Those who desire to read the Bible responsibly must understand that they are reading an ancient book and not one written according to the conventions of the 21st century AD.
A biblical genealogy is “a list of names indicating the ancestors or descendants of an individual or individuals, or simply a registration of the names of people concerned in some situation…” [New Bible Dictionary, 1962, 456, hereafter NBD].
The names in such a list serve as “public records that document history, establish identity and/or legitimate office…such lists may ascend from the individual, using the formula ‘x the son of y, the son of z…or descend from a common ancestor, using the pattern ‘x was the father of y, y the father of z.” [Archaeological Study Bible, 2005, 1559, hereafter ASB].
It should be known too that genealogies of either kind were not intended to be comprehensive but selective (names could be omitted) and may reflect a biological family tree