Do you know the names of your grandparents’ parents? As I’m writing this, I can only think of the name of one of my eight great-grandparents. It’s a little sad to me that I don’t even know the names of most of the eight people in the world who probably had the most influence on the four people in the world who probably had the most influence on the man and woman who gave me life. But I’m interested in learning more about my ancestry and hope to preserve that information for my children and their children some day. Recent advancements in genetic testing have increased popular interest in ancestry and can yield a wealth of information about one’s ancestors. Before all our modern genetic testing and date retrieval systems, however, people recorded genealogies on paper. The Bible records many genealogies, and although they can be filled with hard-to-pronounce Semitic names, they are important components of the Biblical narratives in which they are embedded.

We find one of the genealogies in Luke 3:23–38. Like the one given in Matthew 1, this is a genealogy of Jesus, but there are several key differences. For one thing, Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus begins with Abraham and lists the descendants down to Jesus. Luke goes in the reverse order, beginning with Jesus and going all the way back to Adam, not just as far back as Abraham. Additionally, Matthew and Luke follow different branches of the family tree in the generations after King David. They also differ in their placement of the genealogy within their gospels: Matthew places the genealogy at the very beginning of his gospel, identifying who Jesus is before detailing his birth. Luke, on the other hand, places the genealogy in between Jesus’ baptism and his temptation in the wilderness, which we know happened back to back. Why interrupt the narrative to put the genealogy of Jesus in such a seemingly random place in the gospel?

Upon closer examination, Luke’s placement of the genealogy of Jesus is anything but random. He has placed the genealogy here to highlight an important truth about Jesus. Squashed in between the baptism of Jesus and his temptations (two events that share a common theme about Jesus’ identity as the Son of God), Luke uses the genealogy to point us to the fact that Jesus—the true Son of God—will succeed where Adam—the first son of God—failed. Luke writes, “…and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’ Jesus… was… the son of Adam, the son of God” (Luke 3:23, 38). This beloved Son of God then marched into the wilderness where he faced the fiercest onslaught of temptations that the devil could muster. Jesus came to reverse the curse brought about through the sin of Adam, and he succeeded where Adam failed. He’s the son of Adam, he’s the son of God, he’s our Savior!