LUKE—NOTE ON Luke 3:23 Luke traces Jesus’ lineage back to Adam to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of the hopes of all people (compare note on Matthew 1:17). The genealogies in Matthew 1:1 and Luke differ significantly in the period from David to Jesus, even naming different fathers for Joseph (Jacob in Matthew 1:16; Heli in Luke 3:23). The most commonly accepted explanation for this difference is that Matthew traces the line of royal succession while Luke traces Joseph’s actual physical descent. Both lines converge at Joseph. In this scenario, a second marriage of Joseph’s mother is usually assumed (sometimes a levirate marriage; see note on Matt. 22:24), so that Joseph was the legal son of one of her husbands but the physical son of the other. In any case, both of these genealogies emphasize that Jesus was the “son of David” (Luke 3:31; see Matthew 1:6). Luke further emphasizes the virgin birth (see Luke 1:34) with the wording “being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph” (Luke 3:23).

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