Steven Sim

I am always intrigued by why the Bible bothered listing out names of people. And most of the times, very long list.

Luke did that as well listing out Jesus’ lineage, perhaps in confirmation to some known traditions of the Jesus story.

He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph,
the son of Heli, the son of Matthat,
the son of Levi, the son of Melki,
the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,
the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos,
the son of Nahum, the son of Esli,
the son of Naggai, the son of Maath,
the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein,
the son of Josech, the son of Joda,
the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa,
the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
the son of Neri, the son of Melki,
the son of Addi, the son of Cosam,
the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,
the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer,
the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat,
the son of Levi, the son of Simeon,
the son of Judah, the son of Joseph,
the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,
the son of Melea, the son of Menna,
the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan,
the son of David, the son of Jesse,
the son of Obed, the son of Boaz,
the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon,
the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram,
the son of Hezron, the son of Perez,
the son of Judah, the son of Jacob,
the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham,
the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,
the son of Serug, the son of Reu,
the son of Peleg, the son of Eber,
the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan,
the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem,
the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,
the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch,
the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel,
the son of Kenan, the son of Enosh,
the son of Seth, the son of Adam,
the son of God. (Luke 3:23-38)

That’s 77 names altogether, counting Jesus and God.

Many scholars and teachers gave different reasons for the names. St. Augustine had a very interesting thought. He saw the passage in Luke 3:21-38 as some sort of picture, where Luke began by painting Jesus as a mediator priest approved by God through the voice from heaven “You are my son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased”, and then moving upwards through the mass of humanity represented by the patriarchs, passing Abraham (contrast Matthew’s version of the genealogy) and towards God himself. It was a picture of atonement. St. Augustine even said the 77 generations represented, a “thorough remission and abolition of all sins”. Nice picture.

St. Augustine may be right, and many a sermons may be right about the reasons why Luke recorded the genealogy.

But I think at the least, Luke was trying to tell us, “Look, Jesus did not just come out of nowhere”. Reading the names, some very illustrious heroes of the Jewish people, some unfamiliar, but all probably were names not unknown to the Jewish history, the readers of Luke’s Jesus story seemed to be drawn into a richer story spanning further and further into the past.

Each names already had stories of its own, but when all the names were strewn together, they formed the familiar story which the Jewish people tells one another from generation to generation to make sense of the world.

The Marxist poet-playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote:

Who built Thebes of the seven gates
In the books you will find the names of kings.

But in Luke’s book, there were king, governor, prince, prime minister, landowner, yes, but there were also farmer, trader, workman and artisan. The story of Jesus was tied to their stories. Each of them, through their individual stories, gave context to the coming of the ultimate “Son of God”. Luke was saying, the Jesus story did not happen in a vacuum.

And perhaps Luke was also telling his readers that from now on, Jesus will enter the story which makes sense of the world.

Jesus’ genealogy in Luke’s gospel, a page from the Book of Kells (c 800 AD)