The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah
- Thread starter Chomsky
- Start date
Chief
Chief of Sinners.
Interesting question.
I think the Gospel writers are not making a mistake; they are carefully constructing a case that Jesus of Nazareth is both the legal Messiah of Israel and the divine Son of God.
In Jewish law, lineage and inheritance were determined through the father's line. When Joseph accepted and named Jesus as his son, he legally adopted him into the Davidic lineage, giving Jesus the necessary standing to be recognized as "Son of David." This functioned like a royal adoption where a king formally adopting an heir confers legitimate succession rights regardless of blood relation.
The Messiah was prophesied to descend from King David (2 Samuel 7:12-16, Isaiah 11:1). Matthew's genealogy traces this legal right through Joseph's line to Solomon, establishing Jesus as the rightful heir to David's throne for his Jewish audience.
Luke 3:23 - "Jesus... being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli". This Heli (the father of Mary) also happens to be a descendant of David through Nathan rather than Solomon, thereby avoiding the curse pronounced on Jeconiah's royal line (Jeremiah 22:30).
I think the Gospel writers are not making a mistake; they are carefully constructing a case that Jesus of Nazareth is both the legal Messiah of Israel and the divine Son of God.
In Jewish law, lineage and inheritance were determined through the father's line. When Joseph accepted and named Jesus as his son, he legally adopted him into the Davidic lineage, giving Jesus the necessary standing to be recognized as "Son of David." This functioned like a royal adoption where a king formally adopting an heir confers legitimate succession rights regardless of blood relation.
The Messiah was prophesied to descend from King David (2 Samuel 7:12-16, Isaiah 11:1). Matthew's genealogy traces this legal right through Joseph's line to Solomon, establishing Jesus as the rightful heir to David's throne for his Jewish audience.
Luke 3:23 - "Jesus... being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli". This Heli (the father of Mary) also happens to be a descendant of David through Nathan rather than Solomon, thereby avoiding the curse pronounced on Jeconiah's royal line (Jeremiah 22:30).
The margin of my Bible refers to Joseph as the "son-in-law of" Heli. I think it is significant that this genealogy goes all the way back to Adam. Which would demonstrate the fact that Jesus was in his humanity a son of Adam and therefore had inherited a fallen nature just as we.
The first chapter of Romans declares that he was "of the seed of David according to the flesh". Buy this one would obviously conclude that all the eggs in Marys ovaries carried the genetic material that qualified the offspring of any of those eggs to be genetically related to David.
Concerning his nature some protestants use the term "fully human and fully divine". Ellen White describes his nature as "humanity and divinity combined or blended”. In some respects this is a distinction without a difference, but not completely. The protestant view would look something like your two hands folded together with fingers interlocked as one unit. Ellen Whites view would be more like mixing red paint with blue paint creating purple paint. While the red and blue paint appear to be purple, they are in fact distinctly different from one another, yet they are now blended and inseparable for they have become one in the formation of purple (Royalty).
Below is a quote from Ellen that help us understand the incarnation, at least as far as we are able to grasp.
"Was the human nature of the Son of Mary changed into the divine nature of the Son of God? No, the two natures were mysteriously blended in one person—the Man Christ Jesus. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When Christ was crucified, it was His human nature that died. Deity did not sink and die; that would have been impossible. UL 260
Interesting thought; God’s Son did not die on the cross, “He was the Lamb slain from the foundation”. That death was a relinquishment of self-will or self-determination. He became totally dependent upon the will and power from outside of Himself, rendered to Him by the Father.
Clearly she is talking about two distinct individuals with distinct natures. The son of Mary who is a descendent of David, Abraham and by extension, Adam. He was fully human, mortal and just as flesh and blood as you or I. The Son of God, is a divine Spirit, immortal, the creator of heaven and earth and not limited by or effected by time and space.
In Genesis three God promised to give our parents an enmity against Satan because they had lost all spiritual senses, as they had died that day. They were at enmity with their Creator. Ellen states that Satan gave them his nature. In the core of their being loved died and was replaced by fear and desires of the flesh. There was nothing left within them that could turn to God or respond to God. Therefore the Son laid down His life, His prerogatives as God, right then and there when it was needed the most, not 4000 years later.
She writes:
"He was the Redeemer before as after His incarnation. As soon as there was sin, there was a Savior. He has given light and life to all, and according to the measure of light given, each is to be judged. And He who has given the light, He who has followed the soul with tenderest entreaty, seeking to win it from sin to holiness, is in one its advocate and judge” "From the opening of the great controversy in heaven, Satan has maintained his cause through deception; and Christ has been working to unveil his schemes and to break his power. It is He who has encountered the deceiver, and who through all the ages has been seeking to wrest the captives from his grasp…” DA 210
This statement above is echoed in the first chapter of John: "In him was life; and the life was the light of men… That was the true light, which lighteth every man that comes into the world.” When the reality of this phrase “every man that cometh into the world” dawned on me, it sparked a total transformation in my understanding. I realized that the Son of God has been intimately present with humanity from the very beginning. His work was not confined to a mere 33 years in first century Judea; He has been with us through all ages.
True enmity towards Satan had to be a “divine hatred”; a hatred that loved the creature but hated the sin. This was supplied by the presence of the Son Who was given to our parents and every one of their offspring.
The first chapter of Romans declares that he was "of the seed of David according to the flesh". Buy this one would obviously conclude that all the eggs in Marys ovaries carried the genetic material that qualified the offspring of any of those eggs to be genetically related to David.
Concerning his nature some protestants use the term "fully human and fully divine". Ellen White describes his nature as "humanity and divinity combined or blended”. In some respects this is a distinction without a difference, but not completely. The protestant view would look something like your two hands folded together with fingers interlocked as one unit. Ellen Whites view would be more like mixing red paint with blue paint creating purple paint. While the red and blue paint appear to be purple, they are in fact distinctly different from one another, yet they are now blended and inseparable for they have become one in the formation of purple (Royalty).
Below is a quote from Ellen that help us understand the incarnation, at least as far as we are able to grasp.
"Was the human nature of the Son of Mary changed into the divine nature of the Son of God? No, the two natures were mysteriously blended in one person—the Man Christ Jesus. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When Christ was crucified, it was His human nature that died. Deity did not sink and die; that would have been impossible. UL 260
Interesting thought; God’s Son did not die on the cross, “He was the Lamb slain from the foundation”. That death was a relinquishment of self-will or self-determination. He became totally dependent upon the will and power from outside of Himself, rendered to Him by the Father.
Clearly she is talking about two distinct individuals with distinct natures. The son of Mary who is a descendent of David, Abraham and by extension, Adam. He was fully human, mortal and just as flesh and blood as you or I. The Son of God, is a divine Spirit, immortal, the creator of heaven and earth and not limited by or effected by time and space.
In Genesis three God promised to give our parents an enmity against Satan because they had lost all spiritual senses, as they had died that day. They were at enmity with their Creator. Ellen states that Satan gave them his nature. In the core of their being loved died and was replaced by fear and desires of the flesh. There was nothing left within them that could turn to God or respond to God. Therefore the Son laid down His life, His prerogatives as God, right then and there when it was needed the most, not 4000 years later.
She writes:
"He was the Redeemer before as after His incarnation. As soon as there was sin, there was a Savior. He has given light and life to all, and according to the measure of light given, each is to be judged. And He who has given the light, He who has followed the soul with tenderest entreaty, seeking to win it from sin to holiness, is in one its advocate and judge” "From the opening of the great controversy in heaven, Satan has maintained his cause through deception; and Christ has been working to unveil his schemes and to break his power. It is He who has encountered the deceiver, and who through all the ages has been seeking to wrest the captives from his grasp…” DA 210
This statement above is echoed in the first chapter of John: "In him was life; and the life was the light of men… That was the true light, which lighteth every man that comes into the world.” When the reality of this phrase “every man that cometh into the world” dawned on me, it sparked a total transformation in my understanding. I realized that the Son of God has been intimately present with humanity from the very beginning. His work was not confined to a mere 33 years in first century Judea; He has been with us through all ages.
True enmity towards Satan had to be a “divine hatred”; a hatred that loved the creature but hated the sin. This was supplied by the presence of the Son Who was given to our parents and every one of their offspring.