Advent 12/25

 DAY TWELVE (week two; lineage)

These lineages have all been father to son, so how do we end up at Jesus if Joseph isn’t biologically His father? Well, this lineage splits at David between two of his sons; Nathan and Solomon. Nathan, after many generations, leads to Mary. (That line will be covered on Day Thirteen.) Solomon, after many generations, leads to Joseph. So there is a biological line, but we will be looking at the legal (Joseph) line.

David

Solomon

Rehoboam

Abijah

Asaph

Jehoshaphat

Joram

Ahaziah

Joash

Amaziah

Uzziah

Jotham

Ahaz

Hezekiah

Manasseh

Amon

Josiah

Jeconiah

Shealtiel*

Zerubbabel*

Abiud

Eliakim

Azor

Zadok

Achim

Eliud

Eleazer

Matthan

Jacob

Joseph 

These are the generations leading to the adoptive father of Jesus. I’ve starred* Shealtiel and Zerubbabel as at these two men the line converges again, before splitting. (They are also in Mary’s lineage.) This line can be read in Matthew 1:2-16. Joseph himself led on to have at least seven children biologically after Jesus was born, as seen in Matthew 13:55-56 and Mark 6:3. 

The brothers are named James, Joseph/Joses, Simon and Judas/Jude. The sisters are unnamed, though we know there are at least two. James went on to write the book of James, and Judas/Jude wrote the book of Jude. It is important to note Catholics believe Mary was a perpetual virgin, meaning she never ‘knew’ Joseph and didn’t have any other children (they believe that these verses mean cousins or children of Joseph in a previous marriage). We can be sure she did because of the verse Matthew 1:25;

“But kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he named Him Jesus.” (NASB)

The word ‘until’ shows us that Joseph and Mary were intimate in their marriage after Jesus, and points to those siblings being born from Mary.

Today, I encourage you to pray for adoptive parents (and children!), whether they be your own or a friend’s. Jesus didn’t have a biological earthly father, and many people don’t know theirs in this world. It’s important that God has given Jesus this father figure for His time on earth, and it’s certainly an encouraging thing to know that Jesus -the only perfect Man and God Himself- was adopted.