Have you ever wondered whether the Bible’s “begets” matter, or what one can possibly learn from knowing who begat whose father/grandfather/great-grandfather, etc.? Every time I come to the genealogies in my Bible, I ask, “Why Lord? Why?” and sigh deeply. “Must I read this?”
Then, in my devotions one morning, another list of names was featured, this time in the New Testament. Paul singled out a number of individuals in his letter to the Romans. Below is my attempt to connect the Old Testament “begets” to Romans 16:1-26.
From Genesis to Jesus
Genesis 5:1-32 lists all the generations from Adam to Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Matthew 1:1-16 lays out another genealogy from Abraham through David and eventually to Mary. A genealogy found in Luke 3:23-38 also describes Jesus’ family tree.
It doesn’t agree with Matthew’s tree, but I’m not going to try and explain that here. Erin Davis wrote in “Don’t Skip the Begets” that “There isn’t a person on the planet that God doesn’t love and care about. The genealogies read like lists of His favorite people.”
The Bible is not saying that Abraham and company were perfect. The Word of God makes it plain that none of those men and women in Christ’s genealogies was without sin. Romans 3:10 says “no one is righteous.”
But the genealogies demonstrate that Scripture supports itself, leading all the way back to creation and the Creator by a direct and uninterrupted bloodline, as per his promise.
The Fulfillment of Prophecy
The prophesied Savior came from the lineage of Abraham: “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). God reinforced this prophecy through Jacob two generations later: “In you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 28:14).
Eventually, we read in Isaiah 7:14 that “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” This carefully constructed pathway back to the Lord is part of what our faith rests on.
We trace Jesus’ earthly parents’ lineage back through those other names, all the way to David, and before him to Jacob, Abraham, and even to Adam.
The begets are far from random. The Bible is making a point about its own veracity by laying down evidence about the identity of Jesus.
The Bible slowly reveals God’s plan, constantly highlighting his omnipotence. With hindsight we see the glory of Christ’s family tree being revealed one generation at a time for centuries, millennia even.
No part of the plan was random. God was never scrambling to fix a mistake caused by someone’s sin. God is always ahead of his people.
Power and the People
He had mapped out those connections from Adam to Mary before they were even born.
Erin Davis says, “the genealogies are like a drumbeat playing this truth: your story is not really about you but about the God who made you.”
In his power, God acts personally to reveal himself to us as individuals. Each relationship between the Father and one of his children is a unique miracle. “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). Those same eyes saw every one of the saints before they fulfilled their purpose in God’s story.
This is an affirmation that God knows us better than we know ourselves, and also a declaration of purpose and power. “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before” (Psalm 139:4-5).
Romans 16:1-26 and Paul’s Fond Greetings
Paul wrote a considerable amount of the New Testament, all in the form of letters. His purpose was to glorify God and to educate, exhort, discipline, and encourage the churches and disciples.
Although his epistles consistently lead us back to Jesus Christ, he also calls our attention to certain individuals such as Prisca and Aquila, the family of Aristobulus, Persis, Tryphaena, and Tryphosa.
Many more servants in the church are highlighted in this final book of Romans. Dr. John Koessler writes that Paul “was not a lone ranger in his ministry. One reason for his effectiveness was that he relied on the help of many hands.”
In humility, Paul made sure all readers knew that an entire crew of believers was working behind the scenes to support the spread of the gospel across the Roman Empire.
Faithful and Anonymous
Many faithful servants say to me, “I want to serve God like so-and-so, but I don’t know how.” And then they tell me all the ways they serve God without realizing it. They don’t see their work as service because it’s subtle.
But like Paul demonstrated, the success of God’s mission involves numerous people. One who plants a seed of faith might never see it come to fruition. It is watered, fertilized, and so on along the way to producing a sturdy plant and mature fruit.
These quiet missionaries don’t travel overseas. They court rejection and ridicule but are happily numbered among the long list of lowkey, unashamed workers. They are administrators, encouragers, prayer warriors, and givers (of money, casseroles, or babysitting services).
They share the Word of God and exemplify a fruitful Spirit for their co-workers, children, and friends. These Christians give their time in ways that most of us cannot see, although God witnesses and affirms them.
Such individuals often believe that pastors, leaders, writers, speakers, and worship musicians are the real servants, but this more visible group is not better or more important.
The people Paul mentions never wrote letters, which would wind up in the New Testament; yet, they were crucial to the burgeoning church in Rome. As Koessler points out, they were singled out because they worked hard and even risked their lives in some instances.
Certain individuals were Paul’s close friends, while others exemplified consistent faith as an example to the unbelievers in their midst. He might have even counted some of them as family by blood.
A Gentile Genealogy
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). Old Testament genealogies zero in on a specific family tree — Israel — in order to demonstrate that Jesus was the Son of God, Immanuel.
But Jesus brought the good news to Jews and Gentiles alike. He crossed the chasm with his very body, uniting us all by a bloodline of faith. Paul’s list of names in Romans 16 took me back to those dry genealogies I tend to skip over but caused me to see them with a new eye.
These men and women were not all related by blood; still, they became part of a new family. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
The wider church is our family. Paul is our brother. Prisca is our sister. Through Christ, we have that united genealogy beginning and ending with God himself. Our names aren’t featured in the Bible like Prisca and Philologus, but our names are written in the Book of Life.
For further reading:
Are the Genealogies in the Bible Important?
Is it Important to Know Jesus’ Family Tree at Christmas?
Why Is Joseph’s Family Tree Included in Jesus’ Birth?
The Baptism and the Genealogy of Jesus Christ
Why Was Abraham Chosen to be the Father of All Nations?
How Can I Identify Messianic Prophecies in the Old Testament?
What Is the Book of Life? Is it the Same as the Lamb’s Book of Life?
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