Matthan

MAT-than

A postexilic ancestor of Jesus named only in Matthew's genealogy as the father of Jacob, Joseph's father; his place in the family line is part of the long-standing scholarly puzzle of why Matthew's and Luke's genealogies diverge at this point.

Life and work

Matthan appears exactly once in Scripture, named as the son of Eleazar and father of Jacob in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:15). No narrative episode involving Matthan is recorded anywhere in the Bible. Luke's genealogy of Jesus names a different individual, Matthat son of Levi, in the corresponding generation before Joseph's father Heli (Luke 3:23-24), and the two lists do not share names through this whole postexilic stretch. Scholars have proposed several explanations for the broader divergence between Matthew's and Luke's genealogies, including that one traces Joseph's legal/royal line while the other traces a biological line (possibly through Mary), or that one reflects a levirate succession; no single theory is universally accepted, and the matter remains an open question in biblical scholarship rather than a settled one.

Extra-biblical evidence

No extra-biblical source or narrative episode exists for Matthan; he is attested only in Matthew's genealogy.

Scripture references

Matthew 1:15 — Named as a son of Eleazar and father of Jacob in Jesus's genealogy
Luke 3:23-24 — Luke's parallel genealogy names a different figure, Matthat, in this generation

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