Life of Christ - Genealogies

Well thus far in our study of the life of Christ we have been really doing background kind of material, even talking about John the Baptist was more a lead up to the life of Christ. So really it's tonight that we actually begin into the material in the gospels on Christ himself. And we're going to talk tonight about the genealogies of Jesus and you might be wondering, oh why couldn't we have skipped that? I mean after all list of names, genealogies, but really stick with me and I think you'll find that this is one of the more fascinating studies that you could ever have on the life of Christ or on the Bible itself. It's not just a list of names, there are reasons for the lists that we have and the order in which they're given and what's left out and the fact that we have two different lists and so forth, there are reasons for all of that. And so I hope that we'll find some discoveries tonight that will increase and highlight our appreciation for the sovereignty of God, the providence of God and how he puts things together. So the genealogies of Christ, let's begin with some introductory observations. We'll be in Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3 tonight if you want to get your Bible open but it'll be a few minutes before we get to Matthew 1. The first thing I need to say about just introducing the genealogies is that there, this is a difficult question, the genealogies raise a very difficult question. One of the more difficult questions really in the New Testament and the study of the Gospels, the fact that we have two genealogies of Christ and that they differ significantly. That raises some interesting questions and we'll try to look at those and answer some of those questions as we go along. There are two main views as to why we have two genealogies and why they differ so much. One view is that both of the genealogies are genealogies of Joseph. And in that view, the genealogie in Matthew gives the legal right to the throne of David through Joseph and the genealogie in Luke gives the biological line of Jesus. And one of the guys who took this, the man who really promoted this view the most was a man by the name of Jay Gresham Machen, M-A-C-H-E-N. Machen was an Old Testament or New Testament professor, excuse me, at Princeton Theological Seminary, not here in Princeton, but at Princeton University. Way back in the 20s, before liberalism invaded all the seminaries in Princeton and Columbia and other places, Jay Gresham Machen was one of the great early fundamentalists. He wrote a book called Christianity in Liberalism, which was a landmark book first time written in 1922. But he also wrote a book in 1930 called The Virgin Birth. And in this book, he promoted this view that both genealogies were the genealogies of Joseph, just from a different perspective, but both of them genealogies of Joseph. Now Machen wrote a great book, the classic book on the Virgin Birth, but his view on the two genealogies has not been taken by most New Testament scholars. There's a second view, and that is that Matthew gives the line of Joseph while Luke gives the line of Mary. Now, here's the way it works. Matthew giving Joseph's line establishes the legal right of Jesus to the throne of David, whereas in Luke's genealogy, you have the bloodline coming through Mary, and we'll see the reason for that a little bit later. The more likely view then is the second one. The more likely view of the two genealogies, why we have two and what they're designed to do is the second view. It is important for the Messiah, for Jesus the Messiah, to have both the legal right to David's throne. He's the Messiah, so he's promised to come rule on David's throne. It's important that he have the legal right to rule on David's throne, and that's what Matthew seems to focus upon because Matthew's gospel is written regarding the King of the Jews, Jesus is presented as the King of the Jews, and so Matthew traces the line down through the kings from David through Solomon and down through the kings, so that gives the legal right. But it is also important for the Messiah to be a blood relative, to be in the bloodline of David, and that's what Luke seems to focus on, the biological genealogy or the right to claim David's bloodline. You say, well, he also have bloodline through Solomon and the kings. Well, there is a problem that arises in the Old Testament, and we'll see this in a little bit as we get into the two genealogies. There is a problem that arose in the Old Testament, which makes it possible for only one way for both the bloodline and the legal line to come down to Jesus, and it requires two different lines from David. See how all that works in a little bit, but the only possible way that the Messiah could be both the blood descendant and the legal right to the throne of David is for there to be two different lines as described in the gospels, and the way that it happened in the gospels is the only way it could have happened, and the Old Testament problem that we're going to look at later be avoided. Now, you're saying, okay, what's going on here? What kind of problem are we talking about? We're going to hold off on that just a little bit. We'll come back to it later because it's tied up with Luke's genealogy. We're going to take a closer look at the two genealogies, and where we will end up with this, I hope, by the time we get to the end, is with a wonderful perspective on how, in God's amazing providence, he brought historical situations and even two people together that is the only possible scenario for the Messiah coming into the world. And it has to do with these two genealogies and how the genealogies are traced. So before we jump into Matthew's genealogy, any questions about what we're talking about, where we're headed tonight, what I've said so far? Any questions or comments? Well, there was no transfer of genes from those of the Jesus Christ. No, there was no transfer. He was not a biological father, but there's a specific reason for that, and that goes along with the virgin birth. Obviously, there were several, there were a couple of reasons for the virgin birth. One of them has to do with this problem in the Old Testament about the bloodline, and we'll see that in a little bit. Actually, the primary reason for the virgin birth is, anytime male and female produce offspring, they pass to that offspring a sin nature. You get your sin nature from both parents. It's a mistake to believe that the sin nature only comes from the father. There have been those who think that because of the virgin birth, that the sin nature only comes through the father. That is a bad mistake. The sin, I'm getting some looks. The sin nature comes as a result of, like everything else about our personality, our physical makeup, comes from the two sets of chromosomes that form, that come together to form you. So from both mother and father. The reason for the virgin birth is, first of all, there's no one new coming into existence. Christ is already in existence. He's just coming down from heaven. You can't have a new person coming into existence through the normal process of producing a new human being. You cannot have a sin nature, which is passed down through the parents. That's the reason for the virgin birth. But there is another reason for the virgin birth that most people don't see. It has to do with a problem in the Old Testament about the bloodline coming down through Solomon, and the bloodline had to come through someone else. The legal right to the throne had to come through Solomon. The bloodline had to come through another son of David. I'm jumping ahead of myself a little bit, but we'll see how that all works out in a minute. A few minutes. Okay? Did I hear someone say you're lost? Sorry. Hopefully we'll be able to tie this all back together, but we're going to take a closer look at the different genealogies first, and then we'll pull together why there are two of them and why they differ. Okay? Any other questions? All right. Let's look first of all at Joseph's genealogy, and I forgot to bring my pointer tonight, so I'm just going to point with my finger. Right there it is. The genealogy of Joseph. Several things I want to say, just in noting it, and maybe genealogies are not fun to you, but this one certainly carries a lot of interest and should for those of us because there's a reason for it being here. Okay? First of all, there are three groups of 14 generations. Matthew chapter 1 now, verses 1 through 17, this genealogy is set up in a very organized fashion. I like that. There are three sets of 14 generations. Notice verse 1, a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. It's introduced there, the genealogy is. Then you have the first set of 14 generations from verses 2 through 6, the second set from verses 7 through 11, and the third set verses 12 through 16. Now look at verse 17, it's not important that we read all the names. It would take us the rest of our 30 minutes to do that. But verse 17 summarizes them. Thus, there were 14 generations in all from Abraham to David. That's the first set verses 2 through 6. 14 from David to the exile to Babylon. That's the second set of 14 verses 7 through 11. And then he says 14 from the exile to Christ. That's the third set from verses 12 through 16. So three groups of 14 generations. A second feature of Joseph's genealogy is this is clearly Joseph's genealogy. This is designed to be the genealogy from Joseph back to Abraham. Now Joseph is not the biological father of Jesus. You have to remember that. The Holy Spirit in a miraculous fashion calls Jesus to be conceived in the womb of Mary without the aid of a human father. But there is a reason for Joseph's line to be traced by Matthew. It's clearly Joseph's genealogy because verse 16, he's the last one in the list. You have these lists of men all down through these generations. And in verse 16, Jacob the father of Joseph. He's the last man mentioned in the list. So it's clearly Joseph's genealogy. Third thing that I want to point out about this genealogy is this genealogy makes it clear that Jesus is not Joseph's son. In other words, we're going to see this in both genealogies. The Virgin birth is beautifully protected by the writers in the way it stated. Look at verse 16. Says, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Now notice, if you look down through the previous verses, all you have is so and so, the father of so and so. So and so, the father of so and so, the father of so and so, the father of so and so, the father of so and so. And you get to verse 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph and what you would expect just on the surface would be and Joseph is the father of Jesus. But that's not what you see. Everybody is the father of the next generation until you get to Joseph and then the wording has changed. Joseph, the husband of Mary. Okay, but there's a second way that the Virgin birth is protected and that is in the next statement of whom was born Jesus. The Greek language in which the New Testament was written was much more precise than English. And so every noun and pronoun had one of three genders of a noun could be masculine. It could be feminine or it could be neuter. And you could tell by the there was a little article before the word that would tell which it was plus the ending on the word. Would tell which it was. It's clear here the word whom is feminine. It's in the feminine gender. And so it clearly refers back to Mary of whom? Where did Jesus come from? From Mary, not from Joseph. So the Virgin birth is clearly protected and stated in this genealogy. Fourth statement in common about this genealogy is that it includes both racial and royal connections. Go back to verse one and the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David. Son of David is the royal connection. He's the son of the king, David. The son of Abraham, that's the racial connection. He's a Jew. He's a Jew and he's from King David. Now that fits very beautifully Matthew's purpose of his gospel. Remember when we introduced the gospels? We found that Matthew was written to Jews to prove that Jesus was the king of the Jews. He is the king son of David of the Jews son of Abraham. And so Matthew begins his gospel by stressing his theme. He is the rightful king, but he's also of the Jewish race. So both racial and royal connections here. Fifth comment about this genealogy is that the line, the genealogical line, proceeds through Judah. Now notice if you look at verse two, Abraham is the father of Isaac, Isaac father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. There were twelve of the brothers, right? And the one that's really the most prominent in the book of Genesis is Joseph. But Jesus comes out of the tribe of Judah. Why is that? Why would that be the case? There's an obscure verse back in Genesis that I wouldn't expect. I wouldn't have remembered unless I studied up on this a little bit. Genesis 49.10. This is where Jacob is blessing his twelve sons before he dies. And this is what he says of Judah. The sector will not depart from Judah, nor the rulers staff from between his feet until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. It is quite clearly a prophecy of the Messiah. The Messiah fits everything in this verse. Judah is the kingly tribe. The kings will come out of the tribe of Judah. David would come out of the tribe of Judah. And so the sector will not depart from this tribe. The rulers staff will not depart from this tribe until he comes to whom it belongs. That seems to be a reference to the Messiah who is the ultimate ruler in Israel. That's the one that the throne really belongs to. And the obedience of the nations is his. All the nations come under obedience to him. That's a prophecy of the Messiah. So the line is traced through Judah, that son of Jacob. Number six, the line proceeds through the kings of Judah. In verses six through eleven, Jesse was the father of King David, David the father of Solomon, whose mother had been your eyes wide. Solomon the father of Reboah, and then you have a listing of the kings of Judah. Reboah, Mabayja, Asad, Juhashafat, Juhorum, and so forth. This line then is traced from David down through the kings, which again indicates this is the legal right and line through the kings to the Messiah. So the line proceeds through the kings. Number seven, this is important to realize. It may be kind of minor, but it's important to recognize when you're figuring out generations in biblical genealogies. None and father of mean that you have a direct descendant or a forefather, not necessarily an immediate descendant or father. In other words, in some of these lists, there are some skips. There are some people that are not mentioned. There are some generations that are not included. Matthew was purposeful in arranging this as a good Jewish accountant, tax collector Woodby, was careful in arranging it into three sets of 14. It was very parallel, but he skips some generations. That was very typical in Jewish genealogies. Nothing out of the ordinary here, nothing wrong with that. That was a typical way. The words, the literal words son of, did not mean like we use it, the direct immediate descendant, excuse me, didn't mean the immediate descendant, it just meant a direct descendant. It could be a grandson or a great grandson or further on down the line, but you would refer to them as the son of. In our thinking, that means an immediate descendant, father, son. In Jewish thinking, it just meant a descendant directly from that line, but not necessarily the next generation. Let me give you a few examples of this in verse 1. David is called the son of Abraham. We know it was not the immediate descendant of Abraham. There were numerous generations between the two of them, but that's just the way that Jewish mind thinks. If you are a direct descendant, you're considered a son of, in some sense of the work. On number 5, Salman, the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Rahab, the mother of Boaz. Rahab is in Joshua 2. Boaz appears much later in the judges, time of the judges. There were several generations in between, but again, it's a direct descendant, not an immediate descendant. Also, if you look at verse 8, Ace of the Father, Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, the father of Jehorum, Jehorum, the father of Azaya. Between Jehorum and Azaya, if you look back in the Old Testament, at the list of kings, there are three other kings, Aehazaya, Joash, Amazaya. So you skip three generations there. Just again, a feature of Jewish genealogies that not every specific generation is included. There's one other example, and that's in verse 11. Josiah, the father of Jehkoniah, there was another son in between those two. Jehoyakim. Josiah, son was Jehoyakim and then Jehkoniah. Just to clarify, sometimes people say, well, there are mistakes, there are mistakes in the Bible. No, no, that was just a Jewish way of doing genealogies. Same thing is true in the Old Testament. There were sometimes generations that were skipped, but all the word son of or father of means is that they are directly related. It doesn't mean it's the next generation necessarily. Okay, the eighth comment about this genealogy is that the opening chapters are concerned with Joseph's story. So you would expect Matthew to deal with Joseph's genealogy because his whole telling of the birth of Jesus is centered around Joseph. Who does the angel appear to in chapter 1 in Matthew's gospel? Joseph, you don't have any record of his appearance to marry. Then what happens in chapter 2? It is Joseph who gets word that he should flee and fleece to Egypt. It is Joseph who gets word that Herod's son is ruling when they go back so they don't go back to Bethlehem. The whole story is centered around Joseph. And so you would expect this to be Joseph's genealogy. And then one other interesting sidelight in this genealogy is that four women are mentioned in Matthew's genealogy. Five, if you include Mary at the end, but four throughout the genealogy. They are very interesting characters. Verse 3, Temar, Verse 5, Rahab, Verse 6, Bathsheba, all three of those women were guilty of immorality in the Old Testament. And then there is one other woman mentioned in verse 5 and that is Ruth who was a Gentile. It is interesting that these four women would be mentioned and most believe that it is because the emphasis is being made that Jesus came to die for sinners and that he came to die for all people, Jew and Gentile. So you have this interesting kind of sidelight. There is no real reason to put their names in the genealogy because it doesn't fit the sequence of father, son, father, son, father, son, father, son. But there is just this kind of side line of the grace of God flowing through the genealogy. Look at the people that God is not ashamed to list and include in his word, God came to save sinful people. And by the way, all of those women did know the Lord and some of them after difficult, sinful past knew the Lord but it is just an evidence of the fact that God does save sinners and a beautiful picture of the grace of God. Alright, that is Joseph's genealogy and just some of the highlights of it. Any comment or question about that before we move to Luke's genealogy which talks about Mary? Okay, let's look at Luke chapter 3 then. Luke chapter 3 verses 23 through 38 where we find the second genealogy of Jesus. Now, to establish the fact that this is Mary's genealogy, let me make a couple of comments here. The opening chapters are concerned with Mary's story. Very much unlike Matthew, Luke's presentation of the birth of Christ focuses on Mary. The angel in chapter 1 appears to Mary. Mary goes to visit Elizabeth. Mary's song is included in chapter 1. The whole story kind of focuses around Mary whereas Matthew's telling of the story focuses around Joseph so you would expect to find Mary's genealogy here and it begins in verse 23. Now, Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. He was the son so it was thought and we'll come back to that in a moment of Joseph, the son of Heli. Now, Heli was actually Mary's father. So remember in Matthew's gospel, Joseph was the son of Jacob. Jacob was Joseph's father. The word son here again, this is the fluidity of the language. In Hebrew thought, in Jewish thought, son could also be son-in-law and the emphasis here in the implication here is that Joseph was the son-in-law of Heli. This is a different line. This is not Joseph's line. This is Mary's line. So the opening chapter is concerned with Mary's story and this is Mary's genealogy. Second statement about this genealogy is that Luke's genealogy is fitting for the purpose of the book. Luke gives a biological line, not the legal kingly line, but a biological line and he goes all the way back to Adam. If you'll notice, verse 38, he goes all the way back to Adam. He doesn't stop at Abraham. Abraham's back in verse 34. But he traces all the way back to Adam and then calls him the son of God. Which fits Luke's gospel. Luke's gospel was written to the Greeks. Remember, as we traced in the early stages of this study, the differences in the gospels and their audiences, Luke's gospel is written to the Greek. So he's not concerned just about Jews and Abraham. His purpose is to show that Christ is racially tied to the whole human race through Adam and not just the Jewish race through Abraham. Number three, Luke's list is placed at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, not at the beginning of his gospel. In Matthew's gospel, it's the first thing right off the bat, the beginning of the gospel, but it's Matthew's point writing to Jews. He must immediately stake a claim to the kingly line of Jesus in order to even get a hearing among Jews. That's not Luke's concern. So Luke waits until into the third chapter when he's starting to talk about the ministry of Jesus. Then he gives his relationship to the human race and his genealogy. Number four. Here's an echo here. Number four, Luke's genealogy begins with Jesus and ends with Adam. Begins with Jesus ends with Adam. Luke's 23 starts with Jesus, verse 38 ends with Adam. Notice that's backwards from Matthew's. Luke begins with the current, Jesus goes all the way back in time. Matthew begins with back in time with Abraham and moves up to the current time. That's not a big deal, but it's just kind of an interesting contrast between the two. Number five, Luke's genealogy also protects the virgin birth. If you'll look at verse 23. Now Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. He was the son so it was thought of Joseph. Those words so it was thought indicate that that was people's general perception, but that was not true. What he's saying here is that people generally perceived that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock and Joseph was the father, but we know because we have more information, we have the revelation of God concerning the angel coming to Mary and explaining this would be a virgin birth without the aid of a human father. We know that he was not the son of Joseph and that's why Luke puts this in. It was thought it was commonly perceived by the average person that he was the son of Joseph. The virgin birth is protected and stated in both genealogies. Number six, and I'm glad we've got about 10 minutes left because this is where the resolution and the explanation for two genealogies really comes in and this is fascinating. If you've gone to sleep because of all the genealogy stuff, wake up now because here's where it gets exciting. This genealogy differs from Matthew from Jesus to David. In other words, when you get to David, you break off to different genealogies here in different lines and there's a reason for that. Matthew's line or Matthew's list is through David's son Solomon. He is the legal heir to the throne. Solomon is the legal heir to the throne because he's the king and then Matthew tracing it down through the kings. Luke's list is through another son of David named Nathan. If you look at verse 31, the son of Malia, the son of Mena, the son of Matathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David. So David's line here in Luke is not traced through Solomon. He's traced through a different son, Nathan. Now there's a reason for that. This genealogy traces the biological line, Luke's genealogy traces, or Matthew's genealogy traces the legal line. Now here's the reason. The bloodline of Jesus could not come through Solomon. And there's a reason for that. Go back, if you will, hold your place here and go back to Jeremiah chapter 22. Here's the Old Testament problem. We were talking about earlier. I hinted at it. We're going to look at it now. There was a curse placed on one of the descendants of Solomon, a king by the name of Jehojacin or Jechoniah is another way to say his name or Coniah. He's given three names in the Bible. He was such a wicked king toward the end of Judah's history that a curse was placed on him. Notice it in Jeremiah 22 verse 28. Is this man Jehojacin a despised, broken pot, an object no one wants? Why will he and his children be hurled out, cast into a land that they do not know? Old land land here, the word of the Lord, and look at verse 30. This is what the Lord says. Record this man as if childless a man who will not prosper in his lifetime for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah. The curse on King Jechoniah is that none of his descendants will sit on David's throne. Uh-oh. We've got a problem here. The only way Messiah can take David's throne is he has to be a legal heir. He has to come through the kingly line. The Old Testament says that kingly line stops with Jechoniah because there's a curse placed on him. None of his descendants will sit on David's throne. So how do you get around that? Well he must also be a biological to Messiah, must also be a biological descendant of David. He must be a legal heir through Solomon's line, but he must also be a biological descendant. He cannot be a biological descendant through Solomon now because that line's been cut off. No biological descendant of Jechoniah will sit on the throne. So the only way this can happen is if the legal line comes through Solomon, he has the legal right, but the biological line comes through another son of David. And that's exactly what you have with Mary. The biological line is preserved through another son, Nathan. The legal right still comes through the kings, but the biological line comes through Mary. Now here's the neat thing about these two genealogies. The only possible solution to getting around this curse on Jechoniah was that the blood line which can no longer come through Solomon must come through another son of David because he must be an ancestor of Messiah, must be a descendant of David, must have the royal blood of David must come through the bloodline. But he must also be through the line of kings. The only way that can happen is through a blood relative who is a woman who passes on the bloodline through a virgin birth, but then who marries someone who is a legal heir also of David through the kingly line. You've got to have both and the only way the two can come together is if the bloodline is preserved in one line, the kingly line is preserved in another, the virgin birth, there's no bloodline through Joseph. But the bloodline comes through Mary, but the legal right comes through the adoptive father if you will of Joseph. And that's why there are two genealogies to show that Jesus is the only possible rightful heir to the throne of David. The curse on Jechoniah meant no biological descendant of Solomon could sit on the throne, but he's got to be a biological descendant of David, so that comes through Mary's line. The legal right through the kings comes through Joseph's line. So a virgin who passes along the bloodline must marry a son of David through another line through the kingly line. You know, when Joseph's parents, Joseph's and Mary's parents arranged their marriage. They had no clue that Mary was going to be the mother of the Messiah, but God knew. And so God had picked out in his amazing sovereignty and providence. God had picked out a woman who carried the bloodline of King David, and God picked out a man who carried the legal right to the throne through the kings of David, and he brought them together. He calls them to fall in love with each other. And then he produced the virgin birth because the bloodline couldn't come through the father. He produced the virgin birth and brought those two people together in marriage. Once they're married, the legal right to the throne comes through Joseph. The bloodline to the throne comes through Mary. Only God could have done that. Joseph's parents couldn't have arranged that. Mary's parents couldn't have arranged that because at the time they were betrothed, nobody yet knew that Mary was going to be the mother of the Messiah. What an amazing story of God's providence is found in these two lists of names. Unlikely source for marveling at our great creator's providence, a list of names, two lists of names. But in those two lists of names, we have an amazing story of how God and his sovereignty brought about the only possible solution to the King of Israel having the right to rule on David's throne. Now let me give you a summary of the two lines. If I draw it out here, apologize to those who may be sitting too far back to see this, but if I draw it out, maybe it will be a little bit clearer. We've got David up here. The Messiah must be the son of David. He must come through the kingly line to have the legal right. He must be a blood descendant, the biological line of David. The kingly line, Solomon. It must come through Solomon because 2 Samuel, chapter 7, promised David that he would have a son to rule on his throne and his kingdom would last forever. Solomon's throne would last forever. So the kingly line has to come through Solomon. But once you get down the line a little ways from Solomon, then you have this guy, Jack and I, who is so corrupt and sinful that God says nobody from his line will rule on the throne of David. None of his descendants, none of his biological descendants. And so you come on down through that line and you end up with Joseph. But Joseph does not contribute anything biologically to Jesus. He is not the biological father. So the biological line has to come through another way. Nathan. And you trace Nathan's genealogy on down as Luke does and you have Mary. The biological line comes from David to Mary. The kingly legal right to rule on the throne comes from David through Solomon. And this means no biological line from this point on. But Joseph is the legal heir to the throne. Amazing story of God's Providence in two lists of names. Okay? Comments, questions before we close. Well, the legal line still exists in that way. But it did run around. Jack and I, but it still continues. Yes. The whole line still continued because that's the kingly line. It's just that no biological descendant from this point on is qualified. But you still have to have the kingly right, the legal right, the biological qualification is met on the other side. And it's the only way it can happen is for both the mother who produced Jesus to be related to David biologically and the father who does not contribute anything biologically still be related to David in the kingly way. The only way it can happen. I think it was the reason for the two genealogies and the purpose of Matthew in presenting King of the Jews to show that how much they understood the Jews understood of that is unclear. Right. Right. Right. Yes. And really, you could debate the use of the term kings. I mean, you know, in the Micah B. in period there were rulers, but there were not really kings. But once Babylon took Israel into captivity, there were no kings after that, unless you take the Micah B in rulers. They weren't really called kings. Yes. I'm sorry. I missed the question. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I missed the question. I'm sorry. The tribe would have been from the tribe of Judah. They would have been from the tribe of Judah. Yes. Okay. Any other questions? Yes. In Matthew chapter 1, it is in verse 11, yet Josiah the father of Jack and I, and his brothers at the time of the exald of Babylon. No, they weren't kings. See, Jack. Yes. Yes. There were three different ways to say his name. Jehoiacin, Jechoniah or Coneiah. There were three different ways he was called. And he's called all three of them in different places in the Old Testament. Yes, there were. And that goes back to that whole idea of the son of and father of, not necessarily meaning the immediate descendant, but in the direct line. Yes. Yes. Right. Fourteen are mentioned. And most New Testament scholars believe that was just Matthew's way of organizing things. It was certainly acceptable in Jewish genealogies to do that. They were very concerned about parallelism and things being similar and so forth. There's just a Jewish way of thinking and reckoning. And so, you know, they may skip a few generations, but have it parallel. That's what Matthew evidently did. Barry? Yes. Legally, yes. What was the very very active in the book of the Hebrew? Yes. In the Jewish law, he was the legally the father, the guardian, yes. Legally. Yes. Yes. Yes. He would not biologically be, but legally he was. Yes. So, that's how the legal right still comes down to Jesus. Okay. Okay. Right. Right. Well, Mary does contribute and exactly what the chromosomal makeup and all that looked like we don't know because the Scriptures are not that specific, but Mary does contribute the humanity. She does contribute that part of Jesus' makeup, if you will. And so how the actual conception took place, one thing that I think you, and we will talk about this a little bit more next week because we'll talk about the birth and early life of Jesus. One thing I think you have to avoid is any idea that there was some kind of actual union between the Holy Spirit and Mary. That's a pagan concept. It was just a miraculous placing of Jesus in Mary's womb, but Mary did contribute the humanity from the moment of conception. Everything from that moment was a normal pregnancy. Mary providing the human element there. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. However, that works. It worked the same way it works with everyone else in Jesus' case. Yeah. I haven't had any children, so I don't know. I mean, I've had children. I haven't carried them. Yeah. I want to clear Jeannie on that regard. Yeah. I just want to make sure. Okay. Yes. Well, until this day in time, no, although some would claim that, but in the New Testament, there is a list of what, five brothers, and then it says sisters, plural. So there were other children after Jesus that were born to Mary and Joseph. No, there's no way to trace that I know of any genealogy back to them. I mean, nothing that I'm aware of has been proven that way. Okay. The kids are running loose. We probably better let you go. So let's have a word of prayer real quick and we'll stop. Father, thank you for this time. Together, thank you for the amazing evidence of your providence, even in the listing of these two genealogies and how you not only protected the virgin birth of Christ, but made it possible in the only way possible for him to be the heir to David's throne. Thank you for our study together in Jesus' name, amen.