Who was Joseph's father?

Question

Matthew 1:16 "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus."
vs.

Luke 3:23 "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."

mmmm....uhuh.

Answer 1

Probably was his mother's husband.

Answer 2

Jacob begat Joseph. The descendant of a long line of kings was a poor carpenter of Nazareth. As the husband of Mary he was the legal father of Jesus, and Matthew gives his line of descent. A comparison of the table given by Luke will show that it differs in part from that of Matthew. Between David and Joseph the lists are widely different. Several views, all possible, have been presented, but the most probable explanation is that Matthew gives the line of Joseph, the legal line, and that Luke gives the line of Mary, the mother of our Lord. As the Jews regarded only male descent, unless Joseph, the supposed father, was a descendant of David they would not have recognized the genealogy as a fulfillment of the prophecies that Christ should be the Son of David; while Luke, himself a Gentile and writing for Gentiles, was more particular to give the line that shows that Jesus is really the Son of David. If Mary was the daughter of Heli, especially if an heiress, Joseph, by marriage, would become the "son of Heli." That there is no contradiction between the two tables is shown by the fact that the Jews who best understood their genealogies never charged it. These tables were preserved with great care, for various reasons, until Christ was born, but it is asserted that Herod destroyed them. If this is incorrect, they did not survive the destruction of Jerusalem.

Answer 3

"Begat" doesn't necessarily intone that Jacob was his father. More often it means that he was an ancestor. Jacob was a very important Israelite leader who lived after Isaac. So Matthew would have found it important to mention that Joseph was in the line of Jacob. Therefore, Joseph was probably the son of Heli.

Answer 4

I think Joseph is a pretty common name, so those could be two different Joseph. Joseph son of Jacob, and Joseph husband of Jesus' mother Mary (2 different Josephs).

Answer 5

Jacob was Joseph's father. Joseph was the son of Jacob by birth and the son of Heli by marriage. It was ordained in Numbers chapter 36 that the man who married the daughter of a father having no son became the son of that father and inherited his property. (Expositors study bible KJV)

Answer 6

I believe the careful Bible student is likely to conclude that Matthew and Luke present two different genealogies. Following through the genealogies, one will notice that there are some names which are common to both, but also, an great number of differences. Matthew begins at the patriarch Abraham, and works his way to Jesus the Christ. Luke begins at Jesus, and works his way back to Adam. There are two genealogies, with two distinct purposes. Matthew, it appears reveals the genealogy of Joseph, and Luke, presents the genealogy of Mary.

Matthew, penning his gospel with the Jews in mind sets out to establish Jesus' qualifications to be the Messiah through Joseph's genealogy. Thus, beginning with Abraham, he maps the Lord's genealogy through David, and the kings which followed. He presents Jesus royal lineage (through the males) through "...Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus..."

Luke, writes to the Gentiles with a view toward the humanity of Christ. The concept of one being both God and man would seem strange and foreign to those accustomed to Greek and Roman gods. Thus, Luke begins at Jesus, and follows the genealogy of Mary, passing through the patriarchs, ending with the very first man, Adam.

If Luke is tracing the genealogy of Mary, why does he cite Joseph's name? Today, it would be politically incorrect to map a woman's genealogy through her husband, however, in Luke's day, it was proper and correct. Luke follows Mary's genealogy, beginning with the name of Joseph, her husband, Heli's son-in-law (in legal terms, his son by marriage).

There is no contradiction.

Answer 7

You have looked hard. That is a tough one. But may be explainable.
One possibility could be: Matthew only list 42 names in generations of 14 x 3. He obviously did not list everyone in line. It was not necessary for Jews to name every generation in order to establish a blood line ("Luke", John A. Martin). And Luke lists 74 generations. Matthew had to have skips in his genealogies.

Answer 8

:o)
Heli was Mary's day - when it says son, it means son-in-law. Jacob was Joseph's dad.

Answer 9

Lorgam?

Answer 10

Jacob is correct.