Why Mary & Joseph?

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Mary and Joseph were pious Jews, but that isn't the primary reason they
were chosen to be Jesus' parents.

Jesus was on track to take David's throne (Luke 1:32-33). Men who take
that position from God have to satisfy two mandatory requirements: they
have to be biologically related to David, and legally related to David's son
Solomon. (2Sam 7:8-17, 1Kings 1:13, 1Chron 22:9-10, and Ps 89:3-4)

In a nutshell: Mary provided Jesus' biological relationship with David, while
Joseph provided his legal relationship with Solomon.

Joseph was a very key element in Jesus' status because David's throne
doesn't pass down to his royal heirs thru women.
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• Rom 1:1-3 . . . Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh

The Greek word translated "seed" in that passage is sperma (sper'-mah)
which is a bit ambiguous because it can refer to spiritual posterity as well as
to biological posterity; for example:

• Gal 3:29 . . If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed.

That seed is obviously spiritual posterity; whereas David's is biological
because it's "according to the flesh" i.e. his physical human body.

Seeing as Jesus' dad Joseph played no role in his son's conception, and his
wife was a virgin at the time, then Jesus' biological connection to David
defaults thru his mother.
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Joseph was a very key element in Jesus' status because David's throne
doesn't pass down to his royal heirs thru women.

Jacob was the first among the people of Israel to practice adoption when he
took Joseph's two sons Manasseh and Ephraim as his own (Gen 48:5-6) thus
giving the two boys positions in Jacob's clan equal in rank and privilege to
his two eldest biological sons.

A number of modern Jews refuse to accept Jesus' position in Solomon's royal
genealogy via adoption, but they have no say in the matter because one of
their own patriarchs set the precedent; and among pious Jews, the
patriarchs are God, if you get my meaning. In point of fact, Jacob's spiritual
name "Israel" is from Yisra'el (yis-raw-ale') which means: he will rule as
God, i.e. rule in God's stead.
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