Who was Jesus's paternal grandfather?
Matthew places Jacob immediately before Joseph in Jesus' genealogy, while Luke places Heli in that position.
- Textual conflict
- Direct contradiction
- The quoted passages make incompatible claims about the same subject under the same conditions. Little additional inference is needed.
- Importance
- Supporting
- A supporting event, teaching, or biographical claim.
Matthew makes Jacob Joseph's father while Luke names Heli in that same immediate genealogical position.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Jacob is named as Joseph's father
And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
Heli is named as Joseph's father
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,
Understanding the contradiction
Matthew 1:16 states that Jacob begat Joseph, then identifies Joseph as the husband of Mary, from whom Jesus was born. The wording makes Jacob the father in the immediately preceding generation of Joseph's family. It also changes its formulation when reaching Jesus, distinguishing Mary's maternity from the chain of men who begat their successors.
Luke 3:23 calls Jesus the supposed son of Joseph and then calls Joseph the son of Heli. The qualification 'as was supposed' concerns Jesus' relationship to Joseph; the sentence does not explicitly apply that qualification to Joseph's relationship to Heli. Thus the two supplied genealogies assign different names to the same position directly before Joseph. Calling this a disagreement about Jesus' paternal grandfather is shorthand, since both passages complicate Joseph's paternity. The precise textual problem is firmer and narrower: Joseph's father is Jacob in one account and Heli in the other, with no alternative relationship identified in either quotation to explain why the names differ.