The value of the Davidic Origin of Joseph, the Husband of Mary, in Understanding the Heavenly Man Jesus, Son of God
Τhe Value of the Davidic Origin of Joseph, the Husband of Mary, in Understanding the Heavenly Man Jesus, Son of God
Writer: Evangelos D. Kepenes (February 13, 2021. Athens, 22:30)
Prologue
The true God and eternal life Jesus Christ, urges us to be teachable of Him. The path of Truth and understanding of the Son of God, "who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh," is one and straight and illuminated by His word, provided we are aware of the biblical expectations of the Jewish nation and the contradictions of Judaism and the Greek thought. However, the a posteriori imposed "patristic," triadic doctrine, which is naively embraced by almost all ambitious church founders, maps side roads, due to the influence of Greek (Western) thought on the Jewish (Eastern) thought with which the Hebrew Bible was written. The Hebrew Bible is "the lamp that shines in a dark place," and through which the One God is revealed and the "age of grace" of the New Testament is illuminated. The paradox is that the "patristic" doctrine has prevailed in the education of the citizens and in the belief of the religious ones about God, life, death, the afterlife and the course of the world, as purely "Christian" with state support.
The biblical definition of the concept "Son of God"
“But to all who did receive him (Jesus), who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13)
According to the biblical definition, the process of becoming a "Son of God" does not depend on your biological origin, the will of an earthly parent or another biological synergy, but you must receive the heavenly Jesus, the Life.
“This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” (Rom. 9:8)
By receiving Jesus, the new, inner, spiritual man is born, in the image and likeness of the Immortal Father, with incorruptibility and immortality as his main characteristics. And the spiritual man, the new man, who is born of incorruptible seed (1 Peter 1:23), is opposed to the earthly man, the old mortal man, who is born of corruptible seed. (Gal. 5:16, 1 Cor. 15:42)
The man Jesus was not born of the corruptible nature of the mortal Mary, but was born, in her, of the Holy Spirit “for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Mat. 1:20, EMTV). Jesus was the Resurrection and appointed to be the "Son of God," in power therefore, heavenly and immortal.
“… who was appointed the Son of God in power, according to the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of holiness) by the resurrection of the dead ...” (Rom. 1:4, NET2)
The Immortal, Heavenly Jesus, the Life, tasted not biological death, because of His second earthly, mortal nature (which is a religious fiction of the "fathers") but he tasted the death of His Life, although He was Immortal, Son of God , deliberately and voluntarily for the benefit, for the sake of the people "in favor of every man" to give us the Victory “so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life”. (2 Cor. 5:4) which is heavenly and not biological eternity.
“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:17-18)
The second man Jesus, the "Lord from heaven," was "the image of the invisible God," and not the image of the mortal earthly man. The prevailing "patristic" view of the birth of Jesus with the combined action of the mortal Mary is compatible with the ancient Greek rationalism, according to which, the mortals created the Gods in their image, thus referring to the mythological coupling of URANUS and GAEA. This belief is not supported by the biblical definition of the Sons of God, "which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
Views on the origin of Jesus
“And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? … David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” (Mark. 12:35-37)
The view that Jesus was a biological descendant of Abraham, having Joseph, who was of Davidic origin, as His father (Luke 1:27, Matthew 1:16) and the blessed Mary as His mother, was widespread both in the Apostles' time and later.
Luke records this view of the biological origin of Jesus, which prevailed in the first century, in the genealogical table he cites, in which, according to Jewish custom, male ancestors were important.
“Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, …..” (Luk. 3:23-24)
In another surviving source, the names differ: “Jesus, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, of Jacob, of Matthan, of Eleazar, of Elioud, of Iachin, of Sadok ..” (Note. Nestle-Aland)
The Ebianites, the Cerinthians, the Carpocratians, the Mirinthians, etc., as well as the opposing Jews who were contemporaries of Jesus and faithful to the letter of the Law, were aligned with this view of the earthly origin of Jesus. For the latter, the biological origin of the "Messiah" from the house of David met their nationalistic expectations for the uplift of their nation. But seeing that Jesus was preaching to them a heavenly kingdom “My kingdom is not of this world”, and that he didn't share their hopes "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's", they wanted to stone him and kill him. Also, John quotes “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but also He called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God”. (John 5:18, 10:31)
Luke gives us more information in a conversation Jesus had with Mary, where he confirmed to the Jews the "view" that Joseph and Mary were His parents.
“And when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, "Child, why have You treated us this way? Look, Your father and I were seeking You anxiously." (Luk. 2:48)
Matthew records the same testimony as well.
“And coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” (Mat. 13:54-56)
But "people don't know what the householder knows," as the wise people say. Joseph knew that he was not the biological father of Jesus, but he was His father according to the legal status of the Jews in his days, and he could call him his son. He also knew well the heavenly origin of his "son" because he had a heavenly revelation.
“And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Mat. 1:19-20)
Mary, too, knew, through a heavenly revalation, that she had no biological participation in the conception of Jesus (Luke 2:21), and that what would be born in her would be of the Holy Spirit, and that she would give birth to the heavenly man Jesus, the Holy Lord, the Son of God.
“But Mary said to the angel, How shall this be, since I know not a man? And the angel answering said to her, [The] Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of [the] Highest overshadow thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God.” (Luk. 1:34-35, Darby)
So, the couple Joseph and Mary, knowing through a heavenly revelation that the rulers wanted to destroy the life (soul) of the child [“for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him” and “for those who sought the child's life (Grk txt soul) are dead”], they concealed His heavenly origin and the heavenly promises they had received from the angel Gabriel regarding the Son of the Most High.
“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob (twelve-tribes) forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luk. 1:31-33)
But Jesus Himself boldly revealed His heavenly origin to the Jews
“So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” (John 6:41-42)
“He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” (John 8:23)
The same was preached by the Apostles, explaining in their epistles that «For not all flesh is the same» and that there are “heavenly bodies and earthly bodies”. (1 Cor. 15:40-41)
“The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.” (1 Cor. 15:47)
In his epistle to his fellow Jews, Paul emphatically stresses the heavenly origin of Jesus' visible body (with flesh and bones), which was the "Temple of God." (John 2:21)
“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation…” (Heb. 9:11)
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh …” (Heb. 10:19-20)
According to the legal status of the Jews, Jesus was the Son of David according to the flesh
“Concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh.” (Rom.1:3, John 7:49, Acts 2:30, 13:23, 2 Tim. 2:8, Heb. 7:14)
When studying the epistles in real time, we realize that they were written for Christians from the Jews, who knew the scriptures of the prophets and the Law and that the Messianic king and redeemer of Israel was to be a descendant of David, from the tribe of Judah, who would unite the scattered sheep of the twelve tribes under one principle (Hosea 1:9-11). With this prophetic vision, Zechariah, full of the Holy Spirit, also spoke, announcing the fulfillment of what had been told of old, which also led the Gentiles according to the flesh to salvation.
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” (Luk. 1:68-75)
God had sworn to Abraham the following:
“By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Gen. 22:16-18)
Christianity is the fruit of Jewish revelations and not of ancient Myths, and the heavenly Jesus is understood in the context of the Jewish biblical tradition. The Jewish Apostles worked in this context, and proved to their compatriots that Jesus was the Christ (from the seed of David), who was sent to gather the scattered sheep of the twelve-tribes of Israel “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and redeem them from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for them, "hanged on a tree". Jesus had to fulfill the Law and the prophets first, and so the promise of life given to Abraham and the other Nations would be fulfilled. (Acts 2:30, 9:22, 28:23)
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal. 3:13-14)
For the Jewish world, the lineage was defined by the houses of their fathers, whether they were biological or not.
“Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head.” (Num. 1:2)
So, the legal status of the Jews and Joseph's marriage to Mary fully covered the fulfillment of the origin of Jesus "from the seed of David according to the flesh". Because of the Davidic origin of Joseph, the heavenly Jesus had all the hereditary and genealogical privileges of a natural descendant of Israel from the seed of David, without it meaning that Joseph was His biological father or that Mary was His biological mother.
The origin of Mary
The Davidic origin of Mary is not clarified in the Gospels. And the angel Gabriel does not mention David as the father of Mary but as the father of Jesus ("and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David").
On the contrary, the fact that Mary, still unmarried, was related to Aaron's daughter, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1:36), shows her Levitical origin. But “ it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah" (Heb. 7:14). Also, the fact that Eli (Luke 3:23) was Mary's father is a Talmudic reference (Chagig. 77, 4). After all, Jacob takes the place of Eli in other texts. According to the apocryphal "Book of James," which "Orthodoxy" considers a serious source, her parents were Joachim from the tribe of Judah and Anne.
It is, therefore, obvious that the information from the apocryphal texts about the Davidic origin of Mary served the gnostic "patristic doctrine", according to which, the pre-existing second "God Son" descended to earth and was incarnated (that is, he was clothed in an earthly body) by the Holy Spirit (Uranus) and the Virgin Mary (Gaea), and, thus, he acquired two natures in one being (Demigod).
The Davidic origin of Mary (from the tribe of Judah) was based on extrabiblical sources, such as the part-gnostic letter of "Justin to Trypho", where the apologetic philosopher Justin identifies Jesus the "Son of God" with the "Aeon Jesus" of the Gnostics, who, according to Valentinus, descended to earth and was clothed with a material body (incarnation), as well as with the Hermetic and other ancient Myths that supported two natures in one being.
“ …… they shall be saved through this Christ in the resurrection equally with those righteous men who were before them, namely Noah, and Enoch, and Jacob, and whoever else there be, along with those who have known this Christ, Son of God, who was before the morning star and the moon, and submitted to become incarnate, and be born of this virgin of the Family of David ……” (Dialogue with Trypho 45, 43, 100).
According to the Gnostic doctrine, the "Aeon Jesus" was different than the man who clothed him, as Jesus says to Judas in his homonymous apocryphal gospel: "But you will surpass them all. For you will sacrifice the man who bears me" (Gnostic Gospel of Judas v. 57).
It is also obvious that Justin was influenced by the views of the unknown author of the apocryphal book "Proto-Gospel of James" ("First Gospel of James"), which bears many similarities to the book "Mishnah" of rabbinic literature. The book is also known by other names, such as "Birth of Mary, Revelation of James," "History," "Narration," "Birth of Mary, Mother of God," "Birth of the Lord and our Lady Mary" and "Book of James." Source
References to the Davidic origin of Mary are also found in the letter of "Ignatius to Ephesians 18" and in the "Anabatikon Esaiou" ("The Ascension of Isaiah"), which belongs to the apocryphal Christian literature.
"And I indeed saw a woman of the family of David the prophet, named Mary, and Virgin, and she was espoused to a man named Joseph, a carpenter, and he also was of the seed and family of the righteous David of Bethlehem in Judah." (Anabatikon Esaiou 11:2)
It thus becomes apparent that the "fathers," who were laden with “divine spirit”, resorted to the apocryphal texts for theological purposes and to increase popularity, so that they could justify their doctrine with Gnostic theologems, apart from the legislated violence, and convert the Gentiles, for whom preaching the cross was foolishness. (1 Cor. 1:23)
Professor Ioannis D. Karavidopoulos, who has contributed a lot to the research of the apocryphal texts, states: "The First Gospel of James is one of the oldest and most important apocryphal Christian texts. It deals with the birth of the Virgin Mary, the birth of Christ and the death of Zechariah, which made it one of the most popular readings. Its widespread dissemination affected the worship life of the church in the East and the West." (Apocryphal Christian Texts, Volume 1, Apocryphal Gospels, Thessaloniki, 1999, Pournaras Publications)
Conclusion
In the ancient world, the invented and popular sons of gods with two natures ("Men-gods"), who died and were resurrected (see Krishna, Dionysus, Mithra, etc.), were political tools in the hands of the ruling power for homogeneity and homodoxy, which in turn increased the people's willingness for self-sacrifice. The cohesion and continuity of the Roman Empire depended on a Religion and a belief in a son of a god ("Man-God"), who would satisfy the similar beliefs of its different nationalities and would become its citizens' vision for an invincible and eternal empire that is protected by its "Man-God."
Thus, the idea of the eternal Roman empire was this: "The State of Romans will not be torn down; it will remain unharmed forever, being the first to believe in the Lord Christ." (att. Ahrweiler, 2009).
This was the basic idea of the formation of the gnostic "patristic doctrine" for the incarnated, pre-existing second god-son, the man Jesus, which "triumphed" by using Mythology as a background at the expense of the biblical truth of the "heavenly Second man Jesus," who was the seed of the promise and the universal promises of God that were fulfilled in His person.
May Jesus bless you