Question: How is Matt. 1:16, taken in connection with Luke 3:23, to be explained?
Matthew says, “Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary;” and Luke, “being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, which was of Heli, which was of Matthat,” &c. Matthew in ver. 15 had said, “Matthan begat Jacob.”
In Luke 3, I presume, Mary’s. genealogy is given down to 31, “Nathan (who was) of David,”. while in Matt. 1:6 “David the king begat Solomon,” and so on down to Joseph. But what explains the apparent discrepancy between Matt. 1:16 and Luke 3:23? O. P.
Answer: The solution of the difficulty turns on the true marking of the parenthesis in Luke 3:23 “(being, as was supposed, son of Joseph”). The Revisers are no more right than was the A.V. in limiting it to “(as was supposed).” Christ’s being considered son of Joseph is thus intimated to be outside the proper genealogical line which is here traced from Heli or Eli, Mary’s father, up to Adam and God Himself. Jesus, reputedly son of Joseph, was really of Heli, &c. Even the unbelieving Jews did not question that Mary, the virgin mother of our Lord, was Heli’s daughter; for the Talmud speaks of her thus, and as tormented in the unseen world. The fact is that there is a choice of ways which all remove the apparent discrepancy. On these we need not dwell here, but simply state the one which we believe to be the truth.
The internal evidence entirely sustains this view as intended of God. For as υἱός was expressed in the parenthetical clause as the reputed relationship, so by a purposely different construction the real natural succession through Mary is traced from her father up to the father of all (τοῦ Ἡλὶ, τοῦ Ματθὰτ, κ.τ.λ.), a grand fact characteristic of our Evangelist. In Matthew, on the other hand, where it was essential to trace the Messianic title of our Lord legally, we have “Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary.” Again both Evangelists are equally careful to repudiate the actual fatherhood of Joseph, and to affirm the divine generation of our Savior, as well as His eternal being in the Godhead before the Incarnation.
But there is much more in corroboration, which goes along with the special design of each of the two Gospels. For it will be noticed that only Matthew records the apparitions of Jehovah’s angel to Joseph (1:20, 2:19); whereas in Luke 1:26-35 the angel Gabriel was sent by God not to Joseph but to Mary, even though Jehovah’s angel appeared to Zachariah before (1:11), and to the shepherds after (2:9), the Child was born, the Son was given. Of course, His birth of Mary was of absolute moment for His person as now Man no less than God forever, and for the infinite work He was about to accomplish. But so far was the legal position of Joseph as His reputed father from being unimportant, that He could not have been indisputably viewed as the promised Son and Heir of David’s throne, till Joseph passed away. Hence not a word is said in any one of the four Gospels which supposes Joseph alive, when our Lord enters on His manifestation as the Messiah, though (as every believer knows) much more than the Messiah. This also disposes of the notion, cherished by not a few ancients and moderns, that Joseph had a family of sons and daughter, before Mary was betrothed to him. For in that case his eldest would have been legally the heir to David’s throne. So completely was the law fulfilled, as well as the Prophets and the Psalms. Scripture cannot be broken.