After David the lists part: Matthew follows the kings, Luke a son known only by name. They touch once more at Shealtiel and Zerubbabel.
Solomon or Nathan
After David, Matthew follows the kings through Solomon; Luke follows Nathan, a son of David known only by name. Luke’s line never passes through Jechoniah, on whom Jeremiah pronounced ‘childless’ for David’s throne.
Where they meet again
Both lines pass through Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, then diverge again. Matthew and 1 Chronicles 3:17 make Shealtiel Jechoniah’s son; Luke makes him Neri’s. 1 Chronicles 3:19 makes Zerubbabel son of Pedaiah, Shealtiel’s brother.
The texts
5and these were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon, four, by Bathshua the daughter of Ammiel;
28Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which no one delights? Why are they cast out, he and his offspring, and cast into a land which they don’t know?
29O earth, earth, earth, hear Yahweh’s word!
30Yahweh says, “Record this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no more will a man of his offspring prosper, sitting on David’s throne and ruling in Judah.”
23In that day, says Yahweh of Armies, I will take you, Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel,’ says Yahweh, ‘and will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.”
17The sons of Jeconiah, the captive: Shealtiel his son,
18Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah.
19The sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei. The sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah; and Shelomith was their sister;
12After the exile to Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel.
27the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,
On the chart
Numbers count from Adam as 1, following the critical Greek text, which reads Admin and Arni where the WEB has Aram (hence 27–28). Gold numbers fall on multiples of seven: Enoch 7, Abraham 21, David 35, Jesus 77.
In the tradition
Jechoniah · Jewish Rabbinic tradition holds that Jechoniah repented in prison and the decree was annulled, since Zerubbabel, his grandson, is called a signet ring in Haggai 2:23 (reversing Jer 22:24) (Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 24; Leviticus Rabbah 19:6; cf. b. Sanhedrin 37b–38a).
Nathan · Patristic Augustine at first read Luke’s line through Nathan as priestly, because Nathan the prophet brought David to repentance. He later corrected himself: the mystery lies ‘not in the same man but in the same name’ (Retractations 1.26 and 2.16, PL 32:627, 637).
Nathan · Scholarship Zechariah 12:12 sets ‘the house of Nathan’ beside ‘the house of David’ in the end-time mourning, which some take to show a Nathanite family with its own standing after the exile.