St. Joseph - The King of Israel

[LilyM]

Well, what is the answer?
This is almost as disturbing as the news awhile back that someone had thought they discovered Jesus’ corpse/remains…

The answer is that a) Joseph was no way, nohow in line for the Kingship and b) that JESUS was nonetheless entirely eligible and indeed is King. Allow me to elaborate.

Jesus was both Son of God and descended from David. By whatever route. It’s not specified in prophecy that the Messiah has to be descended through the male line or anything, so even a descent through Mary would’ve satisfied this just as well. Of course He was also virginally born in Bethlehem and all the rest of it. So - Jesus was the Messiah. Firstly, merely by virtue of being the Messiah He was King of Israel, the two go hand-in-hand.

Secondly, as GOD, of course Jesus takes precedence over every other descendant of David who had a claim to the throne, including Joseph himself. Jesus simply wasn’t subject to the same restrictions as Joseph about claims having to be through the male line and so on - Jesus is GOD, such rules which bind human kings can’t possibly stand in the way of God incarnate’s claim to Kingship as they would Joseph’s!

Short answer - God can take shortcuts, God (Jesus) has prerogatives and always takes priority. Human claimants to thrones (including Joseph) don’t.

 

[annem]

Hi. Since no one else mentioned this, I thought I would: one interesting historical tidbit from Eusebius is that Domitian had apparently heard something about Jesus’ family being of the line of David. He had Jesus’ family members dragged to Rome. They were clearly little more than poor farmers. Apparently relieved that they posed no threat, Domitian released them.

So, apparently, there were still some members of Jesus’ family alive by the turn of the 1st century. James, of course, had been killed. But there may have been a few cousins or some others.

The other thing I find interesting about this tidbit is that, clearly, some members of the line of David were well known as being of the line of David.

Anybody else have any more information on this?

God bless, Annem

 

[That_one_guy]

The answer is that a) Joseph was no way, nohow in line for the Kingship and b) that JESUS was nonetheless entirely eligible and indeed is King. Allow me to elaborate.

Jesus was both Son of God and descended from David. By whatever route. It’s not specified in prophecy that the Messiah has to be descended through the male line or anything, so even a descent through Mary would’ve satisfied this just as well. Of course He was also virginally born in Bethlehem and all the rest of it. So - Jesus was the Messiah. Firstly, merely by virtue of being the Messiah He was King of Israel, the two go hand-in-hand.

Secondly, as GOD, of course Jesus takes precedence over every other descendant of David who had a claim to the throne, including Joseph himself. Jesus simply wasn’t subject to the same restrictions as Joseph about claims having to be through the male line and so on - Jesus is GOD, such rules which bind human kings can’t possibly stand in the way of God incarnate’s claim to Kingship as they would Joseph’s!

Short answer - God can take shortcuts, God (Jesus) has prerogatives and always takes priority. Human claimants to thrones (including Joseph) don’t.

So,Matt got it wrong?
That was the original query,…no?
I’m not gonna let this shake my faith(verb).

 

[Crumpy]

Hi Crumpy,

I have worked in genealogy, and I have some good news for you. You are most probably a direct descendant of Charlemagne and even more probably from Xerxes I. You have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-great-grand-parents, and this doubles every generation. These people have sons and daughters and they have sons and daughters and so son and so on. As we go back in time the population of the world diminishes and the number of our ancestors increases, so that at a certain point we are all related. So in Jesus’ time there were thousands of descendants of David, not only in Palestine but in many surrounding and even far-off countries.

Verbum

Thanks for your insights. Yes, we’re all related – logically – as you point out. Biologically, all the DNA research shows we’re all African Americans, too.

That’s off-topic from my thread, but since you were talking about geneology, in general, I thought I’d extend your observation to its logical and biological endpoint.

But, it’s beside the point, isn’t it? Well, I am asking for different points of view, but I’m still asking, doesn’t the geneology in Mt’s gospel indicate that the actual lineage of David’s kingdom run right through St. Joseph, as it says, and then pass on to Jesus. I’m not sure why there is so much dissent to that idea.

Someone talked about the “right” to the throne, but the geneology doesn’t go that way according to easily defined “rights.” First of all, David was chosen to be a king and he was the youngest of his brothers. And, he was chosen to be a king even while Saul, the first king, was still alive.

Yes, Joseph’s kingship did not have political significance, as some have noted, just as Jesus’ kingship did not have political significance, except for being mocked by Pilate.

 

[That_one_guy]

Does any disagree that the geneology in Matthew Chap One shows that Joseph was the King of Israel?

Of course, he was not recognized as such, but the geneology indicates that he was.

And, then, in fact, Jesus becomes the King of Israel after Joseph dies, a date and incident not recorded in the gospels. One might reason that Jesus’ public ministry does not begin until He, in fact, becomes the actual King by His lineage and inheritance from David.

Luke 2:4 says,…
Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,