Who
Named by Luke as the father of Joseph: Jesus was “the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli” (Luke 3:23), where Matthew calls Joseph’s father Jacob (Matthew 1:16). Julius Africanus, quoted by Eusebius (Church History I.7), handed down the explanation the Fathers followed: Heli and Jacob were brothers by the same mother, and when Heli died childless Jacob raised up a son for him by levirate marriage, so that Joseph was Jacob’s son by nature and Heli’s by law. Some later writers held that Luke gives Mary’s ancestry, with Heli as her father; tradition names her parents Joachim and Anne.
Key verses
- Luke 3:23
Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,
Where the Bible names him
Family
- Parents
- Children
Discussed by
Comments on the verses that name him (8 of 55).
- Origen on Luke 3:23–38Catena Aurea on Luke
Having related our Lord’s baptism, he next enters upon the generation of the Lord, not bringing it down from the higher to the lower, but beginning with Christ, he carries it up to God Himself. Hence he says, And…
- Gregory of Nazianzus on Luke 3:23–38Catena Aurea on Luke
We must therefore consider who He was who was baptized, and by whom and when: seeing He was pure, baptized by John, and at a time when His miracles had begun, that we might thence derive the lesson of purifying…
- John Chrysostom on Luke 3:23–38Catena Aurea on Luke
Or, He waited accomplishing the whole law until that age which takes in every sin, that none might say that He abrogated the law because He was not able to fulfil it.
- A Greek expositor on Luke 3:23–38Catena Aurea on Luke
For this reason also He came at thirty years to be baptized, to shew that spiritual regeneration makes men perfect as far as regards their spiritual life.
- Bede on Luke 3:23–38Catena Aurea on Luke
The thrice ten years also which our Saviour had passed when He was baptized might intimate also the mystery of our baptism, because of the faith in the Trinity, and the obedience to the Decalogue.
- Gregory of Nazianzus on Luke 3:23–38 (2)Catena Aurea on Luke
Still must a child be baptized if necessity demands it. For it is better to be insensibly sanctified, than to pass from this life unsealed. But you will say, Christ is baptized at thirty years old, and He was God,…
- Cyril of Alexandria on Luke 3:23–38Catena Aurea on Luke
Although in truth Christ had no father according to the flesh, yet some fancied he had a father. Hence it follows, As was supposed the son of Joseph.
- Ambrose of Milan on Luke 3:23–38Catena Aurea on Luke
Rightly as was supposed, since in reality He was not, but was supposed to be so, because Mary who was espoused to Joseph was His mother. But we might doubt why the descent of Joseph is described rather than that of…