Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Luke 3:32

"the [son] of Jesse, the [son] of Obed, the [son] of Boaz, the [son] of Salmon, the [son] of Nahshon," — Luke 3:32 (ASV)

The age of Jesus is given in approximate terms. He might have been in his mid-thirties. “Thirty” might also indicate that, like the priests who began their service at that age, he was ready to devote himself to God’s work. Both Matthew and Luke recognize the importance of establishing a genealogy for Jesus, in accordance with the care given such matters in ancient Israel. In their handling of Jesus’ genealogy, Matthew and Luke differ in several ways.

(1) Matthew begins his gospel with the genealogy, thereby establishing an immediate connection with the OT and with Israel. Luke waits till the significant part of the ministry of John the Baptist is completed and Jesus stands alone as the designated Son of God.

(2) Matthew begins with Abraham, stressing Jesus’ Jewish ancestry; Luke, in reverse order, goes back to Adam, probably with the intention of stressing the identification of Jesus with the entire human race.

(3) Matthew groups his names symmetrically; Luke simply lists them.

(4) Both trace the lineage back through ancestral lines that diverge for a number of generations from each other, though both meet at the generation of David.

(5) Matthew includes the names of several women (a feature one might have expected in Luke because of his understanding and respect for women). The significance of the genealogy in Luke probably lies in the emphasis on Jesus as a member of the human race. He implicitly contrasts the obedient second Adam, the true Son of God, with the disobedient first Adam. The differences outlined above, as well as some problems of detail, are perhaps best explained, at least in part, by the assumption that the legal line of Jesus is traced in Matthew, the actual line of descent in Luke. The widow of a childless man could marry his brother so that a child of the second marriage could legally be considered as the son of the deceased man in order to perpetuate his name. In a genealogy the child could be listed under his natural or his legal father. Joseph is listed as the son of Heli in Luke but as the son of Jacob in Matthew. On the levirate marriage theory, Heli and Jacob may have been halfbrothers, with the same mother but fathers of different names. Perhaps Heli died and Jacob married his widow. Or alternately, it is possible that Jacob died without leaving any children of his own and thus his nephew, a son of his brother Heli (i.e., Joseph), became his heir.