Which New Testament Book establishes the parental line of Jesus?

Answer 1

Matthew 1:1-16 presents the legal genealogy of Jesus, which was necessary to establish His claim to the "throne of David" through Joseph, the man who was legally, though not actually, His "father." The structure of the lineage, beginning with Abraham and going forward, leaves no doubt that it presents "Joseph's side of the family," with its series of "begots." It's significant to observe verse 16, which says "...Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus." It very deliberately does not say, "Joseph begot Jesus." Jesus had no earthly father, so this lineage didn't present His "true human ancestors" beyond the point it reaches David. Its importance is in that it confirmed His rights by Jewish law, and confirmed God's promises to Israel.

Luke 3:23-38 presents the human genealogy of Jesus, starting from Jesus and proceeding in reverse. Instead of presenting Jacob (doubtless Joseph's father, according to Matthew) as Jesus' "grandfather," it points out at its start that Jesus was "supposed" (meaning "presumed") to be the son of Joseph, then proceeds from the previous generation with a man named Heli and a different list of ancestors...His true human progenitors. Its importance is that it presents Jesus as fully human as well as divine, with a line of ancestry all the way back to the first man, Adam, showing Jesus to be, truly, the "son of Man."

There's a very simple explanation for the differences in the two genealogies. Matthew's is the "father's side of the family." Luke's is the "mother's side of the family."

Again, Luke points out that Jesus was the "supposed" son of Joseph, then says, "...the son of Heli" (Luke 3:23). This means NOT that Joseph was the son of Heli, but that Jesus was. (Terms such as grandfather, great-grandfather, etc, were not in use at the time, so a man was called a "son" of his ancestor, no matter how far back the ancestor was. The New Testament refers to Jesus as the "son of David" no less than fifteen times, though there were forty generations between the two!) Heli was the literal father of Mary, not Joseph.

Everyone's "family tree" has two sides; the father's and the mother's. When this simple fact is applied to the genealogies of Matthew and Luke, there's no compelling reason to maintain that they're not both completely true and correct.

It is in Matt ch 1 and Luke Ch 3 that lists the parental lines of Jesus

Answer 2

The Gospel of Matthew records the parental line, or genealogy, of Jesus, going back through his father, Joseph, his grandfather, Jacob, and his male line back to Abraham.

The Gospel of Luke also records the parental line, or genealogy, of Jesus, going back through his father, Joseph, this time his grandfather, Heli, and his male line back to Adam.

At most only one of these parental lines could be correct, and Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) tells us that neither is likely to be literally true.