Since the genealogies in both Matthew and Luke trace the lineage of Jesus back from his father Joseph, and since Joseph is, according to Christian Orthodoxy, NOT considered the biological father of Jesus – how did this occur in these two Gospels? Furthermore, how do fundamentalist apologists explain this?
Seems to me there is a choice. Either the genealogies arose in an adoptionist context where the question of Joseph being Jesus’ father would not have been an issue since Jesus’ birth was the result normal biological processes and were added to the manuscripts later, or, this is just a case of cultural patriarchalism however contradictory it seems.
I would tend to side with the idea of a cultural bias in favor of men. Even though Joseph is clearly not the father of Jesus – based on orthodox ideology – still it would seem that both of these genealogies would, with cultural blinders on, place him within the context of a patrilineal line. It might have also been argued that since Jesus was born “within the house of David” that this should suffice.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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