31.    THE QUESTION WAS:

The Old Testament said the Savior would come from the House of King David.

Which parent of Jesus was a descendant of David?

 

a.                  Joseph

b.                  Mary

c.                   Maybe both parents

 

 

THE ANSWER IS…. C….

 

As for Joseph, the Bible clearly lists the descendants from him back to David (who was a descendant of Abraham). But it is interesting to note that has long been thought Mary was also a descendant of David, with more evidence surfacing just in the past couple years. Church Fathers such as St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Irenaeus, St. Justin and Tertullian tell us that unbroken oral tradition tells us Mary came from the House of David.

 

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia: “Tradition tells us that Mary too was a descendant of David. According to Numbers 36:6-12, an only daughter had to marry within her own family so as to secure the right of inheritance. After St. Justin (Adv. Tryph. 100) and St. Ignatius (Letter to the Ephesians 18), the Fathers generally agree in maintaining Mary's Davidic descent, whether they knew this from an oral tradition or inferred it from Scripture, e.g. Romans 1:3; II Timothy 2:8. St. John Damascene (De fid. Orth., IV, 14) states that Mary's great-grandfather, Panther, was a brother of Mathat; her grandfather, Barpanther, was Heli's cousin; and her father, Joachim, was a cousin of Joseph, Heli's levirate son. Here Mathat has been substituted for Melchi, since the text used by St. John Damascene, Julius Africanus, St. Irenaeus, St. Ambrose, and St. Gregory of Nazianzus omitted the two generations separating Heli from Melchi. At any rate, tradition presents the Blessed Virgin as descending from David through Nathan.”

 

For info on the genealogy of Christ, see http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06410a.htm

http://www.catholic-legate.com/articles/w-jesus2.htm

 

 

 

 

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