Yep, listening way too much on Jews for Judaism--and not the rebuttals from Eithan and Mr. Brown.
As noted above, however, Jews for Judaism has an answer for this as well: “Even
if Mary can trace herself back to David, that doesn’t help Jesus,
since tribal
affiliation goes only through the father, not mother. Cf. Num. 1:18; Ezra 2:59.”191
Once more, this statement only tells part of the story, since the Hebrew Bible actually
provides us with two examples that offer relevant parallels to the Messiah’s
bloodline being traced through his mother. First, in terms of inheritance, the Torah
teaches that if a man dies, leaving no sons but only daughters, the inheritance is
passed on through the daughters and their husbands, provided that they marry within
the tribe (see Num. 27:1–11; 36:1–12).192 Thus, the daughter’s inheritance is joined
with her husband’s. While this does not deal with genealogy, it does deal with the
passing on of family inheritance through a daughter, certainly a related concept.193
This is further confirmed by Ezra 2:61 (= Neh. 7:63), which makes reference to
genealogy of Yeshua through his mother Miryam, the daughter of Eli,” then, “Yeshua is ‘of the Eli’ in the
sense of being his grandson; while Yeshua’s relationship with Yosef is portrayed in the words, ‘son, as
supposed’—implying not actually.…” (This work is henceforth cited as JNTC.)
191 See above, n. 181.
192 For ancient Near Eastern parallels, cf. Jacob Milgrom, Numbers: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the
New JPS Translation (Philadelphia: Jewish PublicaƟon Society, 1990), 416, who notes, “Ancient Sumerian
law ordains that an unmarried daughter may inherit when there are no sons, and so also do decrees of
Gudea (ca. 2150 B.C.E.), ruler of Lagash. Thus, the concession made by the Bible to Zelophehad’s
daughters was anticipated in Mesopotamia by a millennium. It is also clear from documents of Nuzi and
Ugarit (i.e., in places as far apart as the Tigris River and the Mediterranean coast during the middle and
second half of the second millennium) that daughters inherited in the absence of sons.” See ibid., 416–
418, for discussion of the applicaƟon of this principle in Rabbinic law (m. B. B. 8:1–2).
193 Sigal notes that, “Biblically, the right of lineal privilege, that is, kingship and priesthood, are exclusively
passed on through the male line. The incident regarding the inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad
(Numbers, chapters 27 and 36) does not apply here since it concerns the transference of physical property
and not privileges of lineage.” See Jews for Judaism,
hƩp://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/faq/faq013.html. Of course, he fails to observe that these two
concepts are related—in fact, there is a principle to be deduced from this legislation regarding
inheritance—and he does not deal at all with the genealogical evidence of 1 Chronicles 2:34–35 which we
also discuss here.
www.DIFA3IAT.com ࢫʏوتࢫالدفاڤɸقࢫاللاʈفر
“Barzillai (a man who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and was
called by that name).”194
In the case of Jesus, Miriam also married within the same tribal family, since
Joseph was a Judahite and, more specifically, a descendant of David. In fact,
according to U. Holzmeister,195 this is how Luke’s genealogy should actually be
understood as that of Miriam, but in connection with Joseph. As explained by John
Nolland, who favors this proposal,
Holzmeister argues that Mary was an heiress (i.e., had no brothers) whose father Eli,
in line with a biblical tradition concerned with the maintenance of the family line in
cases where there was no male heir (Ezra 2:61 = Neh 7:63; Num 32:41 cf. 1 Chr
2:21–22, 34–35; Num 27:3–8),
on the marriage of his daughter to Joseph, adopted
Joseph as his own son. Matthew gives Joseph’s ancestry by birth, Luke that by
adoption.196