Many scholars are of opinion that she was the daughter of the Heli mentioned in Luke 3:23. As the Jews reckoned their genealogy by the male side only, it was customary to set a man's son-in-law down as his son. This would account for Joseph being described by one evangelist as the son of Jacob and by the other as the son of Heli. Apart from that theory there are no data for ascertaining the parentage of Mary.
