Each time I translate a new name list from the Bible I am amazed at what I find there. This time I took the genealogy of Jesus from Luke 3:23-38. There are two things to keep in mind from this list for anyone new to Bible genealogies.

First, this is a listing of Hebrew names from Luke, which was written in Greek. Some of the names seem unfamiliar because he uses the Greek forms of the name instead of the more familiar Hebrew spelling. For example, Noah from the OT becomes Noe in the NT Greek.

The second item of note is that Jesus has three different pedigrees in the NT. Matthew gives us the legal lineage of Jesus to authenticate his right to the throne of David. He begins with Abraham and traces his lineage through David to St. Joseph, because an adopted son (as Jesus was to Joseph) becomes the legal heir regardless of his natural parentage.

Luke’s Gospel gives a slightly different list of names because he gives Jesus’ natural lineage. He therefore begins with Adam and follows the line through Abraham to David but diverts from Matthew to give his genealogy through Mary. She was not of Solomon but from Bathsheba’s second surviving son, Nathan. If we remember what happened to Jacob’s sons, this makes sense; Jacob cursed Reuben, Simeon, and Levi for their actions, and so the birthright passed to the next son, Judah. When Solomon’s line was cursed retroactively through Jeconiah (Jer. 22:24–30), the birthright passed to Nathan! Jesus was therefore not just the legal heir as shown in Matthew, but also descended from David’s body through the next eligible descendent to fulfill what God said.

Who could anticipate a bait-and-switch scheme like this? Even the devil could not know in advance who to kill to keep the “seed of the woman” from being born. The Lord may have been hinting at this plan when he said, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse (David’s father), and a Branch shall grow out of his roots” (Is. 11:1). 

The Righteous Branch (or natzer) from David’s line is spoken of in reference to the Messiah in Isaiah 4:2, 11:1, 60:21, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15, and Zechariah 8:3 and 6:12, which in hindsight can only mean the “branch” of Nathan. In the Septuagint version, this verse is translated: “There shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall grow out of his root” (osb). This wording makes the branch out to be Aaron’s rod, which miraculously budded, flowered, and bore ripe almonds when it was dead wood (Num 7:23). The line of Nathan was a living branch from a dead tree. The prophecies about the branch or Natzerene then form the basis of Matthew’s comment that Jesus was called a Nazarene. It seems God is not above using a pun to keep his enemies off guard.

Mark presents Jesus as the suffering servant. The pedigree of a slave was not considered important, so he does not give one. John gives the third pedigree of Jesus from the NT in his introduction of him as the incarnate Logos or Word of God.

The following table gives the names from Luke 3 as they appear in my NKJ version, with their meanings and my suggestions for the message hidden in them. Please feel free to find your own message in the list according to your preferred translation of the names.