If no one minds me putting in my two cents on this, the one interpretation
of the Jesus genealogies that I always liked was that Matthew was tracing
the lineage of Jesus back first to king David and then finally to Abraham
to show that Jesus was the Messiah as predicted in the OT. This is in
keeping with the theme of Matthew as a message written primarily for the
Jewish people. Luke, on the other hand, traced the lineage of Jesus back
to Adam to link him with all mankind. This is in keeping with the theme of
Luke as a message written for the Gentiles.
Kevin L. O'Brien
"Good God, consider yourselves fortunate that you have John Adams to abuse,
for no sane man would tolerate it!" William Daniels, _1776_