UNDERSTANDING MARY & JOSEPH’S HERITAGE BY ANCESTRY.
MATTHEW 1 (see also Luke 3: 23-38)
Contrary to Rome’s tradition, the genealogy of Mary is given in Matthew 1:1-17. Although it is an ascending lineage from Abraham’s wife Sarah, only three of the Virgin Mary’s matriarchs are familiar to the student and a number are only implied: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachael, and Bathsheba. Thus at first reading, it would seem to be a patriarchal list, because it was written in a strongly patriarchal culture. The three familiar ancestors listed are Tamar, Rachab, and Ruth, as Mary’s matriarchal antecedents. Heli was the father of Mary, but Jacob the father of Joseph with many illustrious patriarchs well known the Bible student.
Luke the physician, the writer of the gospel, and the Acts of the Apostles, gave a patriarchal descending list of forbears of Joseph. He was the Lord’s stepfather because Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Joseph’s wife, Mary. While she was not sinless, as Rome claims, she had not been impregnated with man’s inherent accursed seed (via Adam’s fall) that Joseph would have given her.
Though Joseph’s genealogy is remarkable, (Luke 3:23-38) his ancestry the best of the patriarchs, princes, and kings; God’s curse was nonetheless present in his seed that generated Jesus’ brothers. Only the Holy Spirit of the Heavenly Father could plant a sinless seed within Mary’s womb that would be “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners”.
The reader must realize that both parents possessed the heritage within the tribe of Judah. Indeed, Jesus is called the Lion of Judah.
The promise made to King David and Solomon, (reiterated time again by the prophets) was that the coming Saviour and High Priest of elect believers, would come from the tribe of Judah to lead another priesthood in his new kingdom of heaven. He would be a descendant of David whose forefathers were shown to be from Judah, the son of Jacob (Israel), and grandson of Abraham ‘the father of all believers’. Remember that Abram met Melchizedek and blessed him with the grace of faith, among other gifts. (Genesis 14) A few verses later in Genesis 15 Abram is at last able to believe the impossible promises he had previously disbelieved and therewith was justified by faith and became the ‘father of all believers’.
Both Matthew’s and Luke’s list of lineal ancestry, are meant to confirm Jesus’ maternal and neo-paternal heritage as the Son of David, the Son of Man, and the Son of God. Yet paradoxically, Jesus Christ our Lord (whose name, before his incarnation, was The Word of God) had no beginning and has no end, just like Melchizedek. Thus the Lord Jesus is the Christ, forever the High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek.
References:
Genesis 14:18-20; Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7; 1 John 5:7; Revelation 19:13;
Detailed Study: Compare of Hebrews 7 in the following verses:
Hebrews 7:1-3; 7:12-15; 7:17; 7:21; & 7: 21-24.
Scriptures read and referenced are from the King James Version (Public Domain) which was the fifth and last reprint of the first English New Testament (Tyndale 1526). The Reformers published the first New Testaments from the Koine Greek (in Erasmus’New Testament 1516) and translated into European languages. The Greek manuscripts of the NT from Constantinople had only arrived in Europe some fifty years earlier after Islam laid siege to Constantinople.
Article by John David.
