Luke 3:38

Which was the son of God as handiwork, not as son; for God, even as a potter, formed and fashioned Adam the first man out of the earth. And hence the Arabic version renders " who was from God," whereas, in other cases, it renders, for "who was," "son." S. Luke, then, brings the genealogy of Christ up to Adam, but S. Matthew only to Abraham the father of the faithful, and founder of the Synagogue.

Why does S. Luke make this addition?

1. S. Athanasius (Discourse on "All things are given unto Me by My Father") says, "Luke, beginning with the Son of God, went back up to Adam, to show that the body which Jesus assumed had its origin from Adam, who was formed by God."

2. S. Irenæus (book iii. ch. xxxiii.) says, "So was Christ made the beginning of the living, since Adam was made the beginning of the dead; for this cause also S. Luke, beginning the commencement of the generation with the Lord, brings it back to Adam, signifying that they did not regenerate, Him, but He them, into the Gospel of life."

3. S. Leo (Serm. x. De Nativitate Domini) says, "The evangelist Luke traced the genealogy of the Lord's race from His birth, to show that even those ages which came before the deluge were joined to this mystery and that all the steps of the succession tended to Him in whom alone was the salvation of all."

4. Francis Lucas says that it was in order that S. Luke might signify that through Jesus men are led back to God, having been through Adam led away from God,

Symbolically, Euthymius says, "Luke, beginning from the humanity of Christ, leads back to His Divinity, showing that Christ indeed began as man, but that as God He was without beginning."

5. S. Ambrose gives another reason, "Now, what could be more fair and fitting with respect to Adam who, according to the Apostle, received the figure of Christ, than that the sacred generation should begin with the Son of God and end with the Son of God; and that he that was created should precede in figure, that He that was born might follow in truth; and that he who was made in the image of God should go before, for whose sake the likeness of God came down."

6. S. Augustine (de Consens. Evang. book ii. ch. iv.) recounts the seventy-seven generations here given, by which, he says, is signified the remission and abolition of all sins whatever, to be made by the Saviour Jesus, according to the words of Christ, "I say not unto thee unto seven times but unto seventy times seven."

Lastly, notice here the noble pedigree of Christ which S. Luke and S. Matthew trace from Jesus Himself through so many kings, prophets, and patriarchs to Adam, the first made nay, to God Himself, through four thousand years, in one unbroken line. For there is no prince or king in all the world who can trace his descent in a straight line for a thousand years. As to why Christ deferred His coming and incarnation for so long, Barradi gives ten moral reasons in vol. i., book v., ch. xxxi.

This generation of Christ was prefigured by Jacob's ladder. So says Rupertus (on Matthew 1.), "This generation is Jacob's ladder; and the sides of the ladder are the princes and fathers of the generation, Abraham and David, to whom the promise was made. The last step, on which the Lord leaned, is the Blessed Joseph, He leaned on him as a pupil on his master."

Tropologically, " who was " is significant of the vanity of this world, the life of man passes away, generation by generation, and is straightway turned from the present into the past, from " is " to " was " So the poet sings:

Adieu to Ilium (fuit Ilium) and the high renown of Teucer's race.