Jesus' Genealogy

Most Christians are not learned in Jewish law, and are thus unaware of the triune (pardon the expression) nature of the genealogical problem associated with claiming Jesus as the Messiah. However, since the Christian claim is that Jesus is the JEWISH Messiah, then we must put the case under JEWISH scrutiny, and see if it fits under JEWISH law. The following is an examination of the genealogy of the man whom Christians call Lord and Savior.

Messiah is an anglicized version of the Hebrew word "Moshiach," which means "anointed." We call the future king the Messiah because all kings are anointed.

One of the simplest requirements for being the Messiah is the lineage. In the Jewish scriptures we see prophecies of a king from David's line sitting on the throne of Israel once more:

Jeremiah 30:7 Alas! for that day [is] great, so that none [is] like it: it [is] even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. [8] For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, [that] I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: [9] But they shall serve the LORD their G-d, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. (KJV)

David had been given an oath from the Almighty that the throne of Israel would always belong to his line, which we find in the Jewish Bible repeatedly:

Jeremiah 33:17 For thus said HASHEM: There shall not be cut off from David a man who sits on the throne of the House of Israel. [18] And for the Kohanim, the Levites, there will never be cut off a man from before Me who offers elevation-offerings and burns meal-offerings and performs feast-offerings all the days. [19] The word of HASHEM came to Jeremiah, saying: [20] Thus said HASHEM: If you could annul My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night would not come in their proper times, [21] so too could My covenant be annulled with David, My servant, so that he would not have a descendant reigning on his throne, or [My covenant] with the Levites and the Kohanim, My attendants. (Artscroll)

Psalms 89:34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. [35] Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. [36] His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. [37] It shall be established for ever as the moon, and [as] a faithful witness in heaven. Selah. (KJV)

So, from here we see that G-d took an oath that the throne would always belong to David and his descendants. However, the oath was supplemented by another pledge:

1 Chronicles 22:9 Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. [10] He shall build a house for my name; and he shall be My son, and I [will be] his Father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever. (KJV)

So we see, any man who would sit on the throne must not only be a descendant of King David, but specifically a descendant of David’s son, Solomon. This requirement was made even more stringent in the days prior to the Babylonian exile. Jeconiah, King of Judah, was a wicked king, and his actions pushed G-d too far. G-d punished Jeconiah, also known as Jehoiachin or Coniah:

Jeremiah 22:24 [As] I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence; [25] And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand [of them] whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. [26] And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. [27] But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return. [28] [Is] this man Coniah a despised broken idol? [is he] a vessel wherein [is] no pleasure? Wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? [29] O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. [30] Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man [that] shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah. (KJV)

This devastating curse effectively removes all descendants of Jeconiah from the royal line. So from the verses listed above we see that anyone who would sit as king must be descended from King Solomon but not descended from King Jeconiah. We see that this curse is binding, because after Jeconiah was deposed, instead of the throne being handed to his son, it passed to Zedekiah, his uncle. No descendant of Jeconiah ever held the throne, or ever can hold the throne. His grandson, Zerubbabel, held power granted by G-d, but was never king.

The New Testament makes the messianic claim for Jesus, and as such, the New Testament gives a detailed genealogy in the first chapter of the very first book, the Gospel of Matthew:

Matthew 1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. [2] Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; [3] And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; [4] And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; [5] And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; [6] And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her [that had been the wife] of Urias; [7] And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa; [8] And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; [9] And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; [10] And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias; [11] And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon: (KJV)

Matthew defeated his own purpose by including Jeconiah (spelled Jechonias by the KJV) in his listing. Further complicating this matter is the virgin birth, which is claimed by Matthew 1:18-23. Because the virgin birth is substantiated by a misused excerpt of Isaiah (see related essay) there is no reason to believe that it was actually prophesied, and even less to believe it to be true. Furthermore, it defeats the claim that Jesus is the Messiah. In Jewish law, genealogy is traced specifically through the father, not the mother.

Numbers 1:2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of [their] names, every male by their polls; (KJV)

Numbers 1:18 And they assembled all the congregation together on the first [day] of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls. (KJV)

With genealogies in the Bible, we see person A, son of person B, son of person C, etc. This is because Jewish descent is traced through our fathers. If a Levitical priest married a woman from the tribe of Judah, their children would be of the tribe of Levi.

Not having a human father prevents anyone from claiming the throne.

Different Christians have shown a great deal of savvy in trying to deflect attention away from the two gaping problems listed above. None of their solutions, however, hold water. Here are some samples:

1) The virgin birth prevents Joseph from passing on his cursed lineage to Jesus, thereby allowing Jesus to sit on the throne. This is the answer proposed by apologists like Josh McDowell. Because the virgin birth undermines the notion of Jesus being the Messiah, one is forced to consider this as if Joseph passed on the genealogy through rights of adoption, even though such rights do not exist.

2) The claim is made that the curse was not to be taken literally. The beginning of Jeremiah 22:30 reads "Write ye this man childless, a man [that] shall not prosper in his days..." From this they point to the fact that Jeconiah did know prosperity, and that he did indeed have children, so that means G-d didn’t mean the curse to be as devastating as it actually is. This is pointing away from the end of verse 30. "For no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah." This portion of the verse makes it clear what was meant. Jeconiah did indeed have children, but those children would be forbidden from sitting on the throne. "Write ye this man childless" is simply a metaphor here.

3) The claim is made that the curse was annulled by G-d. Christians refer to the following passage:

Haggai 2:23 In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts. (KJV)

G-d used the same term with Zerubbabel, a descendant of Jeconiah, that He used with Jeconiah, a "signet ring." Christians conclude from this that the curse was annulled. However, a closer examination will reveal that this is certainly not the case. The curse begins with an oath. "As I live, saith the LORD." How does the Lord live? He lives eternally. G-d did indeed show favor to Zerubbabel, and might even have instated Zerubbabel as king, if not for the curse the Almighty placed on Jeconiah. The Almighty took oaths. Are we to believe that the Almighty would revoke His oaths? The problem with this is twofold.

a. If the virgin birth is true (which is less likely than I can adequately describe, given that a mistranslated prophecy was taken out of context to "prove" it) that would mean that G-d took the throne away from David’s house, which would mean G-d violated an oath.

b. The curse of Jeconiah taints Joseph’s line, so that if you theorize adoption (which is without scriptural backing or precedent) you trace Joseph back to Jeconiah, cursed by G-d under another of G-d’s oaths.

4) Another Christian proposed a solution to this problem along the lines of "Don’t you think G-d would have it in His heart to show mercy to Jeconiah’s line?" My answer is two-fold: a) NO, it was a curse, and we see that it was eternal by the fact that none of Jeconiah’s descendants sat on the throne. b) If you theorize that G-d showed mercy provide your evidence within the text. The needs of Christian theology predicate this solution, rather than the facts.

5) Christians believe they have found the answer to this problem with the following: In chapter three of the Gospel of Luke, we see a genealogy of Jesus which lacks Jeconiah in the listing. Strangely enough, this genealogy is attributed to Joseph as well. Apologists have asserted that this is the genealogy of Mary. They claim that it is through Mary’s line that Jesus is linked to David, and thus the virgin birth problem and the Jeconiah problem are solved, right?

Wrong. Let us explain why this is not a viable solution:

1) The genealogy in Luke’s Gospel specifically says Joseph, not Mary.

2) The genealogy of Mary is completely irrelevant, as lineage is through the father, not the mother.

3) Luke made a critical gaff in his genealogical listing. The listing doesn’t include King Solomon:

Luke 3:31 Which was [the son] of Melea, which was [the son] of Menan, which was [the son] of Mattatha, which was [the son] of Nathan, which was [the son] of David, (KJV)

Luke’s listing proclaims Jesus the descendant of Nathan, not Solomon, making Luke’s genealogy a disqualifying factor as well. (See 1 Chronicles 22 excerpt above) BOTH genealogies we find in the New Testament Jesus from being the Messiah.

1 Timothy 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: [so do]. (KJV)

Why is this verse here, if not to get people to point away from the fairly obvious problems the gospels contain?

1) If the virgin birth is true (which is highly unlikely since it goes against the grain of supporting Jesus’ messianic claim) then Jesus cannot be the Messiah.

2) If you trace Jesus' line through Joseph (by which you claim Jesus inherits the throne by adoption) in Matthew's genealogy, then you run into the curse of Jeconiah, and Jesus cannot be the Messiah.

3) If you trace Jesus’ line through Luke's genealogy (regardless of whether you attribute it to Joseph or Mary) Jesus cannot be the Messiah because it doesn't include King Solomon; it includes his brother, Nathan, eliminating any legitimate claim to the throne.