An ancestor of Jesus in Luke's genealogy
Addi appears once in the NT (Luke 3:28) as an ancestor of Jesus in Luke's genealogy, in the line between Cosam and Melchi. The name is likely of Hebrew or Aramaic origin (possibly related to ʿadî, 'ornament, jewel'). Luke's genealogy traces Jesus' lineage backward through history to Adam, making the theological point that Jesus is the Son of Man — the representative of all humanity, not merely the Jewish nation.
Luke's genealogy (3:23–38) differs notably from Matthew's (1:1–17). Matthew traces forward from Abraham to Jesus, emphasizing the Davidic, Jewish dimension of Messiah's identity. Luke traces backward from Jesus to Adam, emphasizing the universal scope of redemption. Every named ancestor — including obscure figures like Addi — testifies that the incarnation was embedded in real human history, in real family lines. The Word became flesh (John 1:14) in a specific human body, descended from specific human beings. Salvation is not mythological — it happened in history, in a genealogy that can be traced.