Hey Mike,

I was just comparing Matthew and Luke. I want to know what you think of the different genealogies that are given. Do you think one belongs to Joseph and the other to Mary or that Luke skipped some people in between?

Your brother in the Christ,

P___

Hi P____,

Thank you for your question. While Christ tells us “the flesh profits nothing,” we are also told that Christ is “according to the flesh” descended from King David. What that tells us is that one of these two genealogies is Mary’s simply because that phrase appears in scripture three times, and must therefore be documented to be true:

Act 2:30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
Rom 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
Heb 2:16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

“Not the nature of angels… but the seed of Abraham… The seed of David according to the flesh.” There are two things we know for sure about Christ. We know without a doubt that Joseph was not Christ’s real Father. The Father, through His holy spirit, was Christ’s Father. Christ was not the “seed” of either David or Abraham via His Father. That promise had to be kept via Christ’s mother, Mary. So the second thing we also know for certain about Christ is that through Mary, Christ is “the Son of Man.” Christ refers to Himself as the “Son of man” twice as many times as He calls Himself the “Son of God.” Since we are told over and over that Christ “according to the flesh” was of David and was “according to the flesh” of Abraham, it follows that Luke’s genealogy would be that of Mary the only “according to the flesh,” connection to Christ, but listed as ‘in Joseph’, or as Luke puts it, “Being as was supposed, the son of Joseph.”

Luk 3:23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,

The writers of Wikipedia appear to be set on shaking anyone and everyone’s confidence in the reliability of the word of God and should not be taken seriously. They apparently think that the holy spirit made a big glaring contradiction here and included it in the scriptures just hoping no one would notice. Not one person in a thousand realizes that truth is found only in the sum of God’s Word and that God’s Word is designed to be understood “line upon line, here a little and there a little.”

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
Isa 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? [ them that are] weaned from the milk, [ and] drawn from the breasts.
Isa 28:10 For precept [ must be] upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, [ and] there a little:

The authors of the information found in Wikipedia, the History Channel, and a thousand other such secular sources, have not as yet been given spiritual milk, much less being “weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts.”

Isa 28:12 To whom he said, This [ is] the rest [ wherewith] ye may cause the weary to rest; and this [ is] the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
Isa 28:13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, [ and] there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

As far as any discrepancy between these two genealogies goes, the holy spirit in me tells me that God is true and every man is a liar.

Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Here, on the other hand, is a much more logical answer to what may at first appear to be a contradiction in these two genealogies from the Christian Apologetic Research Ministry web page. Take a look at this link and let me know what you think: http:// www. carm. org/ questions/2geneologies. htm

Your brother in Christ,

Mike