Immediately following the baptism of the Saviour at Jordan, the descent

from heaven of the Spirit as a dove, and the Voice declaring Him to be

the beloved Son of God, we read:

'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' (Luke 3:23),

and so on through Nathan, David and Abraham to Adam.  The Gentile aspect of

Luke's Gospel is again made manifest by this added set of names, right back

to Adam; Matthew being satisfied to take the Saviour's genealogy back to

Abraham and to stay there.  While the Saviour was not a priest while on

earth, 'for it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe

Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood' (Heb. 7:14), He nevertheless

conformed to the law governing the Levites, who 'From thirty years old and

upward' were enroled for the service of the Tabernacle (Num. 4:3).

We know that Christ was commonly 'supposed' to be the son of Joseph

(John 1:45; 6:42; Luke 4:22), and this is no argument either for or against

the actual fact of the Virgin birth, for Mary herself, following the custom

of the time, speaks of Joseph as the Saviour's 'father' in the very Gospel

that so insists on His mother's virginity (Luke 2:48).  It is written in Luke

2:39 that Joseph and Mary performed all things according to the law of the

Lord in connection with the Infant Christ, and this would have included the

payment of the redemption shekel.  This would have made Jesus Joseph's son in

the eyes of the law, a claim which He recognized (Luke 2:51).  Nomizo, the

word translated 'as was supposed' does not carry with it in any of its New

Testament occurrences a strong legal element, but in a genealogy

'supposition' is hardly the word to translate a derivative of nomos 'law',

especially as we shall see that Joseph, the next named, was himself not the

physical son of Heli, but the son-'in-law'.  Hence we can open the genealogy

with the words:

'Jesus ... being legally reckoned the son of Joseph' (Luke 3:23).

Matthew traces the genealogy of Joseph back through Jacob who begat

him, to Solomon, David and Abraham.  Luke traces Joseph's genealogy back

through Heli, his father-in-law, to Nathan, David, Abraham and Adam.

No man can be physically the son of two brothers, consequently we perceive

that Joseph is the begotten son of Jacob, and so the son of David through

Solomon, while Mary, the wife of Joseph and the daughter of Heli, was

descended equally from David, but through Solomon's brother Nathan, and so

Joseph was the son-in-law of Heli.

In the Rabbinical writing (Hieros Chag) a certain person in his sleep

sees the punishment of the damned.  Among them he saw 'Mary the daughter of

Heli', a strange confirmation, yet valuable.

Genealogies must occupy an important place among a people like Israel,

divided as they were into twelve

tribes, with inheritances involved by intermarriage.  The following taken

from the writings of Josephus will illustrate this point.  'I am not only

sprung from a sacerdotal family in general, but from the first twenty-four

courses ... further, by my mother I am of royal blood ... I will accordingly

set down my progenitors in order ... Thus have I set down the genealogy of my

family as I found it described in public records'.  Writing to Apion,

Josephus speaks of the extreme care that was exercised over the genealogies

of the priests, the wife's genealogy being scrutinized also, not only in