An illustrated family tree showing the generations from Adam through to Jesus according to the various genealogies/family trees given in the bible.
I’ve listed all the people in Jesus’ direct line of descent, along with any siblings listed. For the most part I’m only including named individuals, so for instance Noah had a wife but we’re never told her name.
Lots has been written elsewhere about the two names given for Joseph’s father in Luke and Matthew. Matthew 1 tells us that Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Luke 3 tells us that Jesus was the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat.
There’s a couple of possible explanations for the different names. One option is that Luke followed Mary’s family line, whereas Matthew followed Joseph’s. Joseph’s name is used – but some would argue that’s because that’s traditional for genealogies – it’s really Mary’s family, but Joseph’s name is given as he’s the husband.
Another explanation would be if ‘son of Heli’ in Luke is being used to mean ‘son-in-law’ of Heli. A third explanation would be that both Jacob and Heli are counted as Joseph’s father – for example if Joseph’s mother was widowed and remarried.
This is part of a larger project I’ve been working on to put together illustrated family trees for most of the families in the bible. I have a draft of a book completed and will be posting more trees here – if you would like to get updated as new trees go up, or find out when a book is published, you can follow me on patreon here.