The Genealogy of Jesus Christ (According to Eusebius)

This video explains the discrepancy which is supposed to exist in the gospels respecting the genealogy of Christ.

To see a related video that I made about Jesus' genealogy, which deals with the curse on the line of Jeconiah, click here:

I've heard many times that the genealogy in Matthew is of Joseph, and the one in Luke is of Mary. However, according to these historical documents, that is not the case.

The information in this video can be found in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, Book 1, Chapter 7:

Eusebius is considered by many bible scholars to be the greatest of church historians.

Eusebius references a letter that Julius Africanus wrote to Aristides:

The explanation that I give in this video concerning the genealogies of Christ:

A. Fits in well with the obvious interpretation of Luke chapter 3 *,
B. Is backed up by the law found in Deuteronomy 25:5,
C. Is backed up by an example in Genesis 38 ***, and
D. Is also backed up by two extra-biblical historians from the 3rd and 4th centuries, Eusebius of Caesarea and Julius Africanus who claim that this history was handed down to them by the Desposyni, a group of people who were descendants of Jesus' blood relatives.

However, the explanation given by most modern-day apologists:

A. Does not fit in well with the obvious interpretation of Luke chapter 3 *,
B. Is not backed up by the Inheritance Law of Numbers 27 like they claim **,
C. Is not backed up by any examples in the Old Testament ****, and
D. Is not backed up by any historical account.

* The obvious interpretation of Luke 3 is that Joseph is the son of Heli. There is nothing written in Luke chapter 3 that would ever cause a 5th or 6th grade child to formulate the idea that Joseph was the son-in-law of Heli. The scriptures are not so elusive to where a child cannot understand its obvious interpretation.

** Modern-day apologists claim that the Inheritance Law of Numbers 27 caused Joseph to trace his genealogy through his father-in-law, Heli. However, all Numbers 27 says is that if a man dies and has no son, then his daughters will take the inheritance. It never says that his daughter's husbands will succeed to the name of their dead father-in-law.

*** The example of Genesis 38 gives the story of Onan, whose older brother, Er, had died. Onan was told by his father, Judah, to marry his dead brother's widow, Tamar, and raise up an heir to him. But Onan refused to have a child with her, because he knew the child would not be recognized as his son, but rather as his brother's. This story unveils one of the customs that the Hebrews had, which later became the law of Deuteronomy 25:5.

**** There is no example in the Old Testament implying that a man would ever trace his genealogy through his father-in-law, except in the case of Abraham who married his sister (his father was his father-in-law).

To sum it up:

1. Matthan, of Solomon's descent, marries Estha and gives birth to Jacob. [Matthew]
2. Matthan dies. Matthat, of Nathan's descent, marries Estha and gives birth to Heli. [Luke]
3. Jacob and Heli are uterine brothers (same mother but different fathers).
4. Heli marries a wife but dies childless.
5. Keeping Jewish Law in view, Jacob (Heli's brother) marries his brother's wife to raise up seed for him.
6. Joseph is born.
7. Joseph is naturally Jacob's son. [Matthew]
8. But, is, according to Law, Heli's son. [Luke]

I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, After Effects, Premiere, and Soundbooth.

************ disclaimer *************
Just to let you know, Eusebius actually says that Melchi is the father of Heli, not Matthat. When I made this video I thought that I had read that Melchi is the latin translation of Matthat. So I just replaced Melchi for Matthat. However, I found out later on that this is not true. Melchi is NOT the latin translation for Matthat.

Eusebius omits Matthat and Levi from the genealogy making it seem like Melchi is the father of Heli. So Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History has a mistake in it.

Although it is still possible that the discrepancy could be explained the way Eusebius describes, it is important to understand that he made a minor mistake, like many historians do (Josephus makes mistakes also). So just chew the meat and spit out the bones.
**************

[joanneg]

lol i remember skipping over all geneologies in scripture.. until later then its ALL about geneologies.. love Gods word never boring always enlightening.. great study young man! thank u

[japanimesekai]

I'm so dumb. I didn't even realize the genealogies were different. What a great video!! Lol.

[BillLancaster]

Nathan... This study is one of the most enlightening teachings I have found on YT. It is sound doctrine and it clears up a huge bunch of questions I had about this very subject. I, because of no other explanation, assumed that one of the Gospels was Mary's geneology, simply because there were only two people involved in Jesus' conception - Joseph and Mary!

Wow! God is one brilliant light, is He not? And to think.... He knew all of this info about Jesus ahead of time, and planned every step of His lineage! God is a little smarter than men, eh? What a Father!

Praise THE Lord!

[NathanH]

Thank You! It's nice to know that there are people who are more committed to the truth of the Word than they are to the traditions of men.

[irenabaioncini]

GOD DOESNT MAKE MISTAKE ..AMEN. thank you for this video

[NathanH]

Eusebius is heralded as being the greatest of church historians among very well respected Bible scholars. According to William Graham Scroggie, Eusebius had access to historical documents that we don't have access to today. Scroggie says that Eusebius is the reason why we know that Peter is the one who told Mark what to write in his gospel. So you're wrong. There's actually lots of very compelling evidence that Eusebius' history is very reliable and trustworthy history.

[NathanH]

You should watch the other video that I made, which is related to this topic, called "The Curse of Jeconiah."

[lionsden]

Very well done explanation! I have to admit I have used the "Luke has Mary's lineage" explanation myself since I had never seen this information from Eusebius! Glad you cleared that up for me!

[ABSTRACTSHNITZEL]

Bro, this video is way too good for its time! This was made 13 years ago and is still useful!

[NathanH]

You've hit it spot on. It's not that they CAN'T understand the Bible. It's that they WON'T understand it. They refuse to believe.

For example, if I listen to a German speaking person taking a lie detector test, I won't understand a word they say without an interpreter. But if I see that they passed the test, then I can have confidence they told the truth.

You can still beleive God's word even if you don't fully understand all of it. They just refuse to beleive.

[NathanH]

Actually, God said that He would spare the city of Sodom and Gomorrah if there was at least 10 godly people in it. So when you say that God would destroy a whole village just because there's 1 wicked person in it, you're not telling the truth. The Bible says the opposite.

[matthewerickson]

This is the first video I've seen of yours and I'm subscribing. This was so excellently done! Thank you for your attention to teaching clearly, and having engaging visuals.

[manfalls]

I learned something new today. Thank you.

[PopoolaTemidayo]

I’m just seeing this clip and I’m impressed as it simplified what I’ve been working on for a year now.

God bless you.

I’ve subscribed

[NathanH]

You're welcome! Thank you for the very encouraging comment!

[kelleysewell]

Thank you! This video encouraged my faith when I really needed it and the illustrations were extremely helpful.

[NathanH]

@tWaytTruthtLife I think you're issue is that this part of the video kind of has poor wording.

I said:

"Eusebius omits the phrase 'he begot' because it's not possible for 2 men to have begotten 1 child."

I should have said:

"Euseibius omits the phrase 'he begot, ' after all, it's not possible for 2 men to have begotten the same child."

You're just taking some poor wording of mine and blowing it way out of proportion.

Read Eusebius for yourself, and draw your own conclusion.

[NathanH]

@Draugh39 There's a minor detail you're missing. the Jeconiah in Jesus' lineage in Matthew 1:11 has plural brothers "Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers." But according to 1 Chronicles 3:16, Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim (the one who was cursed) had only ONE brother. Zedekiah was his only brother. Clearly this is a different Jeconiah.

[NathanH]

I made another video about the Curse of Jeconiah, which talks about Zerubabbel and Shealtiel about halfway through the video (but you probably would want to watch the video from start to finish).

I've heard it said that Shealtiel might have adopted Pedaiah's son Zerubbabel. But no one's ever shown me a historical account of this, so it's just speculation. As far as I can tell, they're different Shealtiels and different Zerubbabels.

[inTruthbyGrace]

no wonder Paul warns Timothy "Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do." 1 Timothy 1:4 this stuff gets crazy... quickly!