One of the things that matters in NZ is ancestry. Most Maori can recite their ancestry back to the mists of time. It matters. For the local people (Ngai Kahu) state “There is no Maori (the people) just iwi (tribe) and whanau (family group)“. If you are not of the blood of the tribe, you are not of the tribe. (Marrying in is allowed, but that is because your children are of the tribe). Since Ngai Kahu control millions and millions of dollars of assets (they intermarried with the Scots and are quite canny) this matters.
So to a Maori, this geneology, with its contractions… makes sense.
1An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse the father of King David.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob,16and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
17So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
Luke likes symmetry and numbers… yes. But let us look at some of the things we have forgotten which are in this, the geneology of our LORD.
- This list is of patriarchs. Of men. It is the geneology of Joseph, who traced himself through Zerubabel (the governer who restored the temple) Jechoniah (the last king), David, jesse, Obed, Judah… Abraham. The list contains heroes in the history of his tribe, his kingdom, his faith.
- Jesus could claim this geneology because Joseph was the husband of Mary. Luke has just spent most of the first chapter of his gospel describing Mary’s pregnancy — by the spirit. But the covenant of marriage, in which Jesus was born, meant that Joseph was accounted as his father, and that this is valid. It is thus who raised you that matters, not the blood line as such. (This is personally important: I am adopted and acknowledge my families history back to the Taranaki settlement when I have to give a formal introduction on the Marae (formal meeting area run on Maori ceremonial rules).
- The list is not matrilineal. One woman is acknowledged — Mary. Now, Matthew acknowledges Rahab (who was a prostitute and hid Joshua’s spies when they visted Jericho), Ruth (who was a Moabite widow of Jewish exiles and Mary). The ancestry follows patrilineal lines. Again, my Maori friends understand this. They acknowledge both men and women… those who have served, those who were heroes, and those who led the family. But the main lineage is male.
Finally, both the geneologies are there to prove a point. Jesus is to be accounted in the line and geneology of David, from whom the Messiah was to come. Although he was to fulfil the law and move beyond the law, he had to meet the qualifications or fulfil the prophecies that were written and known about the Messiah. Paul comments on this…
15Brothers and sisters, I give an example from daily life: once a person’s will has been ratified, no one adds to it or annuls it. 16Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, “And to offsprings,” as of many; but it says, “And to your offspring,” that is, to one person, who is Christ.17My point is this: the law,18For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.
19Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angels by a mediator. 20Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one.
21Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. 22But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
The promises and inheritance of all those in faith are for Christ. Who chose to give them away… because the law is sufficient to condemn us, but not save us. That required that Christ not only intercede for us, but bleed and die for us.
The incarnation — the birth — the faithfulness of Mary and Joseph in raising this child — all was leading to a death some thirty-odd years later. And in that death, the promises given to Abraham, and the faith that was shared down the geneology, has become the faith of all peoples, even the Ngai Kahu in antipodes.
(NB. I’m not Maori: I’m of English descent (with some Polish and French via Australia, according to my grandfather. One branch (maternal grandmother) settled in NZ in 1857 as part of the Taranki Military: she married a man whose father failed in farming in South Australia due to drought: her daugther married a man whose father had emigrated as a stable boy and married a woman whose family had been established in Auckland for at least three generations… they farmed. My parents met when they were both teaching. He was Anglican, she was Presbyterian. Both had vibrant faith, and both are far more righteous than me. Our tribal roots may flow through, and the history of faith has to be acknowledged, but in Christ we are all of one generation: those who have gone before and those who follow).