Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,
But what is the point of the genealogy?  Surely some attention should be given to that!  Once, when this writer was a minister of a great congregation in New York City, a group of students from one of the universities visited him, asking, "But don't you really believe that the whole Jesus story is a myth?"  It happened, when this occurred, that this writer had only recently memorized all seventy-seven names in this list, and he quoted it rapidly, and in full, to the astonished group of students; and then he said: "Now, will any of you brilliant young people give the genealogy of Santa Claus, or of Paul Bunyan, or of Beowulf?"  The point was dramatically made.  Jesus Christ was no myth!  His genealogy is the only one ever constructed that reaches all the way back to God himself.  Since then, this preacher has quoted the genealogy before assemblies of college students and congregations throughout America, because the central message is devastating to any alleged mythological explanation of Jesus of Nazareth.