Dear Ray,
I'm stumped. Genealogies (several in the O.T. and the 2 in the N.T.) It's not so much that they are culturally male oriented as it is that they are jumping generations, names, etc. here and there. This makes a messy timeline. But more importantly;
Mary(mother of Jesus) has no genealogical record that I have found. She was of Abraham (obviously) and may have been of the line of Aaron ... but of David, I don't know?? We know of Joseph as was customary. Yet Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost. Praise God! Point: wouldn't it be important to know Jesus' human lineage?
Thanks,
Josh
Dear Josh:
Apparently, Luke's account IS Mary's genealogy.
King James reads: "...the son of Joseph which was the son of Heli" (Luke 3:23).
Rotherham: "...the son of Joseph of Heli."
Concordant: "...being a son (as to the law) of Joseph, of Eli, of Matthat, of Levi.
Now then, "son of" is clearly not in the Greek, and so it is not necessarily fitting that
it should be supplied by the translators in this case.
Joseph in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus is not the "son of Heli" but rather Jacob (Matt. 1:16).
And so this could be a case such as we find in Deut. 25:5-6--"If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her HUSBAND'S BROTHER shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. And it shall be, that the firstborn which she bears shall succeed IN THE NAME OF HIS BROTHER which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel."
And so Heli may have been a "son IN LAW" rather than "a son." And this could be Mary's genealogy back to Solomon where they apparently merge again with Joseph's line. It is quite complicated. Theologians have made a life study of the genealogies, and their are several theories extant.
Don't ask me any more questions on genealogy, as I really do have more important things to write about, but it is an interesting question.
God be with you,
Ray
