Jesus, from the tribe of Joseph?

[WJL]

I recently heard the following claim from a protestant:

“If Jesus was of the tribe of Judah then why the Bible say that King Herod made Rachel cry during the massacre of the innocents (Matthew 2:18)? Judah was born of Leah, not of Rachel! So Jesus, the prophesied Messiah, must have been of a tribe descended from Rachel, such as Joseph, Benjamin, Dan or Naphtali.”

How can this claim be answered?

Thanks.

 

[Michael929]

This is just the first thought that pops into my head, so no guarantee that it’s right But wasn’t Rachel buried near Bethlehem? (Just checked, and she was – Gen. 35:19) In that case, maybe the “children of Rachel” referred to in St. Matthew/Jeremiah would just be a poetic or figurative way of saying “children of Bethlehem”. Thoughts?

 

[NHInsider]

Well, I would say the language “Rachel weeping for her children” is poetic and not meant to be taken literally (as the author of Matthew is obviously NOT taking it literally since he is referring to the mothers of first-century Bethlehem.

Poetically, it’s not a stretch to suggest that Rachel’s children would include all the offspring of her husband.

(And they are weeping for the children who were slaughtered, which Jesus obviously was not-so this conclusion regarding Jesus’ ancestry is an even greater stretch).

But beyond (or maybe before) this, I would ask “What exactly are you trying to prove?”
Both Luke and Matthew’s genealogies go back to Judah.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

This is just the first thought that pops into my head, so no guarantee that it’s right But wasn’t Rachel buried near Bethlehem? (Just checked, and she was – Gen. 35:19) In that case, maybe the “children of Rachel” referred to in St. Matthew/Jeremiah would just be a poetic or figurative way of saying “children of Bethlehem”. Thoughts?

Sounds right.