The Genealogies Of Christ

Quem ad istam mortalitatem nobiscum participandam quia descendentem voluit significare Matthaeus, ideo et ipsas generationes ab Abraham usque ad Ioseph et usque ad ipsius Christi nativitatem descendendo commemoravit ab initio Evangelii sui  Lucas autem non ab initio, sed a baptismo Christi generationes enarrat nec descendendo, sed ascendendo, tamquam sacerdotem in expiandis peccatis magis signans, ubi eum vox de caelo declaravit, ubi testimonium Ioannes ipsi perhibuit dicens: Ecce qui tollit peccata mundi. Ascendendo autem transit et Abraham et pervenit ad Deum, cui mundati et expiati reconciliamur. Merito et adoptionis originem ipse suscepit, quia per adoptionem efficimur filii Dei credendo in Filium Dei. Per carnalem vero generationem Filius Dei potius propter nos Filius hominis factus est. Satis autem demonstravit non se ideo dixisse Ioseph filium Eli, quod de illo genitus, sed quod ab illo fuerit adoptatus, cum et ipsum Adam filium dixit Dei, cum sit factus a Deo, sed per gratiam quam postea peccando amisit tamquam filius in paradiso constitutus sit. Quapropter in generationibus Matthaei significatur nostrorum susceptio peccatorum a Domino Christo, in generationibus autem Lucae significatur abolitio nostrorum peccatorum a Domino Christo. Ideo eas ille descendens enarrat, iste ascendens. Quod enim dicit Apostolus: Misit Deus Filium suum in similitudinem carnis peccati. Haec est susceptio peccatorum; quod autem addit: Ut de peccato damnaret peccatum in carne, haec est expiatio peccatorum. Proinde Matthaeus ab ipso David per Salomonem descendit, in cuius matre ille peccavit; Lucas vero ad ipsum David per Nathan ascendit, per quem prophetam Deus peccatum illius expiavit. Ipse quoque numerus, quem Lucas exsequitur, certissime prorsus abolitionem indicat peccatorum. Quia enim Christi aliqua iniquitas, qui nullam habuit, non est utique coniuncta iniquitatibus hominum, quas in sua carne suscepit, ideo numerus penes Matthaeum excepto Christo est quadragenarius. Quia vero iustitiae suae Patrisque nos expiatos ab omni peccato purgatosque coniungit, ut fiat quod ait Apostolus: Qui autem adhaeret Domino unus spiritus est ideo in eo numero, qui est penes Lucam, et ipse Christus, a quo incipit enumeratio, et Deus, ad quem pervenit, connumerantur et fit numerus septuaginta septem, quo significatur omnium prorsus remissio et abolitio peccatorum. Quam etiam ipse Dominus per huis numeri mysterium evidenter expressit dicens remittendum esse peccanti non solum septiens, sed etiam septuagiens septiens  Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, De Consensu Evangelistarum Libri Quatuor, Lib II

Because Matthew wished to note this descent for the sharing of mortality with us, he has mentioned the generations from Abraham to Joseph and to the birth of Christ Himself in descending order, and at the beginning of his Gospel. Luke, on the other hand, narrates the generations not at the beginning but at Christ’s baptism, and not in descending but in ascending order, as if designating Him a priest for the expiation of sins, where the voice from heaven announced Him, and where John himself named him, saying: 'Behold he who takes away the sin of the world.'1 Moreover, in the ascending order he passes Abraham and arrives at God, to whom, cleansed and atoned for, we are reconciled. Of merit, too, the origination of adoption He has taken up in Himself, for through adoption we are made the sons of God by believing in the Son of God. Indeed, for us, by carnal generation, the Son of God was pleased to be made the son of man. And the author shows clearly that he did not call Joseph the son of Heli because he was sired by him but because he was adopted by him, for he has also called Adam a son of God, who was made by God, but who by grace was as a son in paradise established, which afterwards he lost by sin. Thus the genealogy of Matthew signifies Christ's taking of our sin upon Himself, while genealogy of Luke signifies the abolition of our sins by the Lord Christ. Therefore the one details the names in descending order and the other in ascending order. For when the Apostle says, 'God sent His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin,'2  this is the taking upon of sins, and when he adds, ' for sin, to condemn sin in the flesh,' this is expiation of sins. Accordingly Matthew descends from David through Solomon, by whose mother he sinned; while Luke ascends to the same David through Nathan, the prophet by whom God took away his sin. Furthermore, the number which Luke follows does most certainly best indicate the taking away of sins. For as in Christ, who Himself had no sin, there is assuredly no iniquity allied to the iniquities of men which He took up in His flesh, the number adopted by Matthew makes forty without Christ. For by cleansing us of all sin and purging us He joins us to His own and His Father’s righteousness, that it might be as the Apostle’s said: 'But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit'.3 In the number used by Luke is Christ Himself, with whom the enumeration begins, and God, at whom it ends; and the sum is seventy seven, which signifies the thorough forgiveness and abolition of all sins. And this the Lord Himself also clearly expressed through the mystery of this number when He said that the sinner should be forgiven not only seven times, but even seventy seven times. Saint Augustine of Hippo, On The Agreement of the Evangelists 1 Jo 1.29  2 Rom 8.3  3 1 Cor 6.17