genealogy of Jesus

accounts of the ancestry of Jesus found in the Gospel of Matthew and in the Gospel of Luke

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Commons category: Genealogy of Jesus Christ

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Ancestors of Christ by Armenian manuscript illuminator Toros Roslin

The New Testament provides two accounts of the genealogy of Jesus, one in the Gospel of Matthew and another in the Gospel of Luke. Matthew starts with Abraham and works forwards, while Luke works back in time from Jesus to Adam. The lists of names are identical between Abraham and David (whose inclusion affirms Jesus' messianic title Son of David), but differ radically in the rest. Matthew has twenty-seven generations from David to Joseph (the legal father of Jesus), whereas Luke has forty-two, with almost no overlap between them or with other known genealogies.⁠ They also disagree on Joseph's father: Matthew names Jacob, while Luke names Heli.