Shutterstock
Many people are confused about how Jesus could be connected to the line of David, which links to the genealogy of His father Joseph, who is not His biological father because He was immaculately conceived? How can this be?
“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.”
– Luke 2:4-5
According to the Bible, Jesus is from the line of David. In the New Testament, in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the genealogy of Jesus is given, which leads from His father Joseph to King David.
However, a fact is confusing and doesn’t appear to compute. While Joseph is the husband of Jesus’ mother, Mary, he is not technically Jesus’ biological father. Mary was impregnated by immaculate conception, not by Joseph. (Let’s set aside the whole issue of immaculate conception for another article and focus on genealogy).
So, if Jesus is not Joseph’s biological son, without an actual blood connection, how can Christ be a descendent of the line of David?
Biblical scholar and ancient languages expert Dr. Michael Heiser says in a video it is enough that they were connected through marriage because with the leadership in their time, the way they viewed things like adoption and inheritance made Jesus Joseph’s son. It was accepted. A biological connection wasn’t an essential part of their view. Instead, legal descendents were of more importance. Heiser says this would have been embraced and accepted without question in ancient times, whereas we focus more on blood relations in modern times.
Heiser says there’s also a potential linkage through Mary.
“If it can be established that Mary is a blood relative of anyone, not just the immediate ancestry of Joseph,” Heiser says, “anyone in a lineage that includes Joseph, and since Joseph’s line does go back to David – there you have your Davidic connection.”
Heiser says many scholars have looked at this angle and seriously tackled the problem, with at least one scholar who has made a case for such a connection.
According to the worldview of biblical times, Jesus meets the standard for being a relative of Joseph and, thus, this legally connects him to the line of David. Modern thinking and biology do not play a factor and do not negate his lineage.
