An ancestor is a member of our family tree who has come before us, someone from whom we are descended. There are many lists of ancestors in the Bible, mostly in the Old Testament, but there is one of special importance in Matthew 1:1-17, which shows the human ancestry of Jesus. It is important to Matthew that we realise that Jesus is the ‘son of David’ and the ‘son of Abraham’. He is showing us that Jesus is the one who fulfils all the promises of the Old Testament. Since we are also children of Abraham by faith (Romans 4:11-12), all the ancestors of Jesus are our spiritual ancestors too.
