text: Matthew, who is the most
  Jewish of the Gospels, begins with the words, "Jesus
  Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."
  Is Jesus Christ the
  legitimate heir to the throne of King David? How can
  we be sure that He is the only possible legal, and
  the royal Messiah of Israel?
  The Scriptures declare
  that Jesus Christ "was a descendent of David."
  Therefore His Jewish ancestry is very important to
  establish His legitimacy as the Jewish messiah.
  Two Lineages of the
  Son of David
  God "promised beforehand
  through the prophets in the holy scriptures" things
  concerning the coming of the son of David. Those
  things related to the place, nature of His birth,
  life, death and resurrection. His Jewish background
  would demand that He be born of the line of David if
  He would be eligible to sit on the great king's
  throne and reign forever as the true king of Israel.
  The prophet Jeremiah was
  specific when he wrote in 23:5-6 of the coming of
  the royal son of David:
  "Behold, the days are
  coming," declares the Lord,
  "When I will raise up for
  David a righteous Branch;
  And He will reign as king
  and act wisely
  And do justice and
  righteousness in the land.
  "In His days Judah will
  And Israel will dwell
  And this is His name by
  which He will be called,
  'The Lord our
  The Jewish writer Matthew
  uses the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth to prove
  that Jesus had descended from King David and
  therefore qualified to be Israel's Messiah (2 Samuel
  7:13-16). The promise had been given to King David,
  "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever
  before Me" (2 Samuel 7:16).
  Matthew uses at least
  forty formal quotations from the Old Testament, and
  at least sixteen times he uses the formula, "all
  this was done that it might be fulfilled which was
  spoken by the prophet saying . . ." Matthew traces
  the origins of Jesus to King David and to the Jewish
  Matthew begins his
  genealogy with Abraham and moves forward through
  fourteen generations in history to David, and then
  his descendents through fourteen generations to the
  Babylonian exile, and another fourteen generations
  to "Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary
  by whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ" (Matt.
  Another genealogy is
  given by Luke, which moves in the opposite
  direction. He begins with Joseph and goes back to
  David, Abraham and Adam (Luke 3:31, 34, 38). He is
  giving evidence to show that Jesus "will be great
  and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the
  Lord God will give Him the throne of His father
  David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob
  forever, and His kingdom will have no end"
  Both of the genealogies
  are dealing with the same person, Jesus the Messiah.
  Both trace the lineage of Jesus through His adopted
  father Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus
  Legal and Royal Rights
  to the Throne of David
  The difficulty we
  encounter when we look at the two genealogies is
  quite interesting. They are the lines of two
  brothers and the children are cousins. Matthew says
  that Joseph was the son of Jacob who descended from
  David through David's son and successor King Solomon
  (1:6). However, Luke says that Joseph was the son of
  Heli who had descended from David through Nathan
  (Luke 3:31), who was also David's son and a brother
  of Solomon (v. 32).
  Bernhard Wiss and James
  Orr carefully note that we are looking at two
  lineages of Joseph and Mary respectively, each who
  are descendents of King David. "Nathan's line ran on
  through the years and ultimately produced the Virgin
  Mary. Solomon's line ran on through the years and
  ultimately produced Joseph." But Joseph was not the
  father of Jesus. He was the husband of Mary, the
  adoptive father of Jesus (Matt. 1:16). The
  distinction between these two lines of descent from
  David is between the "royal" line of those who
  actually sat on the throne and the "legal" line of
  descent from one oldest son to the next, even though
  these descendents never actually reigned as kings of
  It is important to keep
  in mind these two lines of descendents from King
  David. Nathan was the older brother of Solomon, but
  the younger brother took the throne. Solomon was the
  king God chose to reign after David's death.
  Normally, however, that would have fallen to the
  elder son, Nathan, who would have been king if God
  had not given it to Solomon. Of course, none of
  Nathan's descendents ever claimed the throne. There
  were no reigning kings in his line of descendents,
  even though they had the legal right to the throne.
  When Joseph adopted Jesus as his legal son, Jesus
  became both David's direct descendent through
  David's son Nathan (Mary's side), and David's legal
  royal heir through Solomon (Joseph's side).
  The line of Solomon
  continued down through the centuries until it
  eventually produced Joseph, who was betrothed to the
  virgin Mary who would eventually become her husband
  after she had given birth to Jesus. However, note
  very carefully that Jesus was not a descendent of
  Joseph. However, when Joseph took Mary under his
  protection and thus became the adoptive father of
  her divine child, he passed the right of royalty to
  A Divine Curse
  Moreover, Jeremiah 22:30
  tells us that if Jesus had been the physical
  descended from Joseph a divine curse would have been
  on Him if He succeeded to the Davidic throne.
  Jeremiah tells us a terrible curse was pronounced on
  king Jehoiachin (Jechonias, whom Jeremiah
  abbreviates to Coniah), the last of the actual
  reigning kings who descended from King Solomon.
  "Thus says the Lord,
  'Write this man down
  A man who will not
  prosper in his days;
  For no man of his
  descendants will prosper
  Sitting on the throne of
  Or ruling again in
  Because of God's curse on
  Jehoiachin, no king who ever descended in that line
  could be a legitimate king. "Thus says the Lord,
  'Write this man down childless, A man who will not
  prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants
  will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or
  ruling again in Judah'" (NET). Though Jehoiachin did
  have children, he was considered childless because
  none of his descendents were allowed by God to sit
  on the throne of David and rule Judah (1 Chron.
  3:17). Judah's lat king was his uncle, Zedekiah. The
  line of rulership passed through Jeconiah's sons
  though none of them ever occupied the throne.
  If Joseph had been the
  physical father of Jesus, Jesus could not have been
  the Messiah. Jesus is the son of Mary, not the son
  of Joseph and Mary. If Jesus had been a physical
  descendent of Joseph and not virgin-born, He would
  have been disqualified because of this divine curse.
  But wait. What about
  Joseph and his descendents? Remember, Jesus was not
  a physical descendent of Joseph. Joseph was Jesus'
  step-father. Joseph, a descendent of Solomon, with
  Jesus' legal father, therefore, His right to the
  throne came through His legal father. Each of his
  half-brothers, who were the only other possible
  candidates for the Messiah had the curse of
  Jehoiachin on them and would have passed it on to
  their children if they had become king.
  A Royal Heir
  Because Jesus was a
  divine child his adoptive father handed the reign
  over to Him. Therefore, Jesus was a legitimate royal
  heir to the throne.
  Many bible scholars
  follow this same line of thought. Donald Grey
  Barnhouse gives an excellent summary. The line that
  had no curse upon it produced Heli and his daughter
  the Virgin Mary and her Son Jesus Christ. He is
  therefore eligible by the line of Nathan and
  exhausts that line. The line that had a curse on it
  produced Joseph and exhausts the line of Solomon,
  for Joseph's other children now have an elder
  brother who, legally, by adoption, is the royal
  heir. How can the title be free in any case? A curse
  on one line and the lack of reigning royalty in the
  But when God the Holy
  Spirit begat the Lord Jesus Christ in the womb of
  the virgin without any use of a human father, the
  child that was born was the seed of David according
  to the flesh. And when Joseph married Mary and took
  the unborn child under his protecting care, giving
  him the title that had come down to him through his
  ancestor Solomon, the Lord Jesus became the legal
  Messiah, the royal messiah, the uncursed messiah,
  the true Messiah, the only possible messiah. The
  lines are exhausted. Any man that ever comes into
  this world professing to fulfill the conditions will
  be a liar and the child of the devil (Man's Ruin:
  Exposition of Bible Doctrines, Taking the Epistle to
  the Romans as a Point of Departure, vol. 1,
  Romans 1:1-32. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952, p.
  A Legal Heir
  Moreover, because Jesus
  descended from Mary, who also was a descendent of
  King David through the lineage of Nathan, He had a
  legal claim to the throne. The two lines of David
  focused on the Messiah. No one else could ever bring
  a legitimate claim to the throne of David.
  Luke presented the
  physical line of Jesus through His mother who
  descended from David through the line of Nathan
  (Luke 3:31). in this way Jesus escaped the curse of
  concludes, "If Jesus is not the Messiah who has
  descended from David according to the Old Testament
  prophecies, there will never be a Messiah. For Jesus
  had no human children, and each of his brothers (who
  are the only other possibilities through whom
  another messiah might descend) had the curse on him
  and would have passed it on to his children" and
  Jeremiah's prophecy would thus be fulfilled.
  Jesus Christ is the
  legitimate descendent from two lines of King David.
  He is the King announced in the Jewish prophecies.
  He is the King Messiah who was also the Son of God.
  He is the "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." No one
  else can make that claim. He is the only possible
  legitimate Messiah. There can absolutely be no
  How significant that the
  great prophecy that the Messiah King would come
  through the line of David was given just a few
  verses after the great words of judgment on the
  descendents of Jehoiachin. C. C. Ryrie notes, "If
  Jesus had been born only in the line of Joseph (and
  thus of Jechoniah, Heb. Coniah), He would not have
  been qualified to reign on the throne of David in
  the Millennium." He also writes, "Had our Lord been
  the natural son of Joseph, He could not have been
  successful on the throne of David because of this
  curse. But since He came through Mary's lineage, He
  was not affected by this curse." There was no curse
  on Nathan's line.
  Though Jechoniah's sons
  never occupied the throne, the line of rulership
  passed through them. If Jesus had been a physical
  descendent of Jechoniah, He would not have been able
  to occupy David's throne. Luke's genealogy makes it
  clear that Jesus was a legal descendant of David
  through his son Nathan (Lk. 3:31). Joseph, a
  descendent of Solomon, was Jesus' legal adoptive
  father, so Jesus traced His royal rights to the
  throne through Joseph.
  Jesus Christ is the only
  legitimate legal Jewish Messiah. Let us bow and
  worship Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
  Title: Jesus Christ: The
  Only Possible Legitimate Messiah
  Series: Life of