Luke 3:21-23

EasyEnglish Bible

Footnotes

1. 3:22 God called Jesus, ‘my Son’. Jesus often said that God was his father.
2. 3:23 To the Jews, a person's family was very important. God had promised to send the Messiah, who would be from David's family. It was necessary to show that the Messiah was from the family of David. So both Matthew and Luke record the family of Jesus. But the two lists are completely different. Matthew gives the list of names from Abraham to Joseph that the law would recognize. In Jewish law, Joseph was the father of Jesus but in fact, he was not. Matthew starts his list with Abraham and finishes with Jesus (see Matthew 1:2-16). This shows that Jesus as a man is Jewish. Jesus was the Messiah that God promised to Israel. Luke shows that Jesus is not in fact a son of Joseph. So he gives the list of the people in Mary's family. Joseph was the son of Jacob (see Matthew 1:16). Heli was the father of Joseph's wife Mary. Mary was the daughter of Heli. But the Jews would not usually end or start the family list with a woman. So Luke does not mention Mary by name.