Peter Lorenz has another installment arguing for Mary’s genealogy in Luke’s Gospel. Utilizing primary sources Peter shows from history that the early Christians held that Luke gives Mary’s lineage.

It is likely that Jesus was known as from David’s line through Joseph because many times He was referred as “the Son of David.” Those who acclaimed Him as such probably thought Joseph was His real father. They did not necessarily need to know the complete stories of Matthew and Luke to recognize Jesus as Messiah since the signs accompanying Jesus’s ministry would have sufficed.

Contextually, Luke has been showing for most of the first two chapters the miraculous virgin conception and birth of Jesus. Jesus was not a spirit who only appeared human but was fully man as Luke gives His lineage to Adam at the onset of Christ’s ministry. The primary target audience for Luke would be Greeks (Hellenism-whether Jewish or Pagan) with their humanity-focus; and therefore Luke needs to show Christ’s connection to the first human.

The verb nomidzo (supposed) in Lk. 3.23 strongly shows His virgin birth and is parenthetical. In the modern convention of myopic, immediate reference, Luke’s phrasing sounds strange to our ears. We, today, would normally think Heli was Joseph’s father whereas Luke is relying on the reader to be more contextual with his previous material.

As preserved by Origen, Celsus is one of our earliest writers to comment on the genealogies of Jesus. Celsus’s failure to mention any conflict between the genealogies appears to support the view that no conflict was perceived in the second-century context in which he wrote. But if we follow Origen, Celsus seems to have known…

via Celsus, Panthera, and the Genealogy of Mary — Peter Lorenz’s Blog