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Jacob

Portrait of Jacob

Jacob was the son of Matthan and the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, named as the last private individual in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus Christ before Joseph himself. He shares his name with the patriarch Jacob (Israel), many centuries earlier, but is a distinct and otherwise unrecorded person.

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Biography

Father
Matthan
Era
Exile / Second Temple

Family

Parents
โ†“
Jacob
New Testament Genealogy

Did You Know?

1

Luke's genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:23) names Joseph's father as 'Heli' rather than Jacob, one of several differences between Matthew's and Luke's genealogies that have been explained by proposals such as Luke tracing Mary's line, or a levirate-marriage relationship between the two men.

2

This Jacob shares his name with the patriarch Jacob (renamed Israel), Joseph's ancestor roughly forty generations earlier, but the two are entirely distinct individuals separated by well over a thousand years.

Key Chapters

Key Passages

From the Exile to Joseph

Matthew 1:15-16

This Jacob is the final link in the long chain of names Matthew traces from the Babylonian exile to the birth of Christ - his only recorded act is fathering Joseph.

A15nd Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob;

16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Read full chapter: Matthew 1 โ†’