Bible Study Why Mary was chosen to birth the Christ child

[for_his_glory]

Luke 1:26-38 Gabriel announces to Mary that of Christ's birth through her as she found favor in God. This all came about before her and Joseph were married so Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus.

Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

Notice in this verse that only Mary is mentioned as normally people would say the son of Joseph and Mary. Jesus had four half brothers, James, Joses, Juda and Simon and some sisters, but it's not known how many sisters he had or what their names were. The reason they were all half brothers and sisters is because Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus.

Mary's descent comes through David's son Nathan, Luke 3:31. To fulfill God's promise to establish David's throne forever, God honored Nathan by making him the ancestor of the promised King (Messiah) who would sit on David's throne throughout eternity, Luke 1:31-33. Mary having no brothers to inherit the throne the inheritance would come to her first son being Jesus.

This is why God found favor only in Mary as still being a virgin before she married. Joseph descent from David was broken in being heir to the throne of David as one of his ancestors named Jeconiah (Coniah) was so evil God cursed him and his descendants from ever sitting on the throne of David, Matthew 1:11, 12; Jeremiah 22:24-30; 1 Chronicles 3:17. This doesn't mean that Joseph was evil, but means none of his children could ever sit on the throne of David.

Nowhere in scripture does it mention that the half brothers of Jesus were ever called by Him to be a part of the twelve disciples. John 7:2-4 says that His half brothers did not believe in Him as they rejected His public ministry and criticized Him refusing to follow Him. Jesus said, a prophet is not without honor, except in his own hometown and among his relatives and in his own household. It wasn't until Jesus ascension that his half brothers were found in the upper room with the 12 disciples and his mother Mary, Acts 1:14.

 

[Beetow]

Mary's descent comes through David's son Nathan, etc, etc.

Although it was possible for Jesus to inherit David's blood thru Nathan; it wasn't
possible to obtain David's throne that way because God hand-picked Solomon for
that particular purpose. (1Chron 22:7-10)

Long story short: Joseph is directly related to both Solomon and David (Matt 1:6
16, Luke 2:4) so it was necessary for him to adopt Mary's boy in order to place the
lad in Solomon's genealogy and thus validate him as a proper heir to the throne.

FAQ: How do you know Joseph adopted Jesus?

REPLY: Joseph was instructed to give Mary's baby the name Jesus. (Matt 1:21)

Joseph complied. (Matt 1:25)

In ancient times when a man stood with a woman to name her child, he officially
declared it his (cf. Luke 1:13 & Luke 1:59-63). So from then on the neighbors, and
Jesus' mom, identified Joseph as Jesus' dad. (Luke 2:27-28, Luke 2:41, Luke 2:48,
& Luke 4:22)

FAQ: Since when did the Jews begin placing men in positions of power by adoption?

REPLY: Jacob was the first. He took possession of Joseph's two sons Manasseh &
Ephraim and elevated them to tribal heads equal in position to his eldest sons
Reuben and Simeon. (Gen 48:5-6)
_

 

[Beetow]

Joseph descent from David was broken in being heir to the throne of David as one of his
ancestors named Jeconiah (Coniah) was so evil God cursed him and his descendants from ever
sitting on the throne of David

● Jer 22:29-30 . . O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! Thus said the Lord:
"Record this man as without succession, one who shall never be found acceptable; for
no man of his offspring shall be accepted to sit on the throne of David and to rule again
in Judah."

The bad king's name was Jeconiah (a.k.a. Jehoiakim and/or Coniah) and Mary's fiancé
Joseph was one of his descendants. (Matt 1:11)

It's commonly believed that the curse extended to Joseph, so that had Jesus been
Joseph's paternal descendant, it would've prevented Mary's son from ascending David's
throne.

However; adopted kids inherit from their dads the same as his paternal children; so had
the curse extended to Joseph, it would have extended to Jesus too because the throne
and the curse were a package deal.

Fortunately; the wording "to rule again in Judah" indicates that the curse on Jeconiah's
royal progeny was limited to the era of the divided kingdom. That condition came to an
end when Nebuchadnezzar crushed the whole country and led first Samaria, and then
later Judah, off to Babylonian slavery.

When Messiah reigns, the country of Israel will be unified. His jurisdiction won't be
limited to Judah within a divided kingdom, but will dominate all the land of Israel. So the
curse doesn't apply to him.

● Ezek 37:21-22 . .You shall declare to them: Thus said the Lord God: I am going to
take the Israelite people from among the nations they have gone to, and gather them
from every quarter, and bring them to their own land. I will make them a single nation in
the land, on the hills of Israel, and one king shall be king of them all. Never again shall
they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
It's been suggested that the genealogies listed in Matthew and Luke are both
Joseph's. However, in Matthew's genealogy, Joseph descends from Solomon,
whereas Luke has him descending from Solomon's brother Nathan.

Solomon and Nathan weren't distant kin. According to 1Chron 3:5 they were
siblings; both born of David & Bathsheba (a.k.a. Bathshua).

Along with that: there's a serious question about the listings of Shieltiel and
Zerubbabel. In Matthew's genealogy the two men are linked to David via Solomon.
In Luke's genealogy, they're linked to David via Solomon's brother Nathan.

Their respective descendants are different too. Zerubbabel's son is listed as Abihud
in Matthew's genealogy, whereas his son is listed as Rhesa in Luke's.

It's been suggested that Shealtiel and Zerubbabel are common names so we
shouldn't be surprised to find them listed in both genealogies. However, they are
listed as father and son in both genealogies, which we cannot expect reasonable
people to accept as mere coincidence.

Unfortunately, to date there exists no consensus among the experts how best to
resolve the confusion caused by the presence of Shieltiel and Zerubbabel in both
genealogies. Were we scientific in our thinking; we'd have to consider the data
compromised. So the situation with Jesus' genealogies is such that I think it best to
go about establishing his family history from a different angle.

NOTE: An inconvenient difficulty associated with the Greek manuscripts is their lack
of punctuation, for example comma, apostrophe, exclamation mark, period, colon,
semi colon, slash, parenthesis, bracket, quotation mark, and hyphen, etc.

What this means is: any, and all, punctuation you see in English translations was
selected and placed in their locations arbitrarily. In other words; translators don't
really know for sure if and/or where punctuation is supposed to go so they take an
educated guess which may, in some instances, be subjective instead of objective.
Caveat Lector.
_

 

[for_his_glory]

● Jer 22:29-30 . . O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! Thus said the Lord:
"Record this man as without succession, one who shall never be found acceptable; for
no man of his offspring shall be accepted to sit on the throne of David and to rule again
in Judah."

The bad king's name was Jeconiah (a.k.a. Jehoiakim and/or Coniah) and Mary's fiancé
Joseph was one of his descendants. (Matt 1:11)

It's commonly believed that the curse extended to Joseph, so that had Jesus been
Joseph's paternal descendant, it would've prevented Mary's son from ascending David's
throne.

However; adopted kids inherit from their dads the same as his paternal children; so had
the curse extended to Joseph, it would have extended to Jesus too because the throne
and the curse were a package deal.

Fortunately; the wording "to rule again in Judah" indicates that the curse on Jeconiah's
royal progeny was limited to the era of the divided kingdom. That condition came to an
end when Nebuchadnezzar crushed the whole country and led first Samaria, and then
later Judah, off to Babylonian slavery.

When Messiah reigns, the country of Israel will be unified. His jurisdiction won't be
limited to Judah within a divided kingdom, but will dominate all the land of Israel. So the
curse doesn't apply to him.

● Ezek 37:21-22 . .You shall declare to them: Thus said the Lord God: I am going to
take the Israelite people from among the nations they have gone to, and gather them
from every quarter, and bring them to their own land. I will make them a single nation in
the land, on the hills of Israel, and one king shall be king of them all. Never again shall
they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.
_

Thank you for the history as this explains even further why Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus through that of the line of Nathan.

 

[for_his_glory]

.
It's been suggested that the genealogies listed in Matthew and Luke are both
Joseph's. However, in Matthew's genealogy, Joseph descends from Solomon,
whereas Luke has him descending from Solomon's brother Nathan.

Solomon and Nathan weren't distant kin. According to 1Chron 3:5 they were
siblings; both born of David & Bathsheba (a.k.a. Bathshua).

Along with that: there's a serious question about the listings of Shieltiel and
Zerubbabel. In Matthew's genealogy the two men are linked to David via Solomon.
In Luke's genealogy, they're linked to David via Solomon's brother Nathan.

Their respective descendants are different too. Zerubbabel's son is listed as Abihud
in Matthew's genealogy, whereas his son is listed as Rhesa in Luke's.

It's been suggested that Shealtiel and Zerubbabel are common names so we
shouldn't be surprised to find them listed in both genealogies. However, they are
listed as father and son in both genealogies, which we cannot expect reasonable
people to accept as mere coincidence.

Unfortunately, to date there exists no consensus among the experts how best to
resolve the confusion caused by the presence of Shieltiel and Zerubbabel in both
genealogies. Were we scientific in our thinking; we'd have to consider the data
compromised. So the situation with Jesus' genealogies is such that I think it best to
go about establishing his family history from a different angle.

NOTE: An inconvenient difficulty associated with the Greek manuscripts is their lack
of punctuation, for example comma, apostrophe, exclamation mark, period, colon,
semi colon, slash, parenthesis, bracket, quotation mark, and hyphen, etc.

What this means is: any, and all, punctuation you see in English translations was
selected and placed in their locations arbitrarily. In other words; translators don't
really know for sure if and/or where punctuation is supposed to go so they take an
educated guess which may, in some instances, be subjective instead of objective.
Caveat Lector.
_

I pretty much ignore the punctuation and try to read scripture in the way they were written.

Mat 1:2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;

Mat 1:15 And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob;
Mat 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

In these verses we have to different Jacobs that both had sons called Joseph. The Jacob that begat Joseph, (husband of Mary) was not the son of Isaac, but the son of Matthan, but yet of the lineage of Abraham.

Luke 3:23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,
Luke 3:24 Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph,

Luke 3:23 says as was supposed the son of Joseph the son of Heli, but in Matthew 1:16 Joseph was the son of Jacob the grandson of Matthan.

Matthews account may be taken to be the lineage of Joseph while Luke's is the lineage of Mary, but both being descendants of David through his two sons Solomon and Nathan. Joseph from the cursed line of Solomon, doesn't mean Joseph was cursed or ungodly, but any children he would have had would never be heir to the throne of David. Mary came from the Godly line of Nathan and her son would take over the throne of David.

Matthew starts with Abraham moving forward with twenty seven generations while Luke takes it back starting with Jesus and ending with Adam which culminates forty two generations. The confusion is with who Heli being the father of Joseph or his father-in-law being the father of Mary. It is written in Catholic tradition that Joachim and Anne were Mary's parents. This is found in the Protoevangelium of James being a part of the apocryphal followed by Catholics, Orthodox and Anglican tradition.

This can be a very confusing study since we only have bits and pieces we try to put together since scripture does not give us the full story, but yet we can research the names given.