Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 3:5

"Every valley shall be filled, And every mountain and hill shall be brought low; And the crooked shall become straight, And the rough ways smooth;" — Luke 3:5 (ASV)

1. The fact that the genealogy goes back to Adam may have been originally in the document which Saint Luke translated, without any special significance; but it at least aligns with the whole character of his Gospel as intended to set forth the universality of the gospel, to prepare the way for the truth of the brotherhood of mankind in Christ. It represented Christ as the second Adam, as Saint Matthew’s genealogy represented Him as the heir of Abraham.

2. The insertion of Cainan between Salah and Arphaxad agrees with the text of all known copies of the Greek version of Genesis 11:0. This may imply an original Hebrew text older than that which we now possess; but, on the other hand, as all existing copies of the LXX version were made for Christian use, it is possible that the name may have been inserted to bring the genealogy in Genesis 11:0 into agreement with that given by Saint Luke. The name does not appear in this place in the Vulgate, Syriac, or Samaritan versions of the Pentateuch, and in one of the best manuscripts of the New Testament (the Codex Bezae) it is missing here. Further than this we cannot go in dealing with a question which, after all, is infinitesimally small in itself, and has no direct bearing on any graver issues.

It may be noted, lastly, that genealogies, such as those given by Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, were common in almost every Jewish family. The books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, compiled after the return from Babylon, show that they existed then.

Josephus transcribes his own pedigree from the time of the Asmonean, or Maccabean, priest-rulers from public registers (Life, chapter 1). He also states (Against Apion 1.7) that not only in Judea, but also in Alexandria, Babylon, and other cities where Jews were settled, such registers were kept for the births and marriages of all belonging to the priesthood; that copies were sent to Jerusalem; and that the registers went back for 2,000 years.

The prevalence of the name Cohen (= priest) among modern Jews indicates the same care in the priestly line. The members of the house of David were hardly likely to be less careful in preserving records of their descent than those of the house of Aaron. Hillel the scribe, that is, was known to be of the lineage of David, and must have had evidence of some kind to prove it. So, at a later time, the Princes of the Captivity who ruled over the Jews of Babylonia, claimed their allegiance as sons of David.