Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Why isn't Joachim mentioned in Jesus' genealogy?


An apparent contradiction: Is Joseph the son of Jacob or of Heli?
Matthew tells us that Jacob begot Joseph, but Luke states that Joseph was son of Heli – how are we to reconcile this apparent contradiction? There are many ways.
Many of the Fathers maintained that Jacob and Heli were brothers and that, after Heli died childless (or, at least, without any sons), Jacob took Heli’s widow for his wife. Of her was born St. Joseph. Hence, according to the flesh, Joseph would be the son of Jacob only; but, according to legal right of inheritance, Joseph would be the son of Heli also. This explanation is certainly plausible, and enjoys the favor of many scholastic doctors as well (including St. Thomas Aquinas).
There are, perhaps, other ways to explain this passage – nearly any interpretation will suffice, so long as we maintain the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture and avoid attributing a direct contradiction to the divinely-inspired word of God.
Mary’s lineage as traced through Heli
Many of the Fathers of the Church – followed also by the scholastic Doctors – have sought to present the genealogy given by Luke as the lineage not of Joseph, but of Mary. Invoking the above interpretation (by which Heli was the brother of Jacob who was the natural father of Joseph), they join to it an additional intricacy: Heli is simply another name for Joachim.
If Heli is Joachim, then we may presume that Joachim died without any sons. Joachim’s widow (presumably, a second wife other than St. Anne) would have married Jacob and bore him St. Joseph.
Conversely (without adopting the theory of a blood relation between Heli and Jacob), we may follow the opinion of other scholars who maintained that Jacob (Joseph’s father) had died young and that Joseph became a quasi-adopted son of Heli/Joachim through his marriage to the Virgin – for this reason, then, Joseph is called son of Heli.
Whatever the intricate details, the central claim of this theory is that Joachim was called Heli and that this “nick-name” would have been common knowledge to those for whom St. Luke was writing. This opinion is said to have been held by St. Jerome, and is defended with great vigor by Fr. Cornelius a’ Lapide. It was a common opinion that enjoyed the favor of many scholars from at least the 1400s up through the early 1900s.
Linguistic study: Heli and Joachim
We argue that Heli and Joachim are linguistically related, such that it would be very natural for a single man to go by these two names. Joachim seems to be a variant form of Eliacim, which is abbreviated as Eli, a variant of Heli. Hence, though the two names may at first appear quite different, there is a great linguistic similarity between Heli and Joachim.
In any case, there are many persons in the New Testament who are called by multiple names: Nathanael is called Bartholomew, Thomas is called Didymus, Cleophas is called both Clepas and Alphaeus (though this last is more debatable), Salome is called Mary (her full name being Mary Salome), et c.
Mathan, the common grandfather of Joseph (son of Jacob) and the Virgin Mary (daughter of Joachim, called Heli)
[from the great, Fr. Cornelius a’ Lapide, commenting on Luke 3:23]
As was supposed, the son of Joseph, which was (here, and before each of the following names the Arabic puts in “the son”) of Heli, which was of Mathat. From this passage Porphyry and Julian the Apostate accused Luke of being incorrect, because Joseph was not the son of Heli, but of Jacob, as S. Matthew says (ch. i.); and because S. Luke gives the other progenitors of Joseph and Heli names entirely different from those given them by S. Matthew.
Besides, Jesus was not the son of Joseph, but born of the Virgin Mary.
The solution given by some to this difficulty is that Joseph was by nature the son of Jacob, but by law the son of Heli. By the old law (Deut. xxv. 5) a surviving brother had to raise up seed to his dead brother, and the brother who had died childless was held to be the legal father of these sons. Now Jesca, says Euthymius, married Mathat, and by him had Heli, then she married Mathan, and by him had Jacob. Heli died without issue, and his brother Jacob married his wife in accordance with the law, and Joseph was his son by her, being, therefore, naturally the son of Jacob, but legally of Heli. So Justinus, S. Jerome, Eusebius, Nazianzen, and S. Ambrose explain it. But, on the other hand, Heli and Jacob were only uterine brothers, and the law on the subject of raising up seed to a brother only applies to full brothers, sons of the same father; for they alone kept the name and heritage of the father. Besides, the introduction of Jesca is beside the point. For though her sons, Heli and Jacob, be connected through her, yet they would have no connection through Mathat and Mathan and the rest of their ancestors up to David.
This, therefore, has nothing to do with the pedigree of the Blessed Virgin and Christ, in so far as showing Jesus to be of the seed of David according to the flesh is concerned. For if Jesus be descended from Jesca and Mathat, He could not be also descended from Jesca and Mathan; how, then, is He set down as the descendant of both Mathan and Mathat?
My opinion is that in the time of Christ it was very well known that Mathan was the common grandfather of Joseph and the Blessed Virgin; and that Jacob, the father of Joseph, and Heli, or Joachim, the father of the Blessed Virgin, were full brothers - as Francis Lucas holds - or rather, that Jacob was the brother of S. Anne, the wife of Heli, or Joachim, and mother of the Blessed Virgin; hence the genealogy of one is the genealogy of the other. For the Blessed Virgin was descended, through her mother, from Jacob, Mathan, and Solomon, and, through her father, Joachim or Heli, from Mathat and Nathan.
So S. Matthew gives the genealogy of the Blessed Virgin through her mother S. Anne, while S. Luke gives it through her father Heli, or Joachim, so that Christ may be shown to be descended of the seed of David in both ways.
There is no other better way than this of reconciling the genealogies given by SS. Matthew and Luke. Moreover, it is the common opinion of S. Augustine, Denis the Carthusian, Cajetan, Jansenius, and other doctors whom Suarez quotes (pt. iii., quæst. xxvii. a. 1, disp. 3, sect. 2) that S. Luke traces the genealogy of Christ through Heli, or Joachim, the father of the Blessed Virgin. Hence it must follow that S. Matthew’s genealogy is traced through S. Anne, and that she was the daughter of Mathan; for otherwise all her ancestors, whom S. Matthew recounts, belong only to Joseph, and not to the Blessed Virgin and Christ.
S. Matthew then traces Christ’s descent through His father Joseph, S. Luke through His mother, the Blessed Virgin; both lines are united in David, but after him separate through his two sons Solomon and Nathan. And again these two lines of Nathan and of Solomon unite in S. Anne, the daughter of Mathan, and sister of Jacob, Joseph’s father.

Sts. Joachim and Anne, Pray for us!


Taylor Marshall said...

This is fantastic. Thank you for the research.

Reginaldus said...

Little by little we will return to our venerable tradition!
Thank you for all the good stuff you post at http://cantuar.blogspot.com/

I am not Spartacus said...


I think that post ties-in well with your smashing post, Father.

Reginaldus said...

That is an excellent post over at the Sacred Page. John Bergsma (and co.) is doing great work over there!

See also his two recent posts on Cornelius a' Lapide:

fireofthylove.com said...

Thank you for this! I'm sure it took a while to put together, much appreciated

Anonymous said...

I learn so much from theese postings. Many thanks and prayers go to you.
Denny Shermer

jms.gorman said...

Wow, thank you for posting this very thoughtful reflection on Sts. Joachim and Anne. How though does this reconcile the discrepancy that Matthew only lists 13 generations where he states it should be 14? There are some who say that from the Aramaic Peshitta and linguistic studies that the Joseph Matthew mentions as the "husband" of Mary should read father or head of household which would make it 14 generations.

Cheryl Butler-Drake said...

Remember though, Mary's Levitical genealogical ties (i.e., Elizabeth being the cousin of Mary). Aaron's daughters could marry outside the tribe, but not his sons (i.e., Mary wouldn't be related to Elizabeth via Joachim) and his sons (aka Zachary) could only marry Levitical women (ie, Elizabeth couldn't have "hopped over" from David's family). Someone in the Levitical family tree had to be the feminine link of both Elizabeth and Mary and then either that same woman or another, had to marry outside of her ancestral tribe (Aaron/Levi) and into David's. I always thought it was Anne, but I suppose it could be Mathan's wife. I just wonder how far back is reasonable given Mary and Elizabeth's familiarity with one another.

JaredMithrandir said...

Matthan was a common name and being the name of both grandfathers isn't a major coincidence. Both genealogies has other matthan, Matthaias ect.s also.

The Grammar of the Greek Text of Luke treat Joseph as not part of the Genealogy Proper. It should read "The Son (as was supposed of Joseph) of Heli".

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