Let's talk about biblical genealogies.
No, wait! Don't go anywhere! This will be interesting, honest.
I hope.
So, as you know (I think I've mentioned it), I've been working my way through the Old Testament. I'd like to tell you that I've done an in-depth study several times in my life, but I haven't. Everyone focuses on the New Testament these days. But there is a gold mine in the Old Testament. And a lot of it is in text that everyone skips.
Be honest. Do you ever read through the lists of names in the Bible? Not just the begats and so forths. I first noticed something when I read Deuteronomy 33. You read it, right? Moses is blessing the tribes of Israel before he dies. Did you notice anything weird? Maybe count the number of names Moses mentions?
There are 11.
What's that you say? Jacob had 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel? Yes, yes he did. And Moses left one tribe out of his blessing because of the crap they pulled during the exile.
(Bonus: Can you remember which one he left out and what they did?)
Anyway, that's why I started paying attention to lists of names.
Do they always make sense?
No. But I try.
So I was reading 2 Kings 8:26-27.
"Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother's name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab's family."
Ahaziah was a king of Judah. There were two kingdoms at this point, Israel and Judah. As you should know, all of the kings of Judah are descendants of David. Ahaziah's mother was Athaliah. She was the daughter of Ahab (probably). We learn this later in 2 Kings when reading about how she murdered all of Ahab's sons and tried to murder Joash (her grandson).
But learning she was the daughter of Ahab got me thinking. Does that also mean she was the daughter of Jezebel, Ahab's wife?
If so, then the subsequent line of Judah's kings have Jezebel blood running through their veins. And eventually, if you follow that line far enough, you get to David's ultimate descendant: Jesus.
Is Jesus a direct descendant of Jezebel?
(I haven't been hit by lightning, yet. Stick with me.)
In reading about Athaliah's massacre of Ahab's sons, we learn that he had at least 70. And sure, Jezebel could have been a baby factory, but I'm willing to bet she didn't pop out 71ish children. Ahab very likely had concubines, possibly even other wives (though I'm not sure Jezebel would tolerate that).
So it's entirely possibly that Athaliah is NOT, in fact, the daughter of Jezebel. But she IS still the daughter of Ahab. And how is Ahab described?
"Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him." 1 Kings 16:30
In other words, he's super evil.
Now, granted, the line of Judah has more than a few sketch individuals. But something about the Son of God being related to Ahab makes my skin crawl.
So I turned to the genealogies of Jesus. Because while I'm reading the Old Testament, I'm also reading the New Testament.
Everyone knows there are two genealogies listed for Jesus. One is in Matthew. One is in Luke. And they have different names listed. These are used as evidence by skeptics that the Bible is inconsistent. There are also names missing (probably - there are just too few generations to account for all the time involved). I am not addressing the skeptics at this point other than to say - really? That's all you got?
The common position is that the genealogy in Matthew belongs to Joseph (because it includes Joseph's name and Matthew was writing to the Jews) and the one in Luke belongs to Mary. It makes sense (despite also listing Joseph) because the style of the time would have been to replace the mother's name with the father's name and then continue on with the mother's father.
Both Mary and Joseph are of the line of David. There was not a significant amount of inter-tribe marriage up to this point (though it did happen occasionally), and, as people knew the Messiah would appear out of the line of David, careful records were kept and bloodlines preserved.
But where do the lists of names diverge?
Right after David.
The line of kings went through Solomon, son of Bathsheba. But David had a lot of other children. (Seriously. A lot.) And in Luke's genealogy, just before David (because Luke went Joseph --> God while Matthew went Abraham --> Joseph) is the name Nathan.
Nathan is mentioned exactly four times in the Bible. In three of those four verses, he's listed with his brothers from the same mother. Nathan and Solomon were brothers. (Not sure of the order, and we never hear about the other two, but I like to think that Nathan was named after the prophet who told David he was being a tool.)
Remember when I talked about bloodlines before? It's important that both Mary and Joseph are from David's line because, while Joseph is not the bio-dad, fathers mattered a heck of a lot in Jewish society. If Mary had been from the tribe of Judah but Joseph had not, Jesus would have been listed as a member of Joseph's tribe and discounted. Conversely, if Joseph was from the tribe of Judah but Mary was not, people would jump all over that and say that, as Joseph was NOT the bio-dad, only Mary's blood counted, and again, Jesus would not be from the tribe of Judah, and he'd be discounted.
So. Both Joseph and Mary are from the tribe of Judah. Furthermore, they are definitely from the line of David. Joseph is descended from the line of kings. Mary is descended from the princely line. If the kingship was still around, Joseph would have a legitimate claim, and through him, despite not being Joseph's biological son (because Joseph acknowledged him and let everyone believe he was the father), Jesus also has a legitimate claim. But because Jesus is biologically Mary's and God's (however that works), he has no blood from the bad king Ahab.
Theoretically. I'm not going to say this is proven. It's just my interpretation.
But you see what kind of really fun rabbit trails you can get onto when you read the lists of names?
(Incidentally, as Nathan is the full brother of Solomon, this also means he's the son of Bathsheba. So as much as God hated what David did regarding Uriah, he also established the Messiah as a result of that act. I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole.)
No, wait! Don't go anywhere! This will be interesting, honest.
I hope.
So, as you know (I think I've mentioned it), I've been working my way through the Old Testament. I'd like to tell you that I've done an in-depth study several times in my life, but I haven't. Everyone focuses on the New Testament these days. But there is a gold mine in the Old Testament. And a lot of it is in text that everyone skips.
Be honest. Do you ever read through the lists of names in the Bible? Not just the begats and so forths. I first noticed something when I read Deuteronomy 33. You read it, right? Moses is blessing the tribes of Israel before he dies. Did you notice anything weird? Maybe count the number of names Moses mentions?
There are 11.
What's that you say? Jacob had 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel? Yes, yes he did. And Moses left one tribe out of his blessing because of the crap they pulled during the exile.
(Bonus: Can you remember which one he left out and what they did?)
Anyway, that's why I started paying attention to lists of names.
Do they always make sense?
No. But I try.
So I was reading 2 Kings 8:26-27.
"Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother's name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab's family."
Ahaziah was a king of Judah. There were two kingdoms at this point, Israel and Judah. As you should know, all of the kings of Judah are descendants of David. Ahaziah's mother was Athaliah. She was the daughter of Ahab (probably). We learn this later in 2 Kings when reading about how she murdered all of Ahab's sons and tried to murder Joash (her grandson).
But learning she was the daughter of Ahab got me thinking. Does that also mean she was the daughter of Jezebel, Ahab's wife?
If so, then the subsequent line of Judah's kings have Jezebel blood running through their veins. And eventually, if you follow that line far enough, you get to David's ultimate descendant: Jesus.
Is Jesus a direct descendant of Jezebel?
(I haven't been hit by lightning, yet. Stick with me.)
In reading about Athaliah's massacre of Ahab's sons, we learn that he had at least 70. And sure, Jezebel could have been a baby factory, but I'm willing to bet she didn't pop out 71ish children. Ahab very likely had concubines, possibly even other wives (though I'm not sure Jezebel would tolerate that).
So it's entirely possibly that Athaliah is NOT, in fact, the daughter of Jezebel. But she IS still the daughter of Ahab. And how is Ahab described?
"Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him." 1 Kings 16:30
In other words, he's super evil.
Now, granted, the line of Judah has more than a few sketch individuals. But something about the Son of God being related to Ahab makes my skin crawl.
So I turned to the genealogies of Jesus. Because while I'm reading the Old Testament, I'm also reading the New Testament.
Everyone knows there are two genealogies listed for Jesus. One is in Matthew. One is in Luke. And they have different names listed. These are used as evidence by skeptics that the Bible is inconsistent. There are also names missing (probably - there are just too few generations to account for all the time involved). I am not addressing the skeptics at this point other than to say - really? That's all you got?
The common position is that the genealogy in Matthew belongs to Joseph (because it includes Joseph's name and Matthew was writing to the Jews) and the one in Luke belongs to Mary. It makes sense (despite also listing Joseph) because the style of the time would have been to replace the mother's name with the father's name and then continue on with the mother's father.
Both Mary and Joseph are of the line of David. There was not a significant amount of inter-tribe marriage up to this point (though it did happen occasionally), and, as people knew the Messiah would appear out of the line of David, careful records were kept and bloodlines preserved.
But where do the lists of names diverge?
Right after David.
The line of kings went through Solomon, son of Bathsheba. But David had a lot of other children. (Seriously. A lot.) And in Luke's genealogy, just before David (because Luke went Joseph --> God while Matthew went Abraham --> Joseph) is the name Nathan.
Nathan is mentioned exactly four times in the Bible. In three of those four verses, he's listed with his brothers from the same mother. Nathan and Solomon were brothers. (Not sure of the order, and we never hear about the other two, but I like to think that Nathan was named after the prophet who told David he was being a tool.)
Remember when I talked about bloodlines before? It's important that both Mary and Joseph are from David's line because, while Joseph is not the bio-dad, fathers mattered a heck of a lot in Jewish society. If Mary had been from the tribe of Judah but Joseph had not, Jesus would have been listed as a member of Joseph's tribe and discounted. Conversely, if Joseph was from the tribe of Judah but Mary was not, people would jump all over that and say that, as Joseph was NOT the bio-dad, only Mary's blood counted, and again, Jesus would not be from the tribe of Judah, and he'd be discounted.
So. Both Joseph and Mary are from the tribe of Judah. Furthermore, they are definitely from the line of David. Joseph is descended from the line of kings. Mary is descended from the princely line. If the kingship was still around, Joseph would have a legitimate claim, and through him, despite not being Joseph's biological son (because Joseph acknowledged him and let everyone believe he was the father), Jesus also has a legitimate claim. But because Jesus is biologically Mary's and God's (however that works), he has no blood from the bad king Ahab.
Theoretically. I'm not going to say this is proven. It's just my interpretation.
But you see what kind of really fun rabbit trails you can get onto when you read the lists of names?
(Incidentally, as Nathan is the full brother of Solomon, this also means he's the son of Bathsheba. So as much as God hated what David did regarding Uriah, he also established the Messiah as a result of that act. I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole.)
You made my head hurt. But in a good way.
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