I hear a clip from a radio programme on statistics where it was confirmed that all ethnic English people can trace their ancestry directly to Edward III.
If there’s one thing genealogy teaches us, it’s that the longer you go back in time, the more likely it is that everyone’s family tree starts looking more like a tangled web than a majestic oak. That’s why you can make statements like “every ethnic English person is descended from Edward III” and not be laughed out of the pub – a phenomenon called pedigree collapse ensures that noble blood gets around more than you’d think. But what about Jesus and his supposed connection to King David? Let’s have a closer look.
In the Bible, there are two distinct genealogies given for Jesus, each tracing his lineage back to David. One is found in the Gospel of Matthew, and the other in Luke. At first glance, these genealogies look about as similar as chalk and cheese, but they’re both meant to anchor Jesus’ credentials as the long-awaited Messiah – a descendant of King David. However, over the centuries, these two genealogies have also been a source of scepticism, even mockery, for their apparent contradictions.
Matthew’s account (1:1-16) is more straightforward and selective. It traces Jesus’ lineage through Joseph, his legal (though not biological) father, via David’s son Solomon. It’s organised neatly into three sets of 14 generations, emphasising Jesus’ connection to the royal line of Judah. Matthew is keen to show Jesus as the fulfilment of Jewish prophecy, so he’s crafted his genealogy with symbolism in mind, possibly omitting a few generations to make the numbers work.
Luke, on the other hand, takes a different route (3:23-38). His genealogy also runs through Joseph but instead traces the line via David’s son Nathan, a lesser-known branch of the family tree. Luke’s version goes backwards all the way to Adam, which fits his broader aim of presenting Jesus as a universal saviour, not just a Jewish Messiah.
So why the two lineages, and why the differences? Well, one explanation is that Matthew is tracing Joseph’s legal ancestry, while Luke is tracing Mary’s biological ancestry. In Jewish tradition, legal lineage was often more significant than biological lineage, so both genealogies could be seen as valid ways to link Jesus to David. Another theory is that one of the genealogies reflects a levirate marriage, where a man would marry his brother’s widow to provide offspring in the deceased’s name, thus creating a sort of dual paternity situation.
Critics have long used the discrepancies between these genealogies to challenge their credibility, arguing that the inconsistencies undermine the claim of a Davidic connection. After all, if one genealogy runs through Solomon and the other through Nathan, can both really be true? It’s the sort of thing that’s been gleefully pounced on by sceptics looking to poke holes in the narrative.
Now, let’s zoom out a bit. Could every Jew of Jesus’ time claim descent from King David? It’s not as far-fetched as it might sound. Given David’s many children and the small, relatively isolated population of ancient Judea, it’s entirely possible that Davidic ancestry had spread widely over the intervening centuries. Pedigree collapse – where ancestral lines merge due to intermarriage within a limited population – would ensure that many people carried at least a trace of David’s DNA, even if they couldn’t prove it at family gatherings.
Consider the timescales involved. Edward III lived in the 14th century, just over 600 years ago, while King David is traditionally placed around 1000 BCE – roughly 1,000 years before Jesus. The time between Edward III and today has seen significantly more documented genealogical blending, yet the principle remains the same. Over a millennium, David’s bloodline could have easily become pervasive in a population as small as ancient Judea’s, just as Edward III’s descendants have multiplied across England and beyond.
In the end, the Biblical genealogies of Jesus are less about tracing an unbroken biological line and more about affirming theological 'truths'. They rationalise the connection to King David, whether through legal adoption, biological descent, or symbolic representation. And if King David’s blood really did run through more than half the population of Judea by then, well, that’s just pedigree collapse doing its thing again. After all, family trees are a lot messier than scripture makes them look.
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