ONE thing that has caused an apparent difficulty touching the genealogy of Christ, is, that inquirers are not aware of the fact, that Matthew traces the genealogy of Joseph, from Abraham down, and that Luke traces the genealogy of Mary up to Adam. Matt. i.; Luke iii. This will account, in some degree, for the disagreement in names. They are evidently two distinct lines of genealogy, and the best authorities we can appeal to at present, give Matthew’s to Joseph and the other to Mary, and it is clear to any one, that one descends and that the other ascends.
The best evidence we can command, sustains the idea that Matthew wrote at an earlier date than Luke, and that he took his genealogy from the Jewish records, from Abraham to Joseph, as the Jews would be willing to believe their own records; and, that when Luke wrote, Joseph had been adopted into the family of Heli, (Eli, the same) Joseph’s father-in-law, some years, and, consequently, Luke copied the genealogy of Joseph through Heli, which was properly Mary’s genealogy, up to Adam.
There are, however, difficulties in these genealogies, which, we presume, no one can reconcile; but Matthew and Luke are not accountable for them, as they simply give these as the commonly received genealogies, which those in the day when they had the records to appeal to, never disputed. Had the Jews been able to involve the Apostle and Luke in a contradiction, they, no doubt, would willingly have done it, but this they could not do, without disputing their own records.