61. Concerning Jesus Mary Joseph is it possible to harmonize the two genealogies of Christ given respectively by Matthew and Luke?

Many efforts have been made to do so and several hypotheses have been suggested which are reasonable.

The one that commends itself to the largest number of scholars is that of Dr. Barrell, who contends that Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph and Luke that of Mary.

The husband and wife belonging to the same tribe would naturally have in their genealogical lines some ancestors common to both.

After a great deal of research he discovered that the Jews had a habit, in tracing the female line, of speaking of a woman's husband as the son of her father, when really he was the son-in-law.

Thus Luke speaks of Heli as the fa­ther of Joseph, when he was Mary's father and Joseph's father-in-law. If that theory is correct Jesus could trace his genealogy through Mary to David and Abraham.

That there was no flaw in it we may be sure, otherwise the Jews would surely have pointed it out when his Messiahship was claimed.

It is matter of history that this question was never raised during his life or for a hundred years after his death.