Family Tree: Adam to Yeshua
The line of descent from Adam to Yeshua as recorded in scripture: Genesis 5 and 11, Ruth 4, 1 Chronicles 1–3, and the two Gospel genealogies of Matthew 1 and Luke 3. Every name links to its verse in the Scripture Library. Tap a name for notes; tick “Show wives & siblings” for the wider family.
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Maryam’s lineage: the sources
Scripture calls Elizabeth Maryam’s “kinswoman” (Luke 1:36). It says the child would receive “the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32), and that the Son “was born in the flesh, of seed of the house of David” (Romans 1:3). The traditional view that Luke 3 traces Maryam’s own line rests on these witnesses:
- Luke 3:23. Jesus was “accounted the son of Joseph, the son of Heli” (Murdock). On this reading Joseph is Heli’s son-in-law, and the line is Maryam’s.
- Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians 18 (about AD 110; trans. Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 1, 1885, New Advent): “For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost.” Chapter 20 also says Jesus Christ “was of the seed of David according to the flesh”.
- Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho (about AD 155; trans. Roberts and Donaldson, New Advent). Chapter 43: “Him who was born of a virgin, of the family of Abraham and tribe of Judah, and of David”. Chapter 100: “His birth by the Virgin, who was, as I said, of the family of David and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham … from whom Mary derives her descent.”
- Protoevangelium of James (2nd century): names Maryam’s parents as Joachim and Anna. In chapter 10 the priests call for virgins “of the tribe of David”, and Mary is among them. Some writers identify Joachim with Luke’s Heli.
- Jerusalem Talmud, Chagigah 2:2 (77d; Sefaria). In a story about a pious man’s dream of the fates of the dead: “He also saw Miriam, Onion-leaf’s daughter” (trans. H. W. Guggenheimer, CC-BY). The Aramaic is וַחֲמָא לְמִרְיָם בְּרַת עֲלֵי בְצָלִים, “and he saw Miriam the daughter of ‘Ali/‘Eli Betzalim”. Some Christian writers have read this as “Mary the daughter of Heli”. Many scholars dispute the link: ‘alei betzalim means “onion leaves”, and the passage does not mention Jesus.
- Annius of Viterbo (1498) argued that Luke gives Mary’s genealogy. The view spread in the Reformation era and was taken up by many later commentators, especially Protestant ones. Others, following Julius Africanus (about AD 220), explain the two lines by levirate marriage within Joseph’s family.
Spiritual lineage — a teaching of the Congregation, not a genealogical record.
Spiritual succession: the Return of Christ. As taught on this site, on 28 January 2011 Christ descended over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, “from East to West like lightning”, and the Spirit joined with the Son of Man in the western hemisphere (Matthew 24:27-28).
A new name revealed: RayEl, formally Ra-El (Revelation 3:12; Revelation 19:12-13).
The Congregation teaches that Christ, known as Yeshua of Nazareth, has revealed himself under a new name, RayEl (a shortening of RAYmond ELwood), or formally Ra-El (the surname LEAR reversed, also read in the name IsRaEl and meaning “Word of God”). The site describes him as “the branch of David” (compare Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5). See the home page.
Birth date. Lord RayEl was born on the evening of 9 June 1968. In the Hebrew calendar the day begins at sunset, so an evening birth falls on the following Hebrew day: the day of 10 June 1968, which is 14 Sivan 5728 (י״ד בסיון תשכ״ח; checked with the Hebcal converter). The Hebrew year 5728 ran from Rosh Hashanah on 5 October 1967 to 22 September 1968, so in the Gregorian calendar it is written “1967/68”. This is why the Order’s Jubilee timeline reads: “1967/68 -- Six Day War of Israel, Birth of The Messiah – Lord Ra-El (RayEl)”, and fifty years later “2017/18 -- Lord RayEl’s Jubilee Year, Completion of Rabbi Judah Ben Samuels prophecy of the 10 Jubilees.”
This is a lineage of identity and faith. It is not a line of physical descent, and no generations are claimed between Yeshua and Lord RayEl.
Mary Magdalene: what the sources say
The New Testament (Murdock’s translation from the Peshitta, in this library):
- Luke 8:2-3: “and those women who were healed of infirmities and of unclean spirits, Mary called Magdalena, out of whom went seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chusa, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered to them of their property.”
- Mark 16:9: “he appeared first to Mary Magdalena, from whom he had cast out seven demons.”
- John 20:16-18: “Jesus said to her: Mary! And she turned, and said to him in Hebrew: Rabbuni; which is interpreted Teacher. Jesus said to her: Touch me not; for not yet have I ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren… Then came Mary Magdalena, and told the disciples that she had seen our Lord.”
Gospel of Philip (Nag Hammadi Codex II,3; Coptic, copy of about the 4th century, of a probably 3rd-century Greek work; page numbers of the codex; trans. Wesley W. Isenberg, © E. J. Brill, short excerpts; Gnostic Society Library):
- Page 59: “There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion. His sister and his mother and his companion were each a Mary.” (The Coptic uses the Greek loanword koinōnos for “companion”.)
- Pages 63-64: “And the companion of the […] Mary Magdalene. […] loved her more than [all] the disciples [and used to] kiss her [often] on her […]. The rest of [the disciples …]. They said to him, ‘Why do you love her more than all of us?’ The Saviour answered and said to them, ‘Why do I not love you like her?’” Square brackets are editors’ restorations, and […] marks words lost from the papyrus. The word after “on her” is lost. The edited text on gnosis.org fills it as “mouth”, which is a restoration.
Gospel of Mary (Berlin Codex 8502; Coptic copy of the late 4th or 5th century; Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus; the work dates to the 2nd century; short excerpts from the translation in the Gnostic Society Library, which numbers chapters and verses):
- Chapter 5:5-6 (codex page 10): “Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman. Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.”
- Chapter 9:8-9 (codex page 18): Levi answers Peter: “But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well. That is why He loved her more than us.”