Luke 3:32 Commentary and Bible Study

The part of the genealogy beyond David takes it first from David to Abraham and then from Abraham back to Adam. The first part, from David to Abraham, is common to Matthew, though Luke presents the names in the reverse order. The names are the same in both genealogies. There are no women named in Luke’s genealogy, but of course all the same remarkable women mentioned by Matthew are in this part of Luke’s family tree also.The ancestry of Jesus Christ goes back through Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. These patriarchs of Israel were those to whom God spoke and who were given promises that were foundational to the nation of Israel. Before Jacob, the line goes back through Jacob’s son Judah, and this too is an important part of the ancestry of Christ. Christ is our high priest, but the writer of the Epistle to the hebrews teaches us that he could not be a priest from the tribe of Levi, which was the tribe that offered sacrifices under the law. That Levitical priesthood was ‘after the law of a carnal commandment’ and the sacrifices it offered could not give remission of sins and life. Christ is a priest ‘after the power of an endless life’ and his priesthood brings true forgiveness and eternal life. He is a priest after a different order, the order of Melchisedec. He therefore had to come from another tribe, and he came from the tribe of Judah. ‘For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. ¹⁴ For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood’ (Hebrews 7:13-14).Tracing back from Abraham to Adam, the lineage goes through Noah. All who are alive today are descended from Noah, for only his family escaped the flood. It was his three children from whom the earth was populated, and Christ came through Sem [Shem] of whom Noah prophesied, ‘Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. ²⁷ God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem’ (Genesis 9:26-27). The Semites included Israel, and the sons of Ishmael who became the Arab princes.Of Enoch we read, ‘And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him’ (Genesis 5:24). He was not found on earth because God translated him to heaven so that he escaped death, as did only two individuals in Scripture: Enoch and Elijah. Both were exemplary servants of God who were given this gift as a token of God’s love and power to all his people. We will all escape death finally, when we will receive glorified bodies at the resurrection. But Enoch received this other incomparable honour: that he was made an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ.Adam’s son, Abel, was murdered by Cain in the dawn of human history, and Cain was cursed for his fratricide and could never take a place in the genealogy. God therefore raised another son to Adam, Seth, meaning compensation, ‘for God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew’ (Genesis 4:25). Seth was in the godly line and in the days of his son Enos, Moses tells us, ‘began men to call upon the name of the LORD’ (Genesis 4:26). Seth was not only a compensation for the loss of Abel, but through him came the one who would be a compensation to lost mankind as a whole.Under inspiration Luke calls Adam, the son of God. As Hendriksen says, Adam had no animal origin, no evolutionary origin. He was not descended from some previous non-human creature; he was made directly by God from the dust of the earth. The name Adam is similar to the hebrew word for ground or earth from which Adam was made, ‘Adamah’. His name reminded him of his lowly origin, and after the fall God’s judgment on mankind was to return him to the ground, as one who had failed to achieve his great potential. His body would be buried in the ground from which he was taken. Sin had brought him back to where he started so that nothing was gained by his entire life. And yet he is called the son of God, because he was made in the image of God. He could walk with God, and he alone, of all the earthly creatures, could know God and worship him. This is where Luke’s genealogy of Jesus Christ ends, a genealogy for all men and women, and therefore going back to the man from whom all come.The Bible teaches a young earth. This genealogy is presented, not as myth, but as history. No one who takes Scripture seriously can accept a long age for the earth, and this is what the evolutionist requires for his theory. Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament allows this.How man fulfilled prophecies are contained in this and Matthew’s genealogies! The fulfilment of many prophecies is contained within it, and it would make a wonderful study to trace some of the promises kept made and kept by God here.