Jesus was the natural child of Mary. Joseph was, for all intents and purposes, a step-father. How is Jesus a descendant of David?
Jesus was the natural child of Mary. Joseph was, for all intents and purposes, a step-father. How is Jesus a descendant of David?
Through Mary's genealogy.
But how could Mary transmit David's royal inheritance—the right to the throne—to her Son, since all inheritances had to pass through the male line?
Jesus automatically comes under the Royal line of David because Joseph was his adopted father and had legitimate rights to the kingly promises.
Biblical adoption was as powerful as having earthly descendants and considered legal so Jesus automatically entered that kingly line as Joseph adopted him.
Adoption was recognised as law in many ancient cultures
Mary was also from David but not specifically the royal line as she came from Nathan and the royal line has to be from Solomon which Joseph descended from.
Remember we are adopted by the Father and become literal children of God.
Biblical adoption is powerful
Nikos (08-25-2018)
Jesus took a step back by being adopted by Joseph, even if it was into the royal lineage of David. But he didn't lose his God given divine nature. Our adoption does make us parttakers in our new Father's divine nature and in the end our nature according to the flesh will be completely gone.
Nikos (08-25-2018)
According to the many links on Google, being a Jew is passed through the maternal lineage.
tschau (08-26-2018)
Many Jews do follow that reasoning but its quite clear in the OT it comes from the paternal line. Israel descended from the 12 sons of Jacob.
Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh had a Egyptian mother but God claimed both sons as Hebrews
If modern Jews want to work through a Jewish mother then its none of my business but if we want to be biblically accurate it is quite clear it was from the father.
Over the centuries many children were conceived by Jewish mothers and gentile fathers and vice versa and all were considered Jews
I like to read what Jewish scholars have to say about different aspects of the OT and we can learn much from their knowledge, customs and experiences.
But there are times when you can clearly see contradictions to the OT and we have to recognise that some teachings are not biblical but were developed later on
Paul who was 100% Jew warned about aspects of Jewish culture that were not scripturally true and called them fables