Bulletin Q&A Article; Published 12-31-23:
The gospel passage for the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Mother Mary (September 8) was the reading of Jesus’ heritage. Noah’s family, as the story goes, was the only survivor on earth after the flood. Yet Noah was not in the lineage read. Do I have this wrong? Please explain.
There are actually two different genealogies of Jesus in the Bible; one in the Gospel of Matthew and one in the Gospel of Luke. As a deacon, it is always a challenge reading all the names in the genealogy of Jesus. I find it’s best not to hesitate, trusting that no one is going to criticize me if I mispronounce a name or two.
St. Leo the Great wrote: “To speak of our Lord, the son of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as true and perfect man is of no value to us if we do not believe that he is descended from the line of ancestors set out in the Gospel. Matthew’s gospel begins by setting out the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham, and then traces his human descent by bringing his ancestral line down to his mother’s husband, Joseph. On the other hand, Luke traces his parentage backward step by step to the actual father of mankind, to show that both the first and the last Adam share the same nature.”
The gospel reading for Mary’s birthday contains the genealogy of Jesus from Matthew 1:1-17. Matthew’s genealogy begins with Abraham and moves forward to the birth of Jesus. St. Ambrose gives this reason for beginning with Abraham: “For Abraham was the first who deserved the witness of faith; He believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. It behooved therefore that he should be set forth as the first in the line of descent, who was the first to deserve the promise of the restoration of the Church, In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And it is again brought to a period in David, for that Jesus should be called his Son; hence to him is preserved the privilege, that from him should come the beginning of the Lord’s genealogy.” Since Noah was born before Abraham, he is not included in this Matthew’s genealogy.
As already mentioned, the genealogy that is found in Luke 3:23-38 begins with Jesus. It works backward all the way to Adam, the first man, the son of God. Since this genealogy is complete from Jesus to Adam, Noah is included which brings us back around to the original question. I found this interesting quote from St. Ambrose that highlights the importance of Noah: “The mention of just Noah ought not to be omitted among our Lord’s generations, that as our Lord was born the builder of His Church, He might seem to have sent Noah beforehand, the author of His race, who had before founded the Church under the type of an ark.”