LIBER GENERATIONIS
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Mt 1:1).
When I first encountered the Bible in an environment without religious tradition, what drew my attention most was not only its miracles, wars, poetry, or prophetic visions, but also its long passages of genealogy. Especially in the earlier books, name follows name, generation follows generation, and human lives are placed within an immense structure of descent, memory, promise, and inheritance.
For many modern readers, these passages may seem among the easiest to skip. They appear quiet, repetitive, and far removed from the dramatic force of narrative. Yet to me, they revealed one of the deepest structures of Scripture. A person in the Bible does not simply appear as an isolated individual. He or she stands within generations, covenants, lands, priestly duties, royal promises, and the unfolding history of salvation.
For this reason, I chose biblical genealogy as the subject of the first major work in KBM Charts.
Beginning with Genesis, it is not technically difficult to collect the genealogical passages one by one. The structure of Genesis is relatively clear: the family of Cain (Gen 4:17-22), the descendants of Seth (Gen 5), the sons of Noah (Gen 10) and the nations that come from them, and then the lineage of Abraham and his family. In a certain sense, the narrative of Genesis itself unfolds through genealogy. It connects the early history of the world with the origins of Israel, placing the family of Abraham within a much wider human story.
After Exodus, however, the situation becomes more complex. Genealogy is no longer always the main framework of the narrative. Instead, it appears more often in scattered references across different books and contexts. A person may be identified only briefly by his father, tribe, or clan. The same name may appear in different generations and refer to different people. Some records also introduce tensions in sequence, identity, or kinship. At this point, building a genealogy is no longer a matter of simply collecting names. It becomes a process of comparison, judgement, and interpretation.
If the genealogies in Genesis still carry a universal scale, including the origins of nations and the distribution of Abraham’s family, the later genealogies move increasingly into the history of Israel itself. As Israel grows from a family into a people, the biblical text can no longer, and does not attempt to, record the ancestry of every person in full. Genealogical attention begins to gather around several central themes. Among the most important are the priestly line of Levi and the royal line of Judah, David, and the kings of Jerusalem.
Seen from this larger structure, the clearest narrative line in biblical genealogy runs from Adam to Abraham, from Abraham to David, and from David to the kings of Judah. Because David receives the promise of an enduring kingship from God, the Davidic line becomes the central axis of the chart. Around this axis, the Levite priests, the family of King Saul, the rulers of the northern kingdom of Israel, the judges, prophets, and many related figures form a wider and more complex network of family and sacred history.
In the Old Testament, the royal line continues even after the fall of the kingdom. 1 Chronicles 3:17–24 records the descendants of Jeconiah, carrying the memory of the Davidic house into the period after exile. Yet from a Christian reading of salvation history, this line does not truly end there. The Gospel of Matthew opens with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, naming him as the son of David and the son of Abraham. The Gospel of Luke offers another genealogy, tracing the line back through David and Abraham all the way to Adam.
In this chart, I follow a traditional interpretation: Matthew’s genealogy is understood as the line of Joseph, while Luke’s genealogy is understood as the line of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The two Davidic lines meet at the lower part of the chart, pointing toward Our Lord Jesus Christ. In him, the promise to Abraham and the kingship of David are brought together. He enters the bloodline and history of Israel, yet as the Saviour, he also opens that history to all nations.
For this reason, after Jesus Christ, I did not continue the chart as an ordinary genealogy of blood descent. Instead, I placed the Twelve Apostles and Saint Paul beneath him. They do not inherit the kingship of David by blood. Rather, they stand as witnesses and messengers of the Gospel, symbolising how salvation, fulfilled in Christ, is carried from Israel to the world.
As the visual structure developed, the family tree gradually took on a form resembling the Cross. God the Father stands at the top, creating Adam and Eve. Their descendants extend toward Abraham. The twelve tribes of Israel form a horizontal structure, with the tribe of Judah at the centre. From Judah, the line of David continues downward until it reaches Jesus Christ. Beneath Christ, the Twelve Apostles and Saint Paul form the foundation from which the Gospel is carried to the nations.
Of course, this chart is not, and cannot be, a complete family tree of every person mentioned in the Bible. As biblical history moves from family narrative into the history of a people, a kingdom, and an empire, many figures cannot be connected through a complete line of ancestry. It would be unrealistic to force every biblical character into a single closed genealogical system.
What this work reveals instead is not a mechanical database of all biblical persons, but a large-scale image of salvation history. It shows how creation, covenant, Israel, Davidic kingship, Christ, the Apostles, and the mission to all nations may be seen as one continuous structure. In this sense, the genealogies of Scripture are not merely lists of names. They are a visual and theological architecture of memory, identity, promise, and redemption.
Available as a Printed Edition
A printed edition of this chart is available through the KBM Charts online shop. The physical version is designed for close reading, suitable for study rooms, classrooms, churches, libraries, and personal collections.
Note on Biblical Genealogy and Interpretation
This chart is created within a Catholic understanding of Scripture. The Catholic Church teaches that Sacred Scripture teaches “firmly, faithfully and without error” the truth which God wished to place in the sacred writings “for the sake of salvation” (Dei Verbum, 11). At the same time, Catholic interpretation also attends to literary form, historical context, and the human ways in which the biblical authors wrote.
For this reason, the genealogies of Scripture should not be treated simply as a modern archival database. They were written and compiled across many centuries, preserving different traditions, theological emphases, and narrative purposes. Some relationships are selective, compressed, symbolic, incomplete, or in tension with other passages.
This chart does not attempt to resolve every historical difficulty or display every possible genealogical variant. In some cases, I follow one biblical line; in others, I adopt a traditional Christian interpretation, such as reading Matthew’s genealogy as the line of Joseph and Luke’s genealogy as the line of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The work should therefore be understood as a theological, historical, and visual interpretation of salvation history, rather than a complete critical reconstruction of every biblical kinship relation.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the Fathers and Brothers of the Norbertine Order at Our Lady of Sorrows, Peckham, for their guidance, encouragement, and instruction in the Christian life.
Several of them also kindly took the time to look at this work in progress and offer suggestions and encouragement. Their comments helped me approach the project with greater care as a visual interpretation of Scripture.
This project is not presented on behalf of the parish or the Order, nor as an officially endorsed work. It remains my own design and interpretation.
Related: Books of the Bible Poster