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Luke3:23–38

The Genealogy of Jesus

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Luke 3:23–38 — The Genealogy of Jesus. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

23

Jesus Himself was about thirty years old when He began His ministry. He was regarded as the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,

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Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai Iēsous autos ēn hōsei triakonta etōn archomenos Ōn enomizeto hōs huios Iōsēph tou Ēli

Word by word15 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
αὐτὸςautosHimselfG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἦνēnwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὡσεὶhōseiaboutG5616
√ ὡσεί — as ifAdverb
hōsei: as if, as it were A softening particle, not a measurement.
τριάκονταtriakontathirtyG5144
√ τριάκοντα — thirtyAdjectiveGenitive Neuter Plural
triakonta: thirty The number is the whole point of the clause. Cambridge gathers the canonical resonances: thirty is the age at which a Levite entered his full service (Numbers 4:3, Numbers 4:47), the age at which Joseph stood before Pharaoh (Genesis 41:46), and the age at which David began to reign (2 Samuel 5:4). Ellicott, Barnes, Poole, Gill and the Pulpit Commentary all reach for the Levitical figure, though Barnes cautions that Jesus was not under the Levitical law of the priesthood and that no age was fixed for a prophet.
ἐτῶνetōnyears [old]G2094
√ ἔτος — a yearNounGenitive Neuter Plural
ἀρχόμενοςarchomenoswhen He began [His ministry]G756
√ ἄρχομαι — to commence (in order of time)VerbPresent Participle MiddleNominative Masculine Singular
archomai: to commence, to begin A present participle standing without an object, which is why the versions diverge so widely. Cambridge explains the absolute use from the prominence of the beginning in Luke's own mind (Acts 1:1, Acts 1:22), where Luke describes his first book as what Jesus began to do and teach. On that reading the participle is a deliberate hinge: everything before this is prologue.
ὪνŌnHe wasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐνομίζετοenomizetoregardedG3543
√ νομίζω — properly, to do by law (usage), iVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
nomizō: to reckon by law or usage The hinge word of the whole genealogy. Luke does not say Jesus was Joseph's son; he says Jesus was reckoned so. Gill grounds the reckoning in a Jewish rule that "he that brings up, and not he that begets, is called the father," and Poole in the legal fact of the marriage (Matthew 1:20). The verb is the evangelist's own hedge, placed before a list that then proceeds as if the reckoning held.
ὡςhōsasG5613
√ ὡς — which how, iAdverb
υἱόςhuios[the] sonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huios: son The only occurrence of the noun in the whole unit, and grammatically it carries every link that follows: from v. 24 onward Luke writes nothing but the repeated genitive article, so each later 'son' hangs on this word by ellipsis. It is anarthrous, son and not the son, and it stands under the hedge of enomizeto. Luke has already used the same noun of Jesus in a wholly different register, Son of the Most High at Luke 1:32 and Son of God at Luke 1:35, and the last word of this genealogy returns to that register. The list is bracketed by two senses of one noun.
ἸωσὴφIōsēphof JosephG2501
√ Ἰωσήφ — Joseph, the name of seven IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἨλὶĒliof HeliG2242
√ Ἡλί — Heli (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Ēli: Heli The most disputed name in the passage. Benson, Henry and Gill take Heli as the father of Mary, so that Joseph is his son-in-law and the table is Mary's; JFB lays out both options at length and judges the Mary reading "attended with fewest difficulties," while granting that those who read it as Joseph's line are following "the natural sense of this verse." Matthew 1:16 names Jacob as Joseph's father. The brief records no evidence that settles it, and we do not settle it.
24

the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Maththat tou Leui tou Melchi tou Iannai tou Iōsēph

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ho: the The bare article doing the work of a whole English phrase.
ΜαθθὰτMaththatof MatthatG3158
√ Ματθάτ — Matthat (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Maththat: Matthat The first name after the disputed Heli, and one of the two that Gill reports Grotius wished to delete on the authority of Irenaeus, Africanus, Eusebius, Nazianzen, Jerome and Augustine. Gill declines the deletion because the versions retain the names. Worth recording as a place where the text of Luke's list was argued about early.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΛευὶLeuiof LeviG3017
√ Λευΐ — Levi, the name of three IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Leui: Levi A personal name here, not a tribal claim, but the coincidence matters: Hebrews 7:5 and 7:9 argue from Levi within Abraham, and Hebrews 7:14 says it is evident that our Lord sprang from Judah. Luke's list passes through both names without comment.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜελχὶMelchiof MelchiG3197
√ Μελχί — Melchi (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸανναὶIannaiof JannaiG2388
√ Ἰαννά — Janna, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iannai: Jannai Gill connects the name to the Hasmonean "king Jannai" of the Jewish writings and to a chronicle attributed to Philo, while admitting it "is not certain" whether either is this man. The admission is the useful part.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸωσὴφIōsēphof JosephG2501
√ Ἰωσήφ — Joseph, the name of seven IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
25

the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai,

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Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Mattathiou tou Amōs tou Naoum tou Hesli tou Nangai

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜατταθίουMattathiouof MattathiasG3161
√ Ματταθίας — Mattathias (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Mattathias: Mattathias A late, post-exilic name; the same lexeme G3161 returns at v. 26.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἈμὼςAmōsof AmosG301
√ Ἀμώς — Amos, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Amōs: Amos, an Israelite The Strong's gloss goes no further than "an Israelite." That restraint is the honest position. Luke is naming men for whom there is no Old Testament record at all, which is precisely why Poole says the reconciling difficulties "all lie" in this part of the list and not in the stretch from Perez to Abraham.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΝαοὺμNaoumof NahumG3486
√ Ναούμ — Naum (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Naoum: Nahum, an Israelite Same caution as with Amos: a name, not the prophet.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἙσλὶHesliof EsliG2069
√ Ἐσλί — Esli, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΝαγγαὶNangaiof NaggaiG3477
√ Ναγγαί — Nangæ (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Nangai: Naggai, an Israelite One of the names where the record ends and the guesswork begins.
26

the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda,

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Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Maath tou Mattathiou tou Semein tou Iōsēch tou Iōda

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜαὰθMaathof MaathG3092
√ Μαάθ — Maath, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜατταθίουMattathiouof MattathiasG3161
√ Ματταθίας — Mattathias (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΣεμεῒνSemeinof SemeinG4584
√ Σεμεΐ — Semei (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Semein: Semei A name with no Old Testament anchor in this position.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸωσὴχIōsēchof JosechG2501
√ Ἰωσήφ — Joseph, the name of seven IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iōsēch: Josech (Strong's G2501, Joseph) A worked example of how the same Hebrew name arrives in Greek in more than one shape. The lexicon files Josech under G2501, the entry Strong's glosses as "the name of seven Israelites," so the tagging itself concedes that the Greek forms multiply beyond the men.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸωδὰIōdaof JodaG2448
√ Ἰουδά — Judah (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iōda: Joda (Strong's G2448, Judah) The tribal name Judah, here borne by a private man in the obscure post-exilic stretch. Luke will reach the patriarch Judah himself under the same lexeme at v. 33.
27

the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,

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Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Iōanan tou Rhēsa tou Zorobabel tou Salathiēl tou Nēri

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸωανὰνIōananof JoananG2490
√ Ἰωαννᾶς — Joannas, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ῬησὰRhēsaof RhesaG4488
√ Ῥησά — Resa (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Rhēsa: Rhesa Gill points to 1 Chronicles 3:19 for this name; the Hebrew there has no Rhesa, and some have taken the word as a title rather than a name. Record the uncertainty.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΖοροβάβελZorobabelof ZerubbabelG2216
√ Ζοροβάβελ — Zorobabel (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Zorobabel: Zerubbabel The hinge of the post-exilic line and the only name in this whole stretch with independent Old Testament footing: Ezra 3:2 pairs him with Jeshua son of Jozadak in rebuilding the altar, and Haggai 1:1 names him governor of Judah. Both tables run through him, which is why the disagreement on either side of him is so hard to dismiss as a copyist's slip.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΣαλαθιὴλSalathiēlof ShealtielG4528
√ Σαλαθιήλ — Salathiel (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Salathiēl: Shealtiel JFB's note is the honest one: in Luke 3:27 Shealtiel is Zerubbabel's father, in Matthew 1:12 also his father, but the men above Shealtiel differ, so JFB concludes "they are probably different persons." That is a hypothesis offered to relieve a difficulty, and JFB says so with "probably."
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΝηρὶNēriof NeriG3518
√ Νηρί — Neri (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Nēri: Neri Absent from the Old Testament record entirely.
28

the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,

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Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Melchi tou Addi tou Kōsam tou Elmadam tou Ēr

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜελχὶMelchiof MelchiG3197
√ Μελχί — Melchi (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Melchi: Melchi The second Melchi in five verses. Gill's own note at v. 24 reports Grotius reading this one as the immediate father of Heli, which would collapse the intervening names. The brief supplies no evidence for that, and we do not follow it.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἈδδὶAddiof AddiG78
√ Ἀδδί — Addi, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΚωσὰμKōsamof CosamG2973
√ Κωσάμ — Cosam (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἘλμαδὰμElmadamof ElmadamG1678
√ Ἐλμωδάμ — Elmodam, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Elmadam: Elmadam The lexicon headword is Ἐλμωδάμ; the text here reads Ἐλμαδὰμ. A real spelling variant in the tradition.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἪρĒrof ErG2262
√ Ἤρ — Er, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Ēr: Er, an Israelite Not the Er of Genesis 38. Gill groups this name with the whole block from Addi to Mattatha as men who "lived before the captivity, and were of the house of David, in the line of Nathan," a placement he derives from the list itself rather than from any external record.
29

the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi,

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Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Iēsou tou Eliezer tou Iōrim tou Maththat tou Leui

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦIēsouof JoshuaG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iēsous: Jesus, Joshua The single most striking lexical fact in the chain and it is invisible in English. The Greek Ἰησοῦς is the Septuagint's rendering of the Hebrew name Joshua, so the name at the head of Luke's list stands in the list itself. Luke makes nothing explicit of it; neither will we. It is recorded here because it is a fact of the text.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἘλιέζερEliezerof EliezerG1663
√ Ἐλιέζερ — Eliezer, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Eliezer: Eliezer A name that says "my God is help."
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸωρὶμIōrimof JorimG2497
√ Ἰωρείμ — Jorim, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜαθθὰτMaththatof MatthatG3158
√ Ματθάτ — Matthat (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Maththat: Matthat With Levi following, an exact repetition of the v. 24 pair.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΛευὶLeuiof LeviG3017
√ Λευΐ — Levi, the name of three IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Leui: Levi The second Levi in the list.
30

the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,

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Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Symeōn tou Iouda tou Iōsēph tou Iōnam tou Eliakim

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΣυμεὼνSymeōnof SimeonG4826
√ Συμεών — Symeon (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Symeōn: Simeon A patriarch's name in an ordinary household.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸούδαIoudaof JudahG2448
√ Ἰουδά — Judah (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iouda: Judah The same lexeme rendered three ways across the unit.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸωσὴφIōsēphof JosephG2501
√ Ἰωσήφ — Joseph, the name of seven IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸωνὰμIōnamof JonamG2494
√ Ἰωνάν — Jonan, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἘλιακὶμEliakimof EliakimG1662
√ Ἐλιακείμ — Eliakim, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Eliakim: God will establish The Verifier lists Matthew 1:13 as a candidate on the shared lexemes G2216 Zerubbabel and G1662 Eliakim, which is a genuine lexical overlap between the two tables. It is not by itself evidence that the men are the same, and we tier the link structural rather than verbal for that reason.
31

the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,

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Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Melea tou Menna tou Mattatha tou Natham tou Dauid

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜελεὰMeleaof MeleaG3190
√ Μελεᾶς — Meleas, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜεννὰMennaof MennaG3104
√ Μαϊνάν — Mainan, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜατταθὰMattathaof MattathaG3160
√ Ματταθά — Mattatha (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Mattatha: Mattatha Unattested in the Old Testament; the equation with Ahishar is an interpreters' guess that Gill reports without endorsing.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΝαθὰμNathamof NathanG3481
√ Ναθάν — Nathan, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Natham: Nathan Not the prophet Nathan but David's son, born in Jerusalem. Gill anchors him to 2 Samuel 5:14 and the Chronicler repeats the list at 1 Chronicles 3:5. This is the single most consequential name in the unit after Heli, because Luke descends from David through Nathan while Matthew 1:6 descends through Solomon, and every reconciliation of the two Gospels turns on how that fork is explained.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΔαυὶδDauidof DavidG1138
√ Δαβίδ — Dabid (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Dauid: David The name to which the Messianic promise of 2 Samuel 7 attaches. Luke has already had the angel say the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David (Luke 1:32), so the reader arrives here expecting the royal line, and Luke gives a line from David that is not the royal succession. That tension is in the text, not in the translation.
32

the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Iessai tou Iōbēd tou Boos tou Sala tou Naassōn

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸεσσαὶIessaiof JesseG2421
√ Ἰεσσαί — Jessæ (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iessai: Jesse The point where Luke's chain rejoins undisputed ground. Poole says of exactly this verse and the next that "we have nothing to reconcile."
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸωβὴδIōbēdof ObedG5601
√ Ὠβήδ — Obed, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΒοὸςBoosof BoazG1003
√ Βοόζ — Booz, (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Boos: Boaz The Moabite marriage of Ruth 4 stands inside this list without a word said about it. Matthew names Ruth; Luke does not name any woman in the entire genealogy, including Mary, which Gill explains from a Jewish rule that "the family of the mother is not called a family."
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΣαλὰSalaof SalaG4527
√ Σαλά — Sala (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Sala: Salmon, and at v. 35 Shelah One Greek lexeme, G4527, doing duty for two men separated by a thousand years and more. A worked example of how much resolution is lost when Hebrew names pass through Greek.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΝαασσὼνNaassōnof NahshonG3476
√ Ναασσών — Naasson (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Naassōn: Nahshon Leader of Judah in the wilderness (Numbers 1:7, Numbers 7:12). The Verifier pairs this verse with Matthew 1:4 on this lexeme, which occurs in only two verses of the New Testament.
33

the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Aminadab tou Admin tou Arni tou Hesrōm tou Phares tou Iouda

Word by word12 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἈμιναδὰβAminadabof AmminadabG284
√ Ἀμιναδάβ — Aminadab, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἈδμὶνAdminof AdminG689
√ Ἀράμ — Aram (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Admin (tagged G689, Aram) Half of the real textual crux of this verse. The witnesses to Luke vary between one name and two here, and the Berean text prints two while the lexicon can only offer the one Strong's entry. Recorded as a variation, not resolved.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἈρνὶArniof ArniG689
√ Ἀράμ — Aram (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Arni (tagged G689, Aram) The other half. Gill's harmonizing list, which he says "perfectly agrees" with Matthew, has only Aram at this point, so Gill's own agreement claim is made against a text without Admin.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἙσρὼμHesrōmof HezronG2074
√ Ἐσρώμ — Esrom (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΦαρὲςPharesof PerezG5329
√ Φάρες — Phares (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Phares: Perez Genesis 38:29 names him at birth, out of Tamar, out of a story of deception and levirate failure. Ruth 4:18 opens its closing genealogy with him, and 1 Chronicles 2:4 to 5 repeats it. The Messianic line runs through the least presentable page of Judah's record, and neither evangelist trims it.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸούδαIoudaof JudahG2448
√ Ἰουδά — Judah (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iouda: Judah The tribe of the promise at Genesis 49:10 and the tribe Hebrews 7:14 says it is evident our Lord sprang from. Luke passes through it in one genitive.
34

the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Iakōb tou Isaak tou Abraam tou Thara tou Nachōr

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸακὼβIakōbof JacobG2384
√ Ἰακώβ — Jacob (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iakōb: Jacob Genesis 25:26 names him at birth; Genesis 29:35 gives the birth of Judah to Leah, the link this list needs.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸσαὰκIsaakof IsaacG2464
√ Ἰσαάκ — Isaac (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Isaak: Isaac Genesis 21:3 names him, the son of promise rather than of nature, which is the one place in the list before Adam where descent is explicitly said to run through a divine word rather than ordinary generation.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἈβραὰμAbraamof AbrahamG11
√ Ἀβραάμ — Abraham, the Hebrew patriarchNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Abraam: Abraham The point at which Matthew's table begins and stops, and Luke's merely passes. Poole gives the reason: Matthew, writing for Jews, judged it enough to prove Christ the Son of Abraham and of David, while Luke, designing the information of the whole world, derives him from the common father of mankind. Henry ties the same name to the blessing of all the families of the earth.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘάραTharaof TerahG2291
√ Θάρα — Thara (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΝαχὼρNachōrof NahorG3493
√ Ναχώρ — Nachor, the grandfather of AbrahamNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Nachōr: Nahor Gill notes that the Septuagint of Genesis 11:24 spells the name as Luke does here.
35

the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Serouch tou Rhagau tou Phalek tou Eber tou Sala

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΣεροὺχSerouchof SerugG4562
√ Σαρούχ — Saruch (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Serouch: Serug Genesis 11:22. Gill notes the Septuagint spells it Serouch, as here.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ῬαγαῦRhagauof ReuG4466
√ Ῥαγαῦ — Ragau (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΦάλεκPhalekof PelegG5317
√ Φάλεκ — Phalek (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Phalek: Peleg, division Genesis 10:25 attaches the dividing of the earth to his days, and Genesis 11 immediately narrates Babel and the scattering of the nations. Luke's ascent runs straight back through the point where humanity fractured, on its way to the one man in whom it did not.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἜβερEberof EberG1443
√ Ἐβέρ — Eber, a patriarchNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Eber: Eber The eponym behind the word Hebrew, standing in a list that will not stop at Abraham.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΣαλὰSalaof ShelahG4527
√ Σαλά — Sala (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Sala: Shelah Genesis 11:14. In the Hebrew, Shelah is the son of Arphaxad directly, with no Cainan between; the next verse of Luke inserts one.
36

the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Kainam tou Arphaxad tou Sēm tou Nōe tou Lamech

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΚαϊνὰμKainamof CainanG2536
√ Καϊνάν — Cainan (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Kainam: Cainan The honest position, stated plainly: this name is not in the Hebrew of Genesis 11, not in the Samaritan, not in the Targum, not in Josephus, not at 1 Chronicles 1:24, and, Gill reports, not in Beza's oldest Greek copy of Luke; it is in the Septuagint of Genesis 11:12 to 13 and in the Greek text of Luke that the versions inherited. Gill concludes a copyist put it into Luke and later hands put it into the Septuagint; Benson allows that Luke himself followed the Septuagint. The brief gives no evidence that decides it, so this synthesis does not decide it. Note too that the same lexeme G2536 returns at v. 37 for the undisputed Cainan of Genesis 5:9 to 12, so the list contains the name twice.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἈρφαξὰδArphaxadof ArphaxadG742
√ Ἀρφαξάδ — Arphaxad, a post-diluvian patriarchNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Arphaxad: Arphaxad Genesis 11:10 dates him two years after the flood; the link below him is where the traditions part.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΣὴμSēmof ShemG4590
√ Σήμ — Sem (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Sēm: Shem Genesis 11:10 and 1 Chronicles 1:24 both begin the post-flood line here, and Genesis 9:26 blesses the Lord as the God of Shem, which is the first narrowing of the promise to a line.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΝῶεNōeof NoahG3575
√ Νῶε — Noë, (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Nōe: Noah The whole human race passes through this name, which is one reason Luke's ascent to Adam cannot be a claim about Israel only.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΛάμεχLamechof LamechG2984
√ Λάμεχ — Lamech (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
37

the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Mathousala tou Henōch tou Iaret tou Maleleēl tou Kainam

Word by word10 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜαθουσαλὰMathousalaof MethuselahG3103
√ Μαθουσάλα — Mathusala (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Mathousala: Methuselah The longest life in Scripture (Genesis 5:27), and in a chapter whose refrain is "and he died." Luke's list is, read from Genesis 5, a roll of the dead, which is exactly why its last two links matter.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἙνὼχHenōchof EnochG1802
√ Ἐνώχ — Enoch (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Henōch: Enoch Count upward from Adam in Luke's own list, Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, and Enoch is seventh, the description Jude 1:14 gives him. Luke does not number the generations and draws no conclusion; the count is simply there, inherited from Genesis 5.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸάρετIaretof JaredG2391
√ Ἰάρεδ — Jared (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΜαλελεὴλMaleleēlof MahalalelG3121
√ Μαλελεήλ — Maleleel (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΚαϊνὰμKainamof CainanG2536
√ Καϊνάν — Cainan (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Kainam: Cainan The second of the two Cainans, and the uncontested one.
38

the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tou Enōs tou Sēth tou Adam tou Theou

Word by word8 · parsed
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἘνὼςEnōsof EnoshG1800
√ Ἐνώς — Enos (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΣὴθSēthof SethG4589
√ Σήθ — Seth (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Sēth: Seth, appointed Genesis 4:25 has Eve name him because God appointed another seed instead of Abel, and Genesis 5:3 says Adam begot him in his own likeness, after his image. Luke's last three links run that sequence in reverse, Seth, Adam, God, which is why the genealogy ends here rather than trailing into silence.
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἈδὰμAdamof AdamG76
√ Ἀδάμ — Adam, the first manNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Adam: Adam, the first man The name is the Hebrew word for man, and Genesis 1:26 to 27 places the divine likeness on humanity as such. Gill notes that the Jews themselves called Adam the son of God, and Henry glosses it exactly: "the offspring of God by creation."
τοῦtouthe [son]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Theos: God The last word of the genealogy and the first ground of it. Every commentator in the brief who comments here guards the phrase the same way: sonship by creation, not by generation. Henry, "the offspring of God by creation"; Benson, Adam "formed by the power of a divine creating hand"; Gill, "not begotten, as all the rest were, by their immediate parents"; JFB simply pointing to Acts 17:28, where Paul tells the Athenians we are his offspring. Ellicott alone presses the phrase forward, arguing that because the human nature of our Lord arose by a like creative act (Luke 1:35), it too was entitled to the name. ⚙ Luke sets the reckoned sonship of v. 23 and the created sonship of v. 38 at the two ends of the same chain and does not explain the relation between them or between either and the voice from heaven at Luke 3:22. The silence is his, and we leave it his.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Thirty years old, and beginning — Luke 3:23a

Luke has just dated John's ministry by emperors and governors; he dates the Lord's by a life. The Greek gives only ὡσεὶ ἐτῶν τριάκοντα ἀρχόμενος, "about thirty years, beginning," with no object for the participle. Cambridge judges the old rendering "began to be about thirty years of age" ungrammatical and explains the absolute participle from the prominence of the beginning in Luke's own thought, citing Acts 1:1 and Acts 1:22. Benson reports Doddridge saying he can recollect "no sufficient authority" for the older English, and JFB agrees that "was about thirty years of age when He began [His ministry]" makes the better Greek. On the number itself the witnesses converge: Ellicott, Barnes, Poole, Gill and the Pulpit Commentary all reach for Numbers 4:3 and 4:47, the age at which a Levite entered his full service, and Cambridge adds Genesis 41:46, where Joseph stood before Pharaoh at thirty, and 2 Samuel 5:4, where David began to reign at thirty. Barnes is the useful dissenter: Jesus was not under the Levitical law of the priesthood, and no age was fixed for a prophet, so the thirty is a convergence of custom rather than a requirement discharged. Poole, asked whether the years were complete or current, answers that this is "so little a one" a question as to deserve no great study, and the particle ὡσεὶ vindicates him: Luke himself declined to be exact.

ii. As was supposed: the seam Luke puts in his own record — Luke 3:23b

The list is introduced by a verb that withholds it. ἐνομίζετο (nomizō, to reckon by law or usage) makes Joseph the reckoned father, and Luke has already told his reader, at Luke 1:35, why the reckoning is not generation. Poole states the plain sense: Joseph "was not his natural father, though so supposed by the Jews, Joseph being indeed his legal father, being married to the virgin when our Saviour was born." Gill grounds it in a Jewish maxim that he who brings up, and not he who begets, is called the father. Then comes Heli, and with him the oldest unsettled question in the passage. Benson, Henry and Gill read Heli as Mary's father and the table as Mary's line, Joseph entering as son-in-law. JFB sets out both positions at length, concedes that the Joseph reading is "the natural sense of this verse," objects that Matthew 1:16 makes Jacob Joseph's father, and finally judges the Mary reading "attended with fewest difficulties, as it certainly is the best supported." Gill goes further and reports that the Jewish writings themselves speak of "Mary the daughter of Eli," in a passage he calls horribly malicious, and takes even that hostile witness as a confirmation. Cambridge simply notes that volumes have been written and refers to an excursus. Henry's verdict is the one we adopt for the layer we can control: "our salvation does not depend upon our being able to solve these difficulties." ⚙ We do not solve them here. The brief contains no evidence that decides between the two readings, and a stated gap is better than an invented reconciliation.

iii. Through Nathan, not Solomon: the divergence nobody settles — Luke 3:24 to 3:31

From Heli down to David, Luke's names are, for nearly the whole stretch, unattested anywhere else in Scripture. Gill says it outright of the block from Addi to Mattatha: "of which persons no mention is made in the Old Testament." Where he supplies surnames and regnal years he is drawing on a late chronicle he ascribes to Philo of Alexandria; that is not an early witness and we mark it as conjecture wherever it appears. Two fixed points break the silence. The first is Zerubbabel and Shealtiel at v. 27, the one pair the two Gospel tables share, and even there the lines above them diverge, Luke reading Neri where Matthew 1:12 reads Jeconiah. JFB's solution is that Luke's and Matthew's Zerubbabels "are probably different persons"; Gill's is that an Alexandrian chronicle equated Neri with Jeconiah. Both are harmonizations, and they are incompatible with each other. The second fixed point is Nathan at v. 31. Gill anchors it firmly: "that Nathan was the son of David, as the order of things here directs, which was the son of David, is clear from 2 Samuel 5:14," and 1 Chronicles 3:5 lists Nathan among David's sons born in Jerusalem. Matthew runs the royal descent through Solomon; Luke runs this one through Nathan. Poole, surveying the whole problem, locates every real difficulty in exactly this span, Luke 3:23 to 3:31 and the tail of the list, and grants that the differences between the evangelists have given "the adversaries of Christian religion" no small advantage. Henry believes the differences "have been removed by learned men"; the Pulpit Commentary, writing nearly two centuries later, is still referring readers to whole volumes on the question. ⚙ Report the disagreement; do not settle it.

iv. Perez to Abraham, and one name too many — Luke 3:32 to 3:37

At v. 32 the ground becomes firm. Gill notes that the order from Jesse back to Abraham "perfectly agrees with the genealogy of Matthew, and the accounts of the Old Testament," and the Verifier confirms it lexically: Luke 3:32 and 3:33 share with Matthew 1:3 to 1:5 the rare Greek lexemes Esrom, Phares, Aram, Aminadab, Naasson, Booz, Obed and Jesse. Ruth 4:18 to 22 carries the same chain in Hebrew, and 1 Chronicles 2:1 to 15 repeats it. Two roughnesses remain even here. At v. 33 the Berean text reads both Admin and Arni where Matthew has one Ram, and the interlinear tags both with the single Strong's number G689; that is a genuine textual variation in Luke's own tradition. And at v. 36 stands Cainan, son of Arphaxad. Gill is blunt: this Cainan "is not mentioned by Moses in Genesis 11:12 nor has he ever appeared in any Hebrew copy of the Old Testament, nor in the Samaritan version, nor in the Targum," nor in Josephus, nor at 1 Chronicles 1:24, nor in Beza's most ancient Greek copy of Luke, and he concludes it "ought not to stand neither in the text, nor in any version." Benson takes the opposite turn from the same evidence: the name stands in the Septuagint of Genesis 11:12 and 13, and "unless we suppose that Luke himself might choose, in writing this genealogy, to follow the LXX., as he appears to do in several other passages." ⚙ The difficulty is real and we do not pretend it away: the Greek of Luke and the Greek of Genesis agree against the Hebrew of Genesis, and the two commentators in the brief draw opposite conclusions from that fact. Benson's own consolation is the sound one, that Luke's design is the ascent to Adam, and that the ascent is equally clear either way.

v. The son of Adam, the son of God — Luke 3:38

Matthew's table begins at Abraham and stops; Luke's keeps climbing past Abraham, past Noah, past Seth, to Adam, and then refuses to stop at Adam. Poole gives the reason from Luke's audience: Matthew, "intending his history primarily for the Jews, judged it enough to prove Christ the Son of Abraham, and the Son of David; but Luke designing the information of the whole world, derives him from the common father of mankind." The Geneva note says the same in one breath: the lineage is traced "even to Adam, and so to God," so that it might appear that this is he whom God promised to Abraham and David and appointed to a Church "composed of all sorts of men." On the last phrase the witnesses are careful and unanimous about what it does not mean. Henry: "the son of Adam, the son of God; that is, the offspring of God by creation." Benson: Adam, "being descended from no human parents, but formed by the power of a divine creating hand, might with peculiar propriety be called the son of God." Gill: "not begotten, as all the rest were, by their immediate parents, but created by God, in a supernatural manner, out of the dust of the earth." Ellicott presses one step further and ties the two ends of the phrase together: humanity as such, as the result of an immediate creative act, was the offspring of God, and because the human nature of our Lord originated in a like creative act, by the angel's word at Luke 1:35, it was entitled to be called the Son of God. JFB simply points to Acts 17:28. ⚙ The list that opened with a reckoned sonship closes with a created one, and the reader is left holding both.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. Luke has built the passage as a frame, and the frame is the argument. It opens with ἐνομίζετο, a verb of legal reckoning, and closes with τοῦ Θεοῦ, a genitive of origin; between them run seventy-six names, of which a large minority are otherwise unknown and one is textually contested. That is a strange thing to build if the point were documentary proof. Read as Scripture rather than as an archive, the list is doing something else: it is refusing to let the Son of God be an idea. Genesis 5:1 to 3 sets the pattern Luke reverses. There, God made Adam in his own likeness, and Adam begot Seth in his likeness; the image descends, and with it, by Genesis 5's relentless refrain, death. Luke walks that same corridor backwards, from a man standing in the Jordan at about thirty years of age, up through the obscure and the famous alike, to the one man who had no father but a creating hand. The chain that carried death back down from Adam is the chain Luke climbs up. And Luke puts the whole ascent immediately after the voice from heaven at Luke 3:22 has named him the beloved Son, and immediately before the wilderness, where that title is the very thing thrown into question. So the genealogy stands between the naming and the testing, as if to say: this Son is the Son of God in the eternal sense the voice means, and he is also the son of Adam in the ordinary sense the list means, and the second is not a costume. The reason the two Gospel tables can diverge without the Gospel falling is that neither table is the ground of the claim; the voice at the Jordan is. Henry saw it: our salvation does not depend on our solving these difficulties. ⚙ What the list secures is not a proof but a location. The Word became flesh at a particular place in a particular family register, with all the ordinary embarrassment that a real family register carries, including the names nobody can now identify and the one name the copyists argued over.

Not Scripture, a fallible reading offered for testing: Luke climbs the ladder of death in reverse, and stops only where no father stands.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Perez to Jesse: the one stretch where the two tables coincide verbal / quotation: confirmed

From Judah down to Jesse, Luke 3:32 and 3:33 and Matthew 1:3 to 1:5 carry the same men in the same order, in the same Greek spellings. Gill states it for the record: the order "from Jesse to Abraham, as Obed, Boaz, Salmon, Naasson, Aminadab, Aram, or Ram, Esrom, Phares, Judah, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, perfectly agrees with the genealogy of Matthew, and the accounts of the Old Testament." Poole agrees that in Luke 3:32, 3:33 and part of 3:34 "we have nothing to reconcile." The Hebrew record behind it is Ruth 4:18 to 22, repeated by the Chronicler at 1 Chronicles 2:1 to 15. This is the spine both evangelists inherited and neither altered.

Matthew 1:3 · Matthew 1:4 · Matthew 1:5

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexemes G2074 Ἐσρώμ (in 2 vv), G5329 Φάρες (in 2 vv), G689 Ἀράμ (in 3 vv), G284 Ἀμιναδάβ (in 2 vv), G3476 Ναασσών (in 2 vv), G1003 Βοόζ (in 2 vv), G5601 Ὠβήδ (in 2 vv), G2421 Ἰεσσαί (in 5 vv). Both refs are New Testament, so the shared Strong's numbers are a real Greek to Greek verbal link. No quotation formula is claimed: the verbal identity is onomastic, the same name chain in the same spellings, not one text citing another.

Shealtiel and Zerubbabel: the post-exilic knot structural / thematic: confirmed

Luke 3:27 and Matthew 1:12 to 13 both run through Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, the only names the two tables share after David. The Hebrew record sits behind them at 1 Chronicles 3:17 to 19, and Zerubbabel appears in his own lifetime at Ezra 3:2 and Haggai 1:1, where he is governor of Judah. The disagreements are on both sides of the pair: Luke has Neri above Shealtiel where Matthew has Jeconiah, and Luke has Rhesa below Zerubbabel where Matthew has Abiud. JFB's answer is that "they are probably different persons"; Gill's is an Alexandrian chronicle equating Neri with Jeconiah. Neither is demonstrated, and they cannot both be right. ⚙ We record the overlap as real and the identification as unresolved.

Matthew 1:12 · Matthew 1:13 · 1 Chronicles 3:17 · Ezra 3:2 · Haggai 1:1

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes with Matthew, G4528 Σαλαθιήλ (in 2 vv) and G2216 Ζοροβάβελ (in 3 vv), both rare. Tiered structural rather than verbal because the refs mix New Testament and Old Testament books: the 1 Chronicles, Ezra and Haggai links are Hebrew and cannot share Strong's numbers with Greek, and because JFB's note leaves the identification of the two Zerubbabels open, the link is a shared post-exilic figure and pattern, not a quotation.

Through Nathan, not Solomon structural / thematic: confirmed

At Luke 3:31 the line to David runs through Nathan. Gill fixes the man from the Hebrew record: "that Nathan was the son of David, as the order of things here directs, which was the son of David, is clear from 2 Samuel 5:14," and 1 Chronicles 3:5 lists Nathan among the sons born to David in Jerusalem. Matthew 1:6 runs the royal descent through Solomon instead. This single divergence is the ground of almost everything else disputed in the passage: Benson, Henry and Gill use it to argue that Luke gives Mary's natural line while Matthew gives Joseph's legal and royal one; JFB weighs that reading as best supported while conceding the rival is the more natural sense of the Greek; Poole and the Pulpit Commentary both decline to adjudicate in detail. ⚙ The commentators in the brief do not agree, and this synthesis does not pretend they do.

2 Samuel 5:14 · 1 Chronicles 3:5 · Matthew 1:6

basis: Cross-Testament: Luke's Greek Ναθάμ cannot share a Strong's number with the Hebrew of 2 Samuel 5:14 or 1 Chronicles 3:5, so no verbal tier is possible. The recorded basis is the named source citation itself, Gill citing 2 Samuel 5:14 for Nathan son of David, plus the structural contrast with Matthew 1:6. No quotation is claimed.

The extra Cainan: the Septuagint against the Hebrew flagged: verify source

Luke 3:36 places Cainan between Arphaxad and Shelah. The Hebrew of Genesis 11:12 to 13 has no such man, and neither does 1 Chronicles 1:24; the Greek of Genesis 11:12 to 13 does. Gill lists the absences one by one, no Hebrew copy, no Samaritan, no Targum, no Josephus, not in Beza's most ancient Greek copy of Luke, and judges the name a transcriber's intrusion later imported into the Septuagint "to give it authority." Benson reports the same absence from Moses and then allows the opposite conclusion, that Luke himself may have followed the Seventy here as he does elsewhere. ⚙ The provenance is genuinely disputed by the brief's own witnesses, so this link is flagged rather than confirmed. What is not disputed: the name is in the Greek Genesis and not in the Hebrew Genesis.

Genesis 11:12 · Genesis 11:13 · 1 Chronicles 1:24

basis: Provenance contested within the brief itself: Gill judges the name absent from every Hebrew, Samaritan, Targumic and Chronicles witness and from Beza's oldest Greek copy of Luke, and therefore no part of the true text; Benson allows that Luke may have followed the Septuagint of Genesis 11:12 to 13, where the name does stand. Cross-Testament in any case, Greek to Hebrew, so no verbal tier is available. Flagged for the reader to verify.

Thirty years old: the age at which service begins structural / thematic: confirmed

Luke's one chronological note meets a cluster of Old Testament ages, and the commentators in the brief reach for them independently. Numbers 4:3 and 4:47 set thirty as the age at which a Levite entered the full work of the tent; Ellicott, Barnes, Poole, Gill and the Pulpit Commentary all name it, and Poole adds 1 Chronicles 23:3 where David numbered them from thirty upward. Cambridge widens it: thirty is also the age at which Joseph stood before Pharaoh (Genesis 41:46) and the age at which David began to reign (2 Samuel 5:4), and the age at which scribes were allowed to teach. Barnes enters the necessary caution: Jesus was not subject to the Levitical law regarding the priesthood, and no age was fixed for a prophet, so the convergence is a pattern of Israelite custom rather than a legal requirement being discharged.

Numbers 4:3 · Numbers 4:47 · Genesis 41:46 · 2 Samuel 5:4

basis: Cross-Testament, Greek to Hebrew, so shared Strong's numbers are impossible and no verbal tier may be used. The recorded basis is a shared pattern, the number thirty as the threshold of full public service, attested in the brief by Ellicott, Barnes, Poole, Gill, Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary citing these exact references. Barnes's caveat is recorded in the body; no quotation or fulfilment formula is claimed.

Made in the likeness, begotten in the likeness: why the list ends at Adam structural / thematic: confirmed

Genesis 5:1 to 3 is the text that makes Luke's ending intelligible. There, in the day God created man, he made him in the likeness of God, and then Adam begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth; and Genesis 1:26 to 27 has already established the likeness. Luke ascends Seth, Adam, God, and stops. Henry reads the phrase strictly: "the offspring of God by creation." Benson and Gill say the same, Gill noting that Adam alone was "not begotten, as all the rest were, by their immediate parents." ⚙ The structural point is that Luke's last three links reproduce Genesis 5:1 to 3 in reverse order, which is why the list ends where it does rather than trailing off in silence.

Genesis 1:26 · Genesis 1:27 · Genesis 5:1 · Genesis 5:3

basis: Cross-Testament, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier may be used. The recorded basis is the structural correspondence of the sequence, Adam made in God's likeness and Seth begotten in Adam's, run in reverse by Luke's last three genitives, supported in the brief by Henry, Benson, Gill and Ellicott all glossing 'son of God' at v. 38 as sonship by creation.

Enoch, seventh from Adam structural / thematic: confirmed

Count Luke's last seven names from the bottom up and they run Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch: Enoch stands seventh from Adam, exactly the description Jude 1:14 gives him. The Verifier flags the pair on the shared Greek lexemes for Enoch and Adam. ⚙ The link is a shared count and a shared way of reckoning descent, not a citation; Luke never numbers the generations and never mentions Enoch's prophecy. Note also that this count works only with the first Cainan of Genesis 5, not with the disputed Cainan of Luke 3:36, which stands elsewhere in the chain.

Jude 1:14

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1802 Ἐνώχ (in 3 vv) and G76 Ἀδάμ (in 7 vv), both New Testament, so the lexical link is real. Deliberately under-claimed as structural rather than verbal: Jude 1:14 is not quoting Luke and Luke is not quoting Jude, and the shared element is a genealogical count both writers presuppose from Genesis 5 rather than any shared wording beyond the two names.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The son of Adam and the Son of God, and therefore the Mediator ancient/widely-held

Henry states the redemptive logic in one sentence: "Christ was both the son of Adam and the Son of God, that he might be a proper Mediator between God and the sons of Adam, and might bring the sons of Adam to be, through him, the sons of God." Ellicott builds the same bridge from the other end, arguing that because the human nature of our Lord originated in a creative act like Adam's, by the angel's word at Luke 1:35, it was entitled to be called the Son of God, and adding that "what was true of the second Adam was true also partly, though in different measure, of the first." Gill says Adam "was a type of the second Adam, from whom he descended, though not by ordinary generation." Paul's two-Adam argument at Romans 5:14 and 1 Corinthians 15:45 is the apostolic form of the same reading. ⚙ Luke himself draws no such conclusion in the text; he lays the two ends side by side and lets the reader hold them. But the reading is not novel, and the brief shows Henry, Ellicott and Gill all taking it.

Romans 5:14 · 1 Corinthians 15:45 · Genesis 5:1 · Luke 1:35

The Seed of the woman, traced past Abraham ancient/widely-held

Henry gives the reason Luke goes where Matthew does not: "Matthew's list of the forefathers of Jesus showed that Christ was the son of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth are blessed, and heir to the throne of David; but Luke shows that Jesus was the Seed of the woman that should break the serpent's head, and traces the line up to Adam." JFB reaches the same conclusion from the audiences, that Luke, writing more immediately for Gentiles, traces the descent back to Adam, "the parent stock of the whole human family, thus showing Him to be the promised 'Seed of the woman.'" Poole adds that Luke thereby "lets us know that Christ was he who was promised to Adam, before Abraham's time, and that the grace of the gospel is not limited to the seed of Abraham." The promise itself stands at Genesis 3:15, and Paul's "born of a woman" at Galatians 4:4 speaks to the same descent. ⚙ Three independent witnesses in the brief converge on this reading, which is why it is marked as widely held rather than as ours.

Genesis 3:15 · Galatians 4:4 · Genesis 22:18

Sprung out of Judah, of the root of David ancient/widely-held

Luke's chain passes through Judah at v. 33 and David at v. 31, and both are load-bearing for the New Testament's claim about Jesus. Hebrews 7:14 argues that it is evident our Lord arose out of Judah, a tribe about which Moses said nothing concerning priests, and Revelation 5:5 names him the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David. The Verifier lists both as lexical neighbours of this unit on the Judah and David lexemes. ⚙ Luke makes no such argument here; he supplies the genealogical fact the later writers reason from. Note also the honest tension, recorded rather than resolved: Luke's chain reaches David through Nathan and not through the royal line of Solomon, so the throne claim in the Gospels rests on Matthew's table, or on Joseph's legal fatherhood, and not on this one.

Hebrews 7:14 · Revelation 5:5 · Genesis 49:10

The name in the middle of the list novel

At Luke 3:29 the interlinear tags Ἰησοῦ with G2424, the same Strong's number as Ἰησοῦς at v. 23. BSB renders it "Joshua" there and "Jesus" here, and rightly, since the Greek name serves for both. So the name at the head of the genealogy also stands inside it, borne by an unknown man in the silent centuries, because it was an ordinary Israelite name meaning the Lord saves. ⚙ This is our own observation from the brief's own tagging, not a reading we find in the commentators supplied, and no commentator in this brief draws attention to it. We mark it novel and claim nothing from it beyond what the tagging shows: the name given by the angel at Luke 1:31 was a name already in the family.

Luke 1:31 · Matthew 1:21

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The reading of Luke 3:36 is genuinely disputed within the brief itself: Gill judges the second Cainan an intrusion absent from every Hebrew, Samaritan, Targumic and Chronicles witness and from Beza's oldest Greek copy of Luke, while Benson allows that Luke may have followed the Septuagint of Genesis 11:12 to 13, where the name stands. We have not decided between them. At Luke 3:33 the Berean text reads both Admin and Arni, and the interlinear assigns both the single Strong's number G689, where Matthew 1:4 has one name; that is a real variation in the tradition, not a translation choice. At Luke 3:28 the surface form Ἐλμαδὰμ differs from the Strong's headword Ἐλμωδάμ. Gill also reports Grotius wishing to delete Matthat and Levi at v. 24 on patristic authority, a deletion Gill himself declines.

Sources. Ten public-domain commentators are present: Ellicott, Benson, Henry, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge and Pulpit. Their coverage is very uneven. Henry's entry is one paragraph repeated against every verse of the unit; Barnes, for verses 24 to 37, gives only a referral to his notes on Matthew 1; Poole, from v. 25 on, refers back to his own note at v. 24; and the Geneva entries for verses 24 to 37 are the verse text itself with no gloss. Where those entries are quoted here, that is what they say, and the editorial notes record it. Gill's surnames and regnal years for the obscure post-exilic names come from a chronicle he ascribes to Philo of Alexandria and cites at second hand; it is late, uncorroborated, and treated here as conjecture, not evidence. Gill also quotes a hostile rabbinic passage about "Mary the daughter of Eli"; we have not reproduced its abuse, and its evidentiary value is slight even on Gill's own use of it.

Lexicon. Most Strong's glosses in this brief are truncated in the source data, for example "G689 Ἀράμ, Aram (i" and "G1138 Δαβίδ, Dabid (i", where the entry has been cut mid-abbreviation; nothing has been reconstructed from memory. The G2316 θεός line in the brief carries only the secondary sense "figuratively, a magistrate," which is plainly not the sense at Luke 3:38, and we have not built anything on that gloss.

What is uncertain. Whether Heli is the father of Joseph or of Mary; whether Luke's table is Mary's line or Joseph's; whether Luke's Zerubbabel is Matthew's; whether Neri and Jeconiah are one man; and whether the second Cainan belongs in the text. The brief contains no evidence that settles any of them, and the commentators it preserves disagree. Every thread pairing this Greek text with a Hebrew text is tiered structural or typological, never verbal, because Greek and Hebrew lexemes cannot share a Strong's number; the only verbal tier used here is Greek to Greek, between Luke and Matthew.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)