Jesus' Lineage and Descent from David

Question

Is Jesus' descent from King David through his mother or father? Since his father is not his biological father, I assume His lineage must be though his mother? And He must be descended from King David in order to be the Messiah, right? Thanks.

Answer 1

Jesus' Davidic descent is through his father. Joseph adopted him, and he thereby inherited Joseph's lineage. Jewish law is not crystal clear about the legal status of such a child but the Rabbis do emphasize that an adopted parent becomes the child's father from the standpoint of scripture.

The Talmud (Sanh. 19b) teaches that... whoever rears an orphan in his own house is, in the words of Scripture, deemed its parent. R. Ḥanina drew the same doctrine from Ruth, iv. 17. 'And the women her neighbors gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi.' Now, did Naomi bear him? Did not Ruth bear him? Ruth bore him and Naomi reared him; therefore he is called Naomi's child... R. Samuel b. Naḥmani says, on the authority of R. Jonathan: Whoever teaches the son of his companion the Law, has the right, in the sense of Scripture, to be deemed that person's father.

The OP asks: "He must be descended from King David in order to be the Messiah, right?" Not exactly. That was the general expectation but it is not written in stone. Consider Jesus' own statement: "from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham." (Matthew 3:9) If so, then God can also raise a son of David from someone of a different lineage. The Messiah is the one who re-establishes David's throne. (Isaiah 9:7) It is the task, not his ancestry, that will identify him. Indeed, historically there have been several claimants to the Messianic title who had no evident proof of their being descended from David.

Also, based on the Book of Zechariah's prophecy of "two anointed ones" (Zechariah 4:14), the Essenes and others expected both a priestly messiah (son of Aaron) and a royal messiah (son of David).

Conclusion: Jesus credential as the Son of David are based on his adoption into the lineage of Joseph, who was in every respect his father except biologically. He also may have qualified as the messiah son of Aaron through his mother. In any case, accomplishing the messianic task is more important than the messianic lineage.

Answer 2

Psalms of Solomon 17:32 ( first or second centuries BC)

καὶ αὐτὸς βασιλεὺς δίκαιος διδακτὸς ὑπὸ θεοῦ ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀδικία ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις αὐτοῦ ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν ὅτι πάντες ἅγιοι καὶ βασιλεὺς αὐτῶν χριστὸς κυρίου

"And he, the righteous king, taught by God, will rule over them, and there will be no unrighteousness among them in his days, for all shall be holy, and their king shall be the anointed of the Lord."

NAU Luke 23:2

And they began to accuse Him, saying, "We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King."

Luke 23:2

Ἤρξαντο δὲ κατηγορεῖν αὐτοῦ λέγοντες· τοῦτον εὕραμεν διαστρέφοντα τὸ ἔθνος ἡμῶν καὶ κωλύοντα φόρους Καίσαρι διδόναι καὶ λέγοντα ἑαυτὸν χριστὸν βασιλέα εἶναι.

While this verse speaks of a righteous king who is taught by God and rules over a holy people, it does not explicitly mention the lineage of this king from the house of David. However, based on other biblical passages, the genealogy of Jesus is traced through both his mother Mary and her husband Joseph.

In the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 1:1-17) provides a genealogy of Jesus that connects him to King David through Joseph, while the Gospel of Luke (Luke 3:23-38) traces a separate genealogy through Mary. It's important to note that Matthew's genealogy focuses on legal succession, linking Jesus to Joseph as his legal father, while Luke's genealogy emphasizes biological descent.

The belief in Jesus as the Messiah descended from the house of David is rooted in the Messianic prophecies found in the Old Testament, particularly in passages like Isaiah 11:1 and Jeremiah 23:5-6. Both genealogies in Matthew and Luke highlight Jesus' connection to the lineage of David, fulfilling these Messianic prophecies.

Therefore, according to Christian tradition, Jesus is considered a descendant of David through both legal and biological lines, fulfilling the requirement for the Messiah to be from the house of David.

Answer 3

I would argue only the adoption via Joseph is clearly giving the connection to David.

Obviously Jesus is David’s descendant via Joseph by law of adoption but not biologically.

In the case the egg forming his embryo was from Maria he could have inherited at least her mitochondria but it’s questionable if that serves as a proof of lineage. And in case of surrogate maternity he’d have inherited nothing at all biologically.

If the (male semen) genes that created his embryo were David’s or from his descendants then technically Jesus would be still David’s descendant even biologically. I couldn’t find information to argue either way.

in John 1:14 and John 3:16 - Jesus is referred to as “monogenes” μονογενῆ, which could be argued in a biological sense to mean that He inherited His unique divine “genes” or nature solely from His Father, God, and not from any human male, neither female.

Monogenes means inheriting genes just from one parent. In the case of a male child this parent has to be a male because of the Y chromosome which females do not have. It can not mean “a single child” because Isaac and David are also called (or call themselves) monogenes yet they had brothers from the same father.

Καὶ ὁ Λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός, πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας. John 1:14 ABP

In bold “Word became flesh” (so not a human semen) and “monogenes from father”.

So Jesus is David’s descendant by adoption via Joseph and Maria but not via their genes biologically. He still could share the genes with David though.