Both Matthew and Luke have different purposes in their gospels. One wishes to show the royal linage of Jesus that qualifies him to be the Messiah. The other wants to show the presumed biological line of Jesus.

Lots of people have noted that we have two different genealogies in Matthew and Luke’s gospels. There are a few different explanations for how Jesus can have two different yet legitimate family trees. I am not going to spend any time on that today, you can do your own research to see the various explanations. Here, I want to look at the reason why Matthew and Luke are keen to offer different genealogies—what is each of them trying to achieve?

Matthew’s emphasis is very much on Jesus’ kingship. He is most interested in showing that Jesus is the Messiah that the Jews have been waiting for. Luke, by contrast, focuses more on Jesus’ humanity. He is writing an orderly historical biography of who Jesus was supposed to be. These two different purposes explain something of the reason behind the differing genealogies.

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