Luke: Nathan ([iii, 23–31]).
Luke reaches the same person by way of one brother that Matthew does by way of the other.
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Many commentators attempt to reconcile these discordant genealogies by assuming that Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph, while Luke gives the genealogy of Mary. What do the Evangelists themselves declare?
Matthew: “And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ,” etc. ([i, 16]).
Luke: “And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,” etc. ([iii, 23]).
Dr. Geikie, in his “Life of Christ” (vol. i, p. 531, note), says: “The genealogies given by both Matthew and Luke seem unquestionably to refer to Joseph.”
Regarding this the Rev. Dr. McNaught says: “Let the reader bear in mind how Matthew states that ‘Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary,’ and how Luke’s words are ‘Joseph which was the son of Heli,’ and then let him say whether it is truthful to allege that these different genealogies belong to different individuals. Is it not plain that each of them professes to trace the lineal descent of one and the same man, Joseph?”
William Rathbone Greg says: “The circumstance that any man could suppose that Matthew when he said, ‘Jacob begat Joseph,’ or Luke, when he said, ‘Joseph was the son of Heli,’ could refer to the wife of the one, or the daughter-in-law of the other, shows to what desperate stratagems polemical orthodoxy will resort in order to defend an untenable position.”