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The Life of ChristSection 5 / 113
Section 005 · Infancy & the Forerunner

The Genealogies of Jesus

Two genealogies frame the Son: Matthew descends from Abraham through the kings to Christ; Luke ascends from Christ all the way to “Adam, who was formed of God.” In the JST, Luke’s line is recast from a chain of literal sons into a record of descent reaching back to God himself. Down the list, Joseph’s “and of” replaces “which was the son of”; that refrain is left unmarked.

Matthew 1:1–17; Luke 3:23–382 of 4 accountsReading: CCE

Tap a Gospel to show or hide its column. Narrow to any two to read them side by side.

ProvenanceJSTJoseph Smith TranslationCCECovenant Christian EditionDeleted text shown struck, attributed
Study: reading text with parallel accounts; changes available.

Note. Luke’s line is recast by the JST from a chain of literal sons into a record of descent (“from the loins of,” “a descendant of”) reaching past Adam to God. Only the substantive JST changes are marked; the modernized name-forms (Judas→Judah, Phares→Perez) are shown unmarked.

? How to read this edition

The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.

JST
Green: Joseph Smith Translation. Where the Covenant Christian Edition departs in substance from the King James text and the change is in the JST (confirmed against the parallel-column edition). Modernized English (“has” for “hath,” “you” for “thou”) is not marked.
CCE
Burgundy: Covenant Christian Edition. Where the CCE’s reading departs from the King James but the change is not in the Joseph Smith Translation manuscript (e.g. “this day I have begotten you” at the baptism). Some are Joseph’s own readings from his sermons; the section’s Joseph Smith commentary then gives the sermon.
MatthewKJVMatthew 1:1–17CCEMatthew 1:1–4NT 1NT 2

1The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brethren, and Judah begot Perez and Zerah of Tamar, and Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab, and Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon, and Salmon begot Boaz of Rahab, and Boaz begot Obed of Ruth, and Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. 6And David the king begot Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias of her whom David had taken of Uriah, and Solomon begot Rehoboam, and Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa, and Asa begot Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah, and Uzziah begot Jotham, and Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah, and Hezekiah begot Manasseh, and Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah, and Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brethren about the time they were carried away to Babylon.

12And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel begot Abihud, and Abihud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor, and Azor begot Zadok, and Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud, and Eliud begot Eleazar, and Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob. 16And Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, as the prophets have written, who is called Christ.

17So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David until the carrying away into Babylon were fourteen generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ were fourteen generations.

LukeKJVLuke 3:23–38CCELuke 3:9NT 2

23And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, having lived with his father, being (as was supposed of the world) the son of Joseph, who was from the loins of Heli, who was from the loins of Matthat, who was the son of Levi, who was a descendant of Melchi, and of Jannai, and of Joseph, and of Mattathias, and of Amos, and of Nahum, and of Esli, and of Naggai, and of Maath, and of Mattathias, and of Semein, and of Joseph, and of Joda, and of Joanan, and of Rhesa, and of Zerubbabel, and of Shealtiel, who was the son of Neri, who was a descendant of Melchi, and of Addi, and of Cosam, and of Elmadam, and of Er, and of Joshua, and of Eliezer, and of Jorim, and of Matthat, and of Levi, and of Simeon, and of Judah, and of Joseph, and of Jonam, and of Eliakim, and of Melea, and of Menna, and of Mattatha, and of Nathan, and of David, and of Jesse, and of Obed, and of Boaz, and of Salmon, and of Nahshon, and of Amminadab, and of Ram, and of Hezron, and of Perez, and of Judah, and of Jacob, and of Isaac, and of Abraham, and of Terah, and of Nahor, and of Serug, and of Reu, and of Peleg, and of Eber, and of Selah, and of Cainan, and of Arphaxad, and of Shem, and of Noah, and of Lamech, and of Methuselah, and of Enoch, and of Jared, and of Mahalalel, and of Cainan, and of Enos, and of Seth, and of Adam, who was formed of God and the first man upon the earth.

Joseph Smith on Adam, the first man

Adam, Who Was the First Man

The Great Grand Progenitor

Joseph Smith did not comment on Luke’s genealogy, and this is not an exposition of it. It is shown as a resonance: his own translation ends Luke’s line with “Adam, who was formed of God and the first man upon the earth,” and in an instruction on the priesthood written in 1840 he began his account of Adam with nearly the same words. The connection is an editor’s (the note in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith points to the JST), not one Joseph made.

Instruction on Priesthood, circa 5 October 1840, Nauvoo · handwriting of Robert B. Thompson, p. 2 (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 157) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗

Commencing with Adam who was the first man whom is spoken of in Daniel as being “the Antient of days” or in other words the first and oldest of all, the great grand progenitor of whom it is said in another place he is michael because he was the first and father of all, not only by progeny, but he was the first to hold the spiritual blessings, to whom was made known the plan of ordinances for the Salvation of his posterity unto the end, and to whom Christ was first revealed, and through whom christ has been revealed from heaven and will continue to be revealed from henceforth. …

Hugh Nibley on the records of the fathers

The Chronology Running Back to the Beginning

For Nibley a genealogy was never a bare list of names but the charter of a holy line: the written record running back through the fathers to the beginning, by which a man held his claim to priesthood and covenant. Abraham himself set out to “delineate the chronology running back… to the beginning of the creation, for the records have come into my hands” (Abraham 1:28); Luke carries that same line all the way to “Adam, who was formed of God.”

Abraham in Egypt“Records of the Fathers” · Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 14

A significant point of resemblance and rivalry is the claim of both the king and the patriarch to exclusive possession of and access to certain written records which went back to the beginning of time and confirmed his particular claim to legitimacy of priesthood and kingship. Both seem to be speaking of the same records.

Abr. 1:28 [Abr. 2:3]. But I shall endeavor, hereafter, to delineate the chronology running back from myself to the beginning of the creation, for the records have come into my hands, which I hold unto this present time.

Margaret Barker · Adam, son of God

The Son of God and the Second Adam

Luke traces Jesus’ line to “Adam, the son of God”; Barker reads that royal sonship through the enthronement tradition: Jesus as the second Adam, the divine Son whom the angels must worship.

Adam the High Priest in the Paradise Temple© Margaret Barker, 2010 ↗

This story is the context for the enigmatic words in Psalm 2. The LORD has set his king in Zion and called him his son, and the kings and rulers are commanded to serve him: ‘Kiss the Son, lest he be angy and you perish...’ (Ps.2.12 [Ps. 2:3]). The king in Zion is the Adam figure, the image of God enthroned in Zion. The angels called to worship Adam is also the setting for Deuteronomy 32.43, which became a key proof text for the early Church: ‘When he brings the Firstborn into the world, he says “Let all God’s angels worship him”’ (Heb.1.6 [Heb. 1:2]). Jesus is the second Adam enthroned as the Son and the angels have to worship him. Remember, Luke’s genealogy of Jesus describes Adam as the son of God (Lk.3.38). The story of Satan refusing to worship Adam is also the context for Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness. Since Jesus was alone at that time, these must have been his own accounts of the experience, and they are told in terms of this story: ‘If you are the Son of God...’. and then most telling of all, the words of the devil: ‘If you will worship me, [the kingdoms of the world] shall be yours’ (Lk.4.7). The second Adam was being asked to worship Satan, to reverse Satan’s ancient humiliation. Mark summarised the same wilderness experience differently: ‘[Jesus] was with the beasts and the angels served him’ (Mk.1.13). This means that in his wilderness visions, Jesus was in the holy of holies with the beasts that formed the heavenly throne [the ‘living creatures’], and the angels served him. This is the same story of Adam the image being worshipped, and is the vision St John described in Revelation 5. It also appears in the description of the image of the beast who, like Adam, was given breath and the power of speech, and then those who would not worship the image of the beast were killed (Rev.13.15 [Rev. 4:10]).

It is possible that all the stories known only in later texts were spun from the gaps and allusions in the Genesis story, and the Eden temple of the Book of Jubilees was a late fabrication. It is also possible that the Adam and Eden and temple material is far older than Genesis 2-3, and that traditions surfacing in later texts were themselves ancient, known to Ezekiel and either assumed by, or omitted from, Genesis.