As I work through assignments related to the infancy narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, I am surprised how many students quote other sources claiming that Matthew gives Joseph’s genealogy while Luke gives Mary’s. There is only one major problem with this suggestion: it isn’t what these Gospels say. Both give genealogies that are explicitly said to be the lineage of Joseph. There is no way to interpret them as saying otherwise.
To make Luke’s genealogy Mary’s, one would have to say that what Luke meant isn’t what he wrote. And once one has attributed a mistake to an author, one has finished with inerrancy anyway, and so one has done nothing to defend the Bible’s accuracy.
So here’s the real question: Why are people still trying to use this as a solution? Why, for some Christians, is affirming that the Bible is inerrant more important than taking seriously what it actually says?
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