The line
Adam to Jesus
Seventy five generations, give or take, depending on which Gospel you count from. The whole thing is on one board here, with everyone who branches off it, because the interesting part of a genealogy is almost never the straight line down the middle.
Genealogies are the part people skip, and it is worth saying why they are in the Bible at all. They are land claims, priesthood claims and throne claims: who may serve at the altar, who may inherit which field, whose son may sit on the throne. When the exiles came back from Babylon, families who could not produce their register were excluded from the priesthood until a priest could settle it. A list of names was the difference between belonging and not.
So the line from Adam to Jesus is not decoration on the front of Matthew. It is the case being made. And read across the whole span it has a shape: it runs through the younger son almost every time, through four foreign or scandalous women in Matthew's telling, through a murderer, through kings the record calls evil, and through four hundred years in which nobody in it was important enough to write about.
Fill it in from memory
Empty out any stretch of the tree and put the names back. Everything else stays on the board, so you always have the shape to work from.
Adam to Noah
Genesis 5 · Ten generations
The first list in the Bible, and the one with the longest lives in it. It runs from Adam through Seth, the son given after Abel was killed, and it is a line of survivors: everyone in it dies except Enoch, and the chapter says so each time.
Shem to Abraham
Genesis 11:10-26 · Ten generations
The second list, built like the first, running from Noah's son Shem to Terah and out of Ur. The lifespans fall steadily through it, from six hundred years at the top to a hundred and forty five at the bottom. It ends by naming three brothers, and the story follows the one who leaves.
Abraham to David
Ruth 4:18-22 · Fourteen generations, in Matthew's count
The stretch that turns a family into a nation and then into a throne. Ruth ends with it, Chronicles opens with it, and Matthew starts his Gospel from it. Four of the five women Matthew names sit in this stretch, and none of them is there by an ordinary route.
David to Jesus, twice
Matthew goes through Solomon and the kings. Luke goes through Nathan and a set of names almost nobody else records. They agree at Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, and nowhere else until Joseph. Both are drawn here because the difference is in the text.
Lines that meet centuries apart
These are the reason to draw the whole thing rather than list it. Each one is two branches touching, generations later, in a book that never points it out.
The Amalekite Saul spared, and the man in Esther's court
Amalek is Esau's grandson, so the first nation to attack Israel in the wilderness is family. Saul is told to destroy them and spares Agag their king, and Samuel has to finish it himself. Five hundred years later the enemy in Esther is Haman the Agagite, and the man who opposes him is Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite. Kish is Saul's father's name. The book of Esther never comments on any of this. It just gives both men their ancestries and lets a reader who knows the earlier story feel the floor move.
Lot's line comes back into the family at Bethlehem
Moab begins in a cave outside Sodom, in an episode Genesis reports without a word of comment. Moabites are then barred from the assembly to the tenth generation. And the great grandmother of David, named in the first chapter of the New Testament, is Ruth the Moabite, who is the one person in her book who keeps covenant properly. The line that was excluded by law walks back in through loyalty.
The woman who hid the spies is David's great great grandmother
Rahab runs a house on the wall of Jericho and lies to her own king to protect two Israelite spies. Joshua says her family lived in Israel from that day on. Matthew says she married Salmon and bore Boaz. A Canaanite from the city under the ban is four generations above the throne.
An Edomite on Jacob's throne
Herod the Great was an Idumean, which is the Greek name for Edomite, from a people forcibly converted a generation before he was born. So when Matthew's genealogy finishes and the next paragraph brings in the reigning king, the man on David's throne is descended from Esau and the child in the manger from Jacob. The struggle in Rebekah's womb is still running.
The curse on the line Matthew runs through
Jeremiah says of Jeconiah: record this man as childless, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David. Matthew then traces the throne through Jeconiah to Joseph. Readers have answered this in opposite directions. Some say it is why Luke gives a different line, through Nathan, so that the blood descent avoids the curse while the legal claim comes through Joseph. Others say the curse was on Jeconiah's own sons succeeding, not on the family forever, and point out that Haggai calls Zerubbabel his signet ring, reversing the very image Jeremiah used. The text supports the question better than it supports either answer.
The two lists touch twice and then separate
From David the lines are completely different names until Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, where they briefly agree, and then they are different again all the way to Joseph. Whatever happened at the exile, both traditions place the family through the same two men there and nowhere else.
The priestly line and the royal line, married early and joined late
Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, who is in the royal line four names above Boaz, so priesthood and kingship are related from the wilderness onward. They come together again at the very end, when a priest's son from Aaron's line is born six months before a king's son from David's line, and goes ahead of him.
The line almost never runs through the eldest
Seth not Cain. Shem, listed first but not the firstborn. Isaac not Ishmael. Jacob not Esau. Judah fourth, not Reuben. Perez the twin who came out second, after a struggle at the birth. David the eighth of eight. Solomon not Amnon or Absalom or Adonijah. The pattern is so consistent through the spine that by the time Samuel is told not to look at the appearance or the height of Jesse's eldest, the reader should already know how this goes.
Everyone who branches off
Cain's line
off Adam · Genesis 4:17-24
The first city, the first tents, the first music and the first metalwork all come from this branch, and so does the first boast about killing. Genesis puts the inventors on the murderer's side of the family and does not explain itself.
- Cain The elder son, who killed his brother.
- Abel Killed, and leaves no line at all.
- Enoch Not the Enoch who walked with God. Cain named a city after him.
- Irad
- Mehujael
- Methushael
- Lamech Took two wives and made a song out of avenging himself seventy sevenfold.
- Jabal Father of those who live in tents and keep livestock.
- Jubal Father of all who play the harp and pipe.
- Tubal-Cain Forger of bronze and iron tools.
Ham and Japheth, and the table of nations
off Noah · Genesis 10
Genesis 10 turns the family tree into a map. Seventy names, and most of them are peoples rather than persons: Egypt, Canaan, Assyria, the Philistines, the coastlands. Everyone else in the Bible enters the story from somewhere on this list.
- Ham Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan. The nations Israel will meet on every side.
- Cush
- Nimrod A mighty hunter before the Lord, and the founder of Babel and Nineveh. Both cities come back.
- Canaan Cursed in Genesis 9, and the land promised to Abraham is named after him.
- Japheth The coastland peoples, spread out to the north and west.
Lot, and Moab and Ammon
off Terah · Genesis 19:36-38
Abraham's nephew goes with him and then separates, chooses the well watered plain, and ends up in Sodom. His two sons by his daughters become two nations that shadow Israel for the rest of the Old Testament. This branch rejoins the main line at Ruth.
- Haran Terah's son, who dies before his father.
- Lot
- Moab The Moabites. Balak hires Balaam against Israel out of this nation, and Ruth comes out of it too.
- Ben-Ammi The Ammonites.
Nahor, and the wives from Haran
off Terah · Genesis 22:20-24
The brother who stays behind in Mesopotamia. Isaac's wife and both of Jacob's come from this branch, so for two generations the promised line goes back to the country it left in order to marry.
- Nahor Abraham's brother, named for their grandfather.
- Bethuel
- Rebekah Isaac's wife.
- Laban Jacob's uncle and father in law, and the hardest bargainer in Genesis.
- Leah Mother of Judah, and so of the line.
- Rachel Mother of Joseph and Benjamin.
Ishmael, and Keturah's sons
off Abraham · Genesis 25:1-18
Abraham's first son, by Sarah's slave Hagar, sent away with his mother and promised a nation of his own. Twelve princes, counted out in the same form as Jacob's twelve sons. After Sarah dies Abraham has six more sons by Keturah, and Midian is one of them.
- Ishmael God hears. Blessed, multiplied, and not the son of the promise.
- Nebaioth The first of the twelve princes.
- Midian By Keturah. Moses marries a Midianite and Gideon fights them.
- Kedar A byword for the desert tribes in the prophets and the psalms.
Esau, and Edom
off Isaac · Genesis 36
The elder twin, who sold the birthright for a bowl of stew and lost the blessing to his brother. Edom refuses Israel passage in the wilderness, and the prophets keep returning to the grievance. Two of the sharpest enemies in the whole Bible come out of this branch.
- Esau Also called Edom, which means red.
- Eliphaz
- Amalek Esau's grandson. The Amalekites attack Israel first, at Rephidim, and the feud runs to the book of Esther.
- The Edomites Obadiah is one chapter long and it is entirely about them.
The twelve sons of Jacob
off Jacob · Genesis 49
Judah is the fourth. The line runs through him rather than through Reuben the firstborn, and Genesis 49 gives the reason: Reuben, Simeon and Levi each forfeit the place by something they did.
- Reuben Firstborn, and disqualified for sleeping with his father's concubine.
- Simeon and Levi Disqualified together for the massacre at Shechem. Levi's descendants get the priesthood instead of land.
- Joseph Sold into Egypt, and his two sons become two tribes.
- Benjamin Saul's tribe, and Paul's.
Levi, and the priesthood
off Jacob · Exodus 6:16-20
The tribe with no territory, because the Lord is their inheritance. Moses and Aaron come from it, the whole sacrificial system runs through it, and it reaches the New Testament in the person of John the Baptist's parents.
- Levi
- Kohath
- Amram
- Moses Whose own sons never inherit anything. The line of leadership passes to Joshua, of another tribe.
- Aaron The first high priest. Every priest after him claims descent from him.
- Miriam
- Eleazar
- Phinehas Given a covenant of a lasting priesthood.
Judah's other sons
off Judah · Genesis 38
Judah has three sons by a Canaanite wife. Two die, and he withholds the third from Tamar, his widowed daughter in law, who is owed a husband by law. She takes the matter into her own hands and the line continues through the twins she bears him.
- Er Tamar's first husband. Wicked in the Lord's sight, and he dies.
- Onan Refuses to father a child that would not count as his own.
- Shelah The son Judah withholds.
- Tamar The first of the four women Matthew names before Mary.
- Zerah Perez's twin. Achan, who takes the plunder at Jericho, comes from this side.
David's brothers, and the sons of Zeruiah
off Jesse · 1 Samuel 16, 2 Samuel 3
David is the eighth son. His sister's three sons become his generals, and they are a constant problem: loyal, effective, and impossible to control. David says twice that the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for him.
- Eliab The eldest, who Samuel assumed was the one.
- Zeruiah David's sister.
- Joab Commander of the army, who kills Abner, Absalom and Amasa, and dies at the altar on Solomon's orders.
- Abishai
- Asahel Fast on his feet, and killed by Abner for it.
David's other sons
off David · 2 Samuel 13 to 1 Kings 2
The succession is a bloodbath. Amnon rapes his half sister and Absalom kills him for it, then rebels and dies in a tree. Adonijah crowns himself while David is dying. Solomon is not the eldest and does not inherit quietly.
- Amnon
- Tamar David's daughter. Not the Tamar of Genesis 38.
- Absalom Beautiful, patient, and nearly successful.
- Adonijah Executed after asking for Abishag, which Solomon read as a bid for the throne.
- Nathan The son Luke's line follows, and the reason there are two lists at all.
The three kings Matthew leaves out
off Uzziah · 2 Kings 8 to 14
Between Joram and Uzziah the record has Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah, all of them real, all of them reigning. Matthew omits them to hold his count at fourteen. They are also the stretch of the line that Athaliah of the house of Ahab nearly wiped out entirely.
- Ahaziah Killed by Jehu, which set off the massacre.
- Athaliah Ahab's daughter. She kills the royal children and rules for six years. One baby is hidden in the temple.
- Joash The hidden baby. The whole line of David hangs on one infant and a nurse for six years.
- Amaziah
John the Baptist, from the priestly line
off Jesus · Luke 1:5, Luke 1:36
Zechariah is a priest and Elizabeth is of the daughters of Aaron, so John belongs to the tribe of Levi. Gabriel tells Mary that Elizabeth is her relative, which is the only place scripture connects the two families. The priest's son announces the king's son.
- Zechariah Of the division of Abijah, struck mute for asking how.
- Elizabeth Of the daughters of Aaron, and Mary's relative.
- John the Baptist Six months older than Jesus, and his cousin in some degree the text does not specify.
The household at Nazareth
off Jesus · Matthew 13:55-56, John 7:5
The people of Nazareth list them by name when they take offence at him, which is how we know. Two of the brothers are very likely the writers of the letters that carry their names, and neither of them believed him during his lifetime.
- Mary
- James Leader of the church at Jerusalem afterwards, and the likeliest author of the letter of James.
- Joseph
- Simon
- Judas Jude, who introduces himself as a brother of James rather than of Jesus.
The five women in Matthew's list
A Jewish genealogy of this period names fathers. Matthew names five mothers, and not the ones you would pick to make a case for respectability. Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel are all absent.
- Tamar Judah's daughter in law, who had to disguise herself to get what the law owed her.
- Rahab A Canaanite innkeeper at Jericho who betrayed her city to save her family.
- Ruth A Moabite widow, from a people barred from the assembly.
- the wife of Uriah Bathsheba, named by her husband rather than herself, so the crime stays in the sentence.
- Mary Pregnant before the marriage, and the whole first chapter is about whether Joseph will keep her.
Why there are two lines
From Abraham to David, Matthew and Luke agree. After David they do not. Matthew goes through Solomon, Luke goes through Nathan, and from there the names are different almost the whole way down. They touch at Shealtiel and Zerubbabel and then separate again. At the last link Matthew says Joseph was the son of Jacob and Luke says he was the son of Heli.
This is not a small textual wrinkle that goes away on closer reading. It is two different lists. Four explanations have been offered, and each of them answers part of it.
Luke gives Mary's line
The oldest of the popular answers. Joseph is Heli's son in law rather than his son, so Luke is tracing blood descent through Mary while Matthew traces the legal claim to the throne through Joseph. It explains why the lines differ and why Luke writes that Jesus was the son, as was supposed, of Joseph.
What it does not answer. Luke does not say it. He writes Joseph son of Heli in exactly the form he uses for every other link, and a Jewish genealogy naming a woman's father this way would be unusual.
Levirate marriage
Reported by Julius Africanus in the third century, on the authority of the family. If a man died childless his brother married the widow, and the first son counted as the dead man's heir. That son then has two fathers, one biological and one legal, and two genealogies can record him honestly and differently.
What it does not answer. It has to happen at the right generation to work, and the tradition it rests on cannot be checked. It also has to be invoked more than once if the lines are to line up.
Legal against biological descent
Matthew is registering the throne, so he follows the succession: whoever legally held the claim, adopted or natural. Luke is registering the family, so he follows the actual descent. Two registers of two different things will not match, and neither is wrong.
What it does not answer. This works well from David down to the exile, where the throne is a real institution with a record. It is harder to say what a legal succession would even mean in the four hundred years after Zerubbabel when there was no throne.
Matthew is counting, not listing
Matthew says outright that he has three sets of fourteen, and he drops three real kings to get there. Fourteen is also the numeric value of the letters in David's name in Hebrew. On this reading his list is a structured argument rather than a birth record, so asking it to agree with Luke name for name is asking it to be something it never claimed to be.
What it does not answer. It explains Matthew's shape but not the specific disagreement over Joseph's father, which no counting scheme requires.
This page does not rule between them. What can be said plainly is that both writers had access to the same public records, both were writing for audiences who could check, and neither shows any sign of thinking he had a problem. Whatever the relationship between the two lists was, it was evidently not a secret to them.
Where Luke stops
Matthew begins at Abraham, because he is writing to readers for whom the promise to Abraham is the beginning. Luke runs the other direction and does not stop at Abraham, or at Noah, or at Adam.
The last line of the list
38the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
That final phrase changes what the whole list is doing. Matthew's genealogy argues that Jesus is the son of David and the son of Abraham, so the throne and the promise are his. Luke's argues that he belongs to the human race as such, and he places it immediately after the voice at the baptism says you are my son, and immediately before the wilderness, where the first words of the tempter are if you are the son of God. The list sits between the two on purpose.
How much of this is known
The lists themselves are in the text and can be read. What sits around them varies a great deal in how firmly it is established.
- Firm. The names, the order, the two Gospel lists, the three sets of fourteen that Matthew states himself, and the three kings he omits, which can be checked against 2 Kings 8 to 2 Kings 14.
- Textual. Cainan, between Arphaxad and Shelah, is in Luke and in the Greek Old Testament and not in the Hebrew of Genesis. That is a difference between manuscript traditions, not a mistake by anyone.
- Outside scripture. That Herod the Great was an Idumean comes from Josephus rather than the Gospels. It is well attested and not disputed, but it is not something the Bible says.
- Inference. The link between Agag and Haman rests on the word Agagite, and on Mordecai being given an ancestor named Kish. Esther never spells the connection out. Most readers think it is deliberate. It is a strong reading of the text, not a statement in it.
- Open. Whether the generations are complete. Hebrew genealogy compresses freely, and Matthew's omission proves it happens, so the lists cannot carry a total age for the world.