiel's father and Shealtiel was Zerubbabel's father. Zerubbabel was Abiud's father and Abiud was Eliakim's father. Then Eliakim was Azor's father. Azor was Zadok's father and Zadok was Akim's father Then Akim was Eliud's father. Eliud was Eleazar's father and Eleazar was Matthan's father. Then Matthan was Jacob's father. And Jacob was Joseph's father. Joseph was Mary's husband. She gave birth to Jesus who is called the Christ. Matthew records Jesus' ancestors until Joseph. Matthew divided the list of these ancestors into three groups. This made it easy to remember. Th first section reminds the people of their history up to king David. The second section records kings when the people did not obey God. Then they went as prisoners to Babylon. The third section ends with Jesus Christ. Thus, there were furteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the exile to the Christ. He (Christ) rescued the people from the effect of ALL that they do wrong. HE CAME TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE. The good gifts that Jesus brought are for everyone. They are for Jews and for everyone else.
Jesus was Mary's son, but he was not fathered by Joseph. Jesus was begotten by the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary and she conceived and bare a son. However, when Joseph married Mary, he became the legal father of Jesus. They did not "come together" until after the baby was born.
There are four women in the list of the genealogy of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah's wife, Bathsheba. It was not usual to put the names of women in a family list. But Jesus showed us that women are important to God also. Some of the ancestors of Jesus according to the flesh was non-Jewish.
Both Matthew and Luke contains the genealogy of Jesus. Luke's genealogy account starts at Adam and goes to David. Matthew's account starts at Abraham and goes to David. When the genealogies arrive at David, they split with David's sons: Nathan (Mary's side) and Solomon (Joseph's side). One genealogy is for Mary's side and the other is for Joseph. The lineages of Mary and Joseph converge at king David. It was customary to mention the genealogy through the father in this case, God the Father had everything and everybody trace back to him. So, both by his mother and Father, Jesus had a right to the throne of Israel. While Matthew traced Christ's lineage through Joseph, his legal father. Luke traced it through Mary, beginning with Mary's father, Heli. Men in ancient times often regarded their sons-in-law as their own sons. Matthew gives the account of the descendants of David down the royal line, those who were heir to the throne at any given time. But Luke gives the particular line to which Joseph belonged. The Mary genealogy was counted "in" Joseph and under his headship. Luke starts with Mary and goes backward to Adam. Matthew starts with Abraham and goes forward to Joseph.
Finally, in the Joseph genealogy is a man named Jeconiah. God cursed Jeconiah (also called Coniah), stating that no descendants of his would ever sit on the throne of David, "For no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling in Judah (Jer. 22:30). But Jesus of course, will sit on the throne in the heavenly kingdom. The point is that Jesus is not a biologial descendant of Jeconiah, but through the other lineage - that of Mary. Hence, the prophetic curse upon Jeconiah does not stand. But, the legal adoption of Jesus by Joseph assured the legal rights of Joseph to Jesus as a son - not the biological curse. This is why we need both genealogies: One of Mary (the actual biological line according to prophecy AND the legal line through Joseph.
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