Gospel for the Day: Genealogy

I remember that when we discussed Jesus' genealogy in college, two points were raised.

First, the genealogies reflected the theological aims of the Gospel writers. Matthew wanted to show that Jesus was the Messiah Israel  was waiting for so he traced Jesus' lineage to Abraham (and I remember there was something significant about his division of the genealogy into sets of 14). Luke wanted to show that Jesus was God-for-everyone, not just Israel so he traced Jesus' roots to Adam.

Second, Jesus ancestors were a colorful bunch. I remember that some of the people involved included sinful characters like prostitutes. I remember our teacher back then saying that this demonstrates the adage that God writes straight with crooked lines.

I only have one other note to add to what I learned in college. Jesus lineage is traced through the males and so right before him is Joseph. But Joseph wasn't his biological father. So that really impressive lineage which includes Abraham, (Solomon), and David could really be only considered his foster family, with Joseph as the steward of the child Jesus.