Luke's Natural Line — The Biological Son

Full Luke 3:23–38. Greek of 3:23: hōs enomizeto — "as was supposed." Luke is marking the Joseph link as conventional, not biological. Ancient Jewish convention regularly used sonship language for sons-in-law; "son of Heli" is plausibly Joseph-as-husband-of-Heli's-daughter Mary. The genealogy runs back to "the son of Adam, which was the son of God" (Luke 3:38), rooting Jesus in universal humanity.