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The Lord Jesus Christ is the Messiah, "the seed of David" (τὸ σπέρμα Δαβίδ), as the New Testament confirms (Rom. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:8 cp. John 7:42).
How is Jesus the Messiah, the seed of David, if Jesus is God, and God created man (Adam), and David is the seed of Adam?
The Greek word σπέρμα (sperma) and Hebrew word זרע (zera) refer to the progeny of a living, created being (a creature), in this case, a human. Being a living creature, a human consists of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39), among other things. On the other hand, God is spirit (John 4:24), that is, incorporeal and in-create. That which is born or begotten of flesh is flesh (John 3:6).
While God created Adam, Adam is not God's seed. On the other hand, David is the seed (or progeny) of Adam, and from David came Mary, and from Mary came Jesus. Hence, Jesus is of the seed of David through his mother Mary, who herself was descended from David. To be certain, not only men are described as having "seed" in scripture, as the prophecy relates how "her seed" (i.e., Eve's; Gen. 3:15) would crush the serpent's head. This came to fruition by the virgin birth when Mary bore Jesus.
Also, we should realize that every paternal ancestor of Mary may be reckoned as Jesus' father. Thus, Mary's father, who is Jesus' maternal grandfather, is reckoned as Jesus' father, and so on, all the way until Adam, who may also be reckoned as Jesus' father. The Jews had a saying, "The sons of sons (i.e., grandchildren) are as sons" (בני בנים כבנים).1 Thus, commencing with Luke 3:23, Heli is Jesus' father (although he is literally Mary's father), and proceeding to Luke 3:38, where Enos, Seth, and Adam are all Jesus' fathers (also, it is Jesus, not Adam, who is "the son of God" in Luke 3:38 cp. Luke 1:32, 1:35, 3:22).
Various Christian commentators concur with my assertion, including:
Which was the son of Eli; meaning, not that Joseph was the son of Eli; for he was the son of Jacob, according to Mt 1:16, but Jesus was the son of Eli; and which must be understood, and carried through the whole genealogy, as thus; Jesus the son of Matthat, Jesus the son of Levi, Jesus the son of Melchi, &c. till you come to Jesus the son of Adam, and Jesus the Son of God; though it is true indeed that Joseph was the son of Eli, having married his daughter; Mary was the daughter of Eli...
Joseph is not here called the son of Heli, but Jesus is so: for the word Jesus must be understood, and must be always added in the reader's mind to every race in this genealogy, after this manner: "Jesus (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, and so the son of Heli, and of Matthat, yea and, at length, the son of Adam, and the Son of God." For it was very little the business of the evangelist either to draw Joseph's pedigree from Adam, or, indeed, to shew that Adam was the son of God: which not only sounds something harshly, but in this place very enormously, I may almost add, blasphemously too. For when St. Luke, verse 22, had made a voice from heaven, declaring that Jesus was the Son of God, do we think the same evangelist would, in the same breath, pronounce Adam 'the son of God' too? So that this very thing teacheth us what the evangelist propounded to himself in the framing of this genealogy; which was to shew that this Jesus, who had newly received that great testimony from heaven, "This is my Son," was the very same that had been promised to Adam by the seed of the woman. And for this reason hath he drawn his pedigree on the mother's side, who was the daughter of Heli, and this too as high as Adam, to whom this Jesus was promised. In the close of the genealogy, he teacheth in what sense the former part of it should be taken; viz. that Jesus, not Joseph, should be called the son of Heli, and consequently, that the same Jesus, not Adam, should be called the Son of God. Indeed, in every link of this chain this still should be understood, "Jesus the son of Matthat, Jesus the son of Levi, Jesus the son of Melchi"; and so of the rest...
Of course, it is by the incarnation that the Word, who was God (John 1:1), and thus spirit in nature, became human, and thus flesh or corporal in nature (John 1:14). Because of the incarnation, Jesus, who is the Word of God who was with God the Father in the beginning, may also be the seed of David, through his mother Mary who bore him. The apostle Paul wrote,
who, originally existing (ὑπάρχων) in the form of God, did not consider being equal to God robbery, but rather, he emptied himself when he took the form of a servant, when he was made in the likeness of men, (Phil. 2:6-7)
The Greek text according to the Nestle-Aland 28th edition states,
καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν Ἰησοῦς ἀρχόμενος ὡσεὶ ἐτῶν τριάκοντα ὢν υἱός ὡς ἐνομίζετο Ἰωσὴφ τοῦ Ἠλὶ
which may be translated as,
And Jesus himself was thirty years-old when he began [to preach],2 being the son (as was suppposed of Joseph) of Heli,
In other words, Jesus was supposed (or reckoned) the son of Joseph, although he had no biological descent from Joseph, since Joseph was his adoptive father. On the other hand, Jesus was biologically descended from Heli, for Heli was Mary's father, and thus, Jesus' maternal grandfather. Likewise, Jesus was also descended from every ancestor of Mary all the way until Adam, but even more importantly, Jesus was also descended from God [the Father].
(Both John Gill and John Lightfoot had an exceptional grasp of biblical (Koine) Greek.)
Footnotes
1 Radak, Commentary on 1 Chr. 3:19; Babylonian Talmud, Seder Nashim, Tractate Yevamot, Chapter 6, Folio 62b
2 See Winer, George Benedikt. A Grammar of the Idiom of the New Testament. 7th ed. Andover: Draper, 1883. (349). Also, see Thayer, Joseph Henry. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Being Grimm Wilke’s Clavis Novi Testamenti. New York: American Book, 1889. (78, ἄρχω, 2. e.)
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