What Tribe Is Jesus From?

Every ethnically Jewish person is a descendent from at least one of the 12 Tribes of Israel. That is, they are descendants of one of Jacob’s 12 sons from ancient biblical times. Jacob, whom God renamed Israel, is the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. Since Jesus was (and still is) Jewish, which tribe is Jesus from?

Which Tribe Is Jesus From?

Bible prophecy indicates that the Messiah would come from the Tribe of Judah. The first mention of this is in Genesis 49:10 in Moses’ final blessings on each tribe. Of Judah, he said, “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until He to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be His.” This refers to Jesus the Messiah, who will reign eternally forever over Israel and all the world when He returns as the conquering King.

This promise was not a one-time occurrence. The Lord reiterated it to King David through the prophet Nathan when David expressed his desire to build a Temple for the Ark of the Covenant. Nathan relayed the Lord’s words to David, saying, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before Me; your throne will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). David’s family lineage is found in 1 Chronicles 2:12–14 amid a genealogical list tracing the lineage of Herson’s sons – to whom David is related – back to Judah, the son of Jacob.

In the New Testament, the angel Gabriel confirmed the Messiah’s ancestry from the line of David, and therefore, Judah, when he announced to Mary that she would give birth to the promised One. He proclaimed that she would give birth to a Son who would receive from the Lord God “the throne of His father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:29–33).

Jesus, the Lion of Judah

The book of Revelation calls Jesus the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. The apostle John, during his vision of Heaven at the End Times, wept when he saw no one worthy to open the seals of the scroll. One of the elders directed him to look at the victorious Jesus: “See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:5).

Jesus’ Genealogy in the Gospels

The clearest picture we have of Yeshua being from the Tribe of Judah is found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Each lists Jesus’ ancestry, generation by generation, back to Jacob’s son Judah and further. Though each author lists Jesus’ ancestry as coming through the line of King David and the Tribe of Judah, they differ in how they got there.

Why Do Matthew and Luke’s Genealogies of Jesus Differ?

Matthew’s and Luke’s genealogies of Jesus differ in a few ways. First, Matthew’s list goes back to Abraham, while Luke’s goes all the way back to Adam.

Matthew chapter 1 provides Jesus’ lineage beginning with Abraham, tracing it forward through David, his son Solomon, and on to “Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary” (Matthew 1:16). Luke reverses the generation order. Instead of starting with an ancient ancestor and proceeding forward to explain who begat whom, Luke begins with Yeshua and declares each generation backward as “the son of” the previous father.

Another difference is that from David forward, the genealogies diverge, resulting in a different name listed as the father of Joseph, Mary’s husband. Matthew says Joseph’s father is a man named Jacob, and Luke says Joseph is the son of Heli.

There are a couple of views on why this is so. The most widely accepted explanation concerns the matter of inheritance. Legally, only sons could receive an inheritance. However, a sonless father was permitted to adopt a son, enabling him to pass his inheritance on to someone. Often, a father would adopt one of his daughter’s husbands and leave his inheritance to him, thus keeping it in the family.

Most Bible scholars believe this explains the difference in Yeshua’s genealogies in the gospels. They hold that Matthew contains Joseph’s ancestry through his father Jacob, and Luke reveals Mary’s genealogy through her father Heli, Joseph’s father-in-law or “adoptive father.”

This view confirms Jesus’ lineage from the Tribe of Judah in two ways. He is legally from the Tribe of Judah through his earthly father, Joseph, and also by the bloodline of His mother, Mary.

What Tribe Is Jesus From?

Messianic prophecies foretell it, and His ancestral lines as the son of Mary and Joseph attest to it. Jesus is from the Tribe of Judah.