Heli (biblical figure)

Heli (Greek: Ἠλὶ) is a Biblical individual mentioned in the Gospel of Luke as an ancestor of Jesus.

In Luke's account of the genealogy of Jesus from David via David's son Nathan, Heli is listed before Joseph, husband of Mary and after Matthat.

Heli is not mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus from David via David's son Solomon in the Gospel of Matthew, the only other canonical gospel to include a genealogy; that genealogy instead identifies "Jacob" as Joseph's putative father.

Since Joseph cannot be both "begotten of Jacob", descended from Solomon (according to Matthew 1), and also "of Heli", descended from another of David's sons, Nathan (according to Luke 3) various explanations have been proposed for the Luke genealogy actually to be that of Mary. The view is relatively late; advocates of this view include John of Damascus (8th century), Annius (15th century), Luther, Bengel and Lightfoot.Harry A. Ironside (1930) considered that it was simply preference to drop women's names out of the genealogy, hence Joseph was son in law of Heli.

Prior to the explanation above, the explanation of Sextus Julius Africanus that there had been a levirate marriage and that Joseph's grandfather Mattan (descendant of Solomon) had had a wife called "Esther" (not recorded in the Bible) with whom he fathered Jacob (Joseph's father), but Matthan died and Esther married Heli's father Melchi (descendant of Nathan). Then when Heli died childless (again not recorded in the Bible) Joseph's father Jacob took Heli's wife to raise up children for Heli and left Joseph adopted in Heli's widow's house.

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