Miss Conception Endnotes
Here are the notes behind my article about Mary, the mother of Jesus.
(These numbered notes match up with my article entitled Miss Conception, published on the same date.)
Endnotes
[1] Precise knowledge — epiginóskó — Strongs #1921 — Luke 1:4
[2] Eyewitnesses — autoptés — Strongs #845 — Luke 1:2
[3] Follow closely beside — parakoloutheó — Strongs #3877 — Luke 1:3
[4] Extreme exactness — akribós — Strongs #199 — Luke 1:4
[5] Write it down in consecutive order — kathexés — Strongs #2517 — Luke 1:3
[6] Ramsay, Sir William Mitchell (1915). The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament. Hodder and Stoughton. On page 222, he writes: “Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy. …[He] should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.”
Also, Professor of Classics at Auckland University, Edward Musgrave Blaiklock, wrote: “For accuracy of detail, and for evocation of atmosphere, Luke stands, in fact, with Thucydides. The Acts of the Apostles is not (a) shoddy product of pious imagining, but a trustworthy record. … It was the spadework of archaeology which first revealed the truth.” Blaiklock, E. M. (1970). The Archaeology of the New Testament. Zondervan. p. 96.
As an example of this, the account in Acts 27 and 28 of four anchors set down off the coast of Malta, at a depth determined by sounding, will reward your Google-fueled study. The anchors were found in the 1960s, and the bay Luke describes where the entire shipload of people were saved is now plausibly thought to be St. Thomas Bay. Here is one of several articles on the finding of the anchors with the aid of Luke’s detailed account: https://www.khouse.org/articles/2003/472/
[7] See The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1. The story of Elizabeth’s pregancy with John the Baptist is told in verses 5 to 25. Mary’s story, which this essay shadows, begins in verse 26. Online, BlueLetterBible.org and BibleHub.com are my favorite ways to research Bible topics.
[8] Luke 1:26–27 https://biblehub.com/luke/1-26.htm For comments on the individual verses, the text commentaries on Luke 1 that are helpful include Benson and Adam Clarke. As to the age of Mary and Joseph, recent archeological evidence favors the view I’ve seen in most commentaries — that she was betrothed at 12 or 13 and scheduled to be married at 13 or 14. Joseph was most likely about 17. We know he was a tradesman, either a carpenter or stone mason. The added age would have given him time to complete an apprenticeship. Pharisees considered a man who was not married by age 18 to be cursed. The notion that Joseph was older and that their four other sons came by a previous marriage came from an idea that emerged four or five centuries later, from the religious desire to make Mary’s womb supernatural and “immaculate” throughout her life. This “misconception” does not stand up to scrutiny — the simple texts of scripture are clear that Jesus had four brothers — James, Joseph, Simon and Jude — who were younger than him and grew up in the same household. He had at least two and probably 4 sisters. All of the siblings saw Jesus as a bit wacko (see Mark 3) until we are told that Jesus visited James after his resurrection. (Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians 15). From that time forward all the siblings became believers, leaders in the early church, and eventually martyrs for the cause. The books of James and Jude were penned by two of Jesus’ brothers — you might say, half-brothers, children of Joseph and Mary. For details of the early marriage customs, see https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/department/wedding-bells-in-galilee/
[9] Luke 1:28, ESV translation
[10] Luke 1:29, ESV translation
[11] In a nutshell, Miriam is the Hebrew form of the English word Mary, which can be translated from Greek Miriam or Latin Maria. All of the New Testament women named Mary have pretty much the same name as the older sister of Moses who played such a prominent role in the book of Exodus.
Mary the mother of Jesus had a sister named Salome who was wife of Zebedee and bore two dynamic Apostles of Jesus, James and John, “sons of thunder”.
Mary, Jesus’ mom also had a sister-in-law named Mary. She is mentioned frequently and was called “the other Mary”. Her husband Clopas or Cleopas was probably Joseph’s brother. They had three sons, James (called “the less”, Joses, and Simeon. I know, it’s confusing.
Mary Magdelene, who vies for attention with Mary, Jesus’ mother for the popular imagination today, was quite an interesting character and one of Jesus’ favorite disciples. She may be the woman who wept at Jesus feet and wiped his feet with her hair. She was the first chosen witness of his resurrection.
Then there was Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus and Martha. John Wenham, author of The Easter Enigma, a very helpful book for turning what seem like inconsistencies in the gospel accounts into precise harmonies, presents a strong argument that Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany were the same person. I find this persuasive but there’s no space for that discussion here.
To dig deeper into the 7 or 8 Mary’s of the New Testament, check out this blog post by an excellent theologian in Australia, Marg Mowczko: https://margmowczko.com/miriam-maria-mary-meaning-bible/
[12] Luke 1:30–33. Like the message of the angels who Luke quotes in 2:14, announcing Jesus to the shepherds, this passage is worth dwelling on. It is so broad and powerful in its implications that we are forced to decide that Jesus and the Bible are worth our time, or so ridiculously out of touch with reality that we’d best ignore them entirely.
[13] This is going to be more of a friendly rant than a footnote: :-)
Needing proof is a good thing, and nothing I’ve read in the Bible seems meant to throw shade on unbelievers who ask for evidence. In fact, its promise to the skeptical is: “Seek and you will find.”
There seem to be two little problems that often get in the way of people who encounter Christianity: the message, and the messengers. But that’s another topic.
Here we’re looking at the historic first five books of the New Testament, which are not unlike the historic first five books of the Old Testament. I find these records credible, but there is a large group of professionals who are not convinced of the material’s historicity. If you are one who finds stories like the one we’re reviewing today questionable, I’m not here to scold you. Follow your gut. Do your own research. You have nothing to fear.
If you decide you don’t buy Luke 1 and 2, it kind of makes you even, really, with a lot of my closest Christian friends who can’t seem to believe what they read in 1 Timothy 2:4–6, or Revelation 21:1–4. There’s a lot in the Bible, and people mostly choose what they want to believe. Harmonies between conflicting verses are elusive, and in my 60 years of inquiry I’ve never met anyone with all the answers (but quite a few who think they have all the truth that matters). But that, too is another topic.
Whatever camp you find yourself in, I hope you stick with me for an hour. [article plus endnotes]
If you doubt that Mary met an angel, or had a baby with God’s help, you have good reasons, which include many of the failures of church-based prognostications to be verified by the historic record.
My reasons for trusting the Bible come from years of seeing Biblical prophecies fulfilled and multiple historic/prophetic alignments. I’m working on a book detailing many of them.
Forgive me for generalizing, but my observation has been that Atheists tend to be better at critical thinking than Christians. There are definite advantages to prefer scientific observation as the basis of our frames of reference. No doubt that’s why so many people who confine themselves to the scientific method of epistemology seem to be so much more advanced in understanding the Universe.
Starting about 500 years ago, after a sizable minority of Christians broke the monopoly of learning held by the dominant Church, it was Christians who then made the greatest strides in natural science for a few centuries, because they used experiment and measurement, while “natural philosophers” were still using only direct observation and logic passed down from the Greeks. Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and other Christians laid a great foundation in the natural sciences by using the scientific method. Aristotle’s disciples couldn’t make progress on gravitation because they didn’t know whether heavy objects fall faster than light ones. Galileo and Newton advanced in their understanding of that subject by experimenting and describing the motion they saw with mathematical precision.
But for the last century and a half, Christianity has gone to war against science. I understand how frustrating it is to debate with people who seem to question everything, including the most basic historic claims of the Bible. But it was, in my opinion, a big mistake for Christians to disallow the possibility that the “days” of creation in Genesis might be longer than 24 hours. When fundamentalists made it a matter of absolute faith that such was the case, Christianity began a recent and accelerated slide toward unreasonableness — and being “sweetly reasonable” is an important Christian virtue. Check out Hugh Ross’s book, A Matter of Days. That’s a sweetly reasonable book by a Christian whose areas of expertise include physics and astronomy— who has suffered from Christian ostracism for his views.
Perhaps it was in the 1920s when “Fundamentalism” became sclerotic, that most Christian teachers doubled down on every “day” in Genesis being 24 hours in length. Even though the Bible itself said, “a day with the Lord is as a thousand years”.
To me the science we are getting on the age of the earth is compelling. When enterprising scientists went to Antartica and drilled down through the ice — and found 800,000 year-layers … they found that volcanic eruptions known to history, and others measurable from geology, could be nicely correlated with both tree-ring data and the gas fingerprints contained in microbubbles of atmospher in the iee. That alone should be proof that the “days” of Genesis were far more than 24 hours each.
Other evidence — and there are mountains of it — shows that continents have been drifting for millions of years, that the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago in a matter of hours, by an asteroid whose size and location we can deduce with precision; that life appeared on this planet in the vicinity of 3 billion years ago, the sun and our galaxy have a calculable beginning.
My Christian friends who look for corroboration of the Genesis account of Sodom’s destruction, have been excited in the last 19 years to read about the work of archaeologists, paleontologists, and geologists who specialize in meteor impacts, all working together, who found what the Christians deduce to be evidence that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed exactly as the Bible says they were, by “fire from the sky” from a meteor whose size, date, direction at impact, and chemical composition can now be measured. The scientists are less convinced, but they all agree that it is remarkable to see mud bricks turned to glass from an event that must have been at least 2000 degrees C.
The book of Nature and the book of Grace operate differently, but they can be harmonized much better than either side seems prepared to admit.
There’s no reason why only Atheists should be able to reason in a straightforward, linear fashion — except that so many Christians made it a matter of principle to refuse the writers of Genesis the freedom to use poetic license with their language.
It seems to me that both sides claim to much for their specialties. Most Christians want to make people’s opinions of the age of the earth into a test of fidelity and even eternal destiny. And many scientists studying the origin of life seem to claim too much with their “primordial soup” theories. The odds of random chance producing even the necessary amino acids seem massively overestimated, it seems to me. I find the notion of divine authorship of life to be a much simpler and logical explanation.
It’s a shame when scientific and theistic thinkers force their listeners to choose between the scientific method or the Bible. To me, these are compatible, even complementary, tools of evidence and logic.
If forced to choose, I’d rather have an Atheist over for dinner. :-) I learn more, and argue less.
All of us would do well to remember the wise words of Carl Sagan:
“If a human disagree with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
In my opinion those humans who use the scientific method as the basis of their evidence-gathering efforts, are more effective in every area of study they undertake. And most of those who have disowned personal Christian faith, I dare say, have spent much of their lives in the Christian church.
It could be argued that the greatest cause of Atheism is the Christian “church” itself.
When I was a younger man and the internet was still wet behind the ears, there was a massive website called exChristian.net. It was a revelation to me at that time, and a great asset to my efforts to become more tolerant and less certain in my opinions, to read hundreds of testimonies by earnest, truth-seeking people who told vivid stories about how they had been “born again” — had joined the church, studied like crazy, maybe went to seminary, gave their all to the faith, and then got burned out by what they saw and felt inside the sacred space.
It also helped me to better understand these thinking people as being beneficiaries of the approval of God, when I fully realized what the Bible actually says to everyone involved in the institutional church today: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not be complicit in her sins, and receive of her plagues.” There are so many wise folks who saw the sins of the church and left it. They made an intelligent, highly moral choice to put distance between themselves and contemporary Christian culture.
No one can claim omniscience; we learn from what we see and experience. If that is true, and I think it is manifestly so, none of the lessons of history should be ignored. Faith can build good character, and when it does it is good. But skepticism is also a very potent springboard to animated, useful honesty and excellence.
In my opinion Christians should love both polls of the belief spectrum, because I am certain that God does.
We all need as many deep thinkers as we can find, and human experience (including disappointment with the many pockets of failed Christianity) imparts a wide and deep well-spring of wisdom.
For my Christian friends, please don’t think I’ve left the faith. I’ve simply discovered in the Bible a broader, more inclusive plan of God for dealing with human history than the one you think you see. Please give me a chance to explain…
[14] In Mark’s gospel, chapter 3 verse 28, Jesus is quoted as saying something stunning and hard to fathom for my Christian brethren: “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter…” Wow! When’s the last time you heard that as a sermon text?!
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus puts his own sacred name on the line: “Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven…”
Similar words are also quoted in Matthew chapter 12. How can this be? For the same reason that we are told Jesus prayed to his Father when he was put on the cross: “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing.”
If those three verses are the gospel truth, ALL ignorant sins, ALL offenses that people commit without knowing better, will be forgiven carte blanche.
I could multiply quotes that support this principle — that the entire human race, more or less, are not on trial now, and will not be held accountable in a rigorous way for their sins of ignorance and their sins of omission.
Those verses in Matthew, Mark and Luke, go on to talk about what WILL NOT be forgiven — sins against the Holy Spirit. That’s what my Christian friends try to emphasize. But I would argue they should not. For the simple reason that no one who has not had the Spirit enlightening their hearts is CAPABLE of recognizing the power of God at work. Even the Pharisees, with whom Jesus is sharply disagreeing in those passages, were not technically guilty of “sinning against the Holy Spirit”. Yes, they saw Jesus’ miracles, but they also saw Jesus seeming to break the laws of Moses by doing work on the Sabbath day. They saw his disciples hand-picking and hand-threshing grain on the Sabbath. They heard Jesus say things like “Your sins are forgiven” and that seemed really blasphemous to them. They had not been given spiritual insight by God, and so they were naturally hostile to what they saw Jesus doing. He wasn’t acting like the Messiah they had read about in the books of Moses — a strong leader who would deliver Israel from its oppressors.
Yes, many of those strong-minded teachers of the law hardened their hearts against the good things Jesus did, but the New Testament doesn’t cast as much hate on them as it seems to.
“I know that in ignorance they did it” is what Paul, the strongest spokesman on the conflict between Christians and Jews in the New Testament, said about the very people who got Jesus killed and tried to kill him, too. “Have they stumbled that they should fall [permanently]?” he asks. “God forbid — through their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” Good things are happening to more people now, was his argument. And in the end, he says, “ALL Israel will be saved.” God has boxed them up in unbelief, he argues, “So that God can show mercy unto ALL.” (See Romans chapter 11)
So no, the folks who opposed Jesus from the Jewish community are loved just as much after they’ve opposed Jesus as they were before, when Jesus the Jew was sent to them. Jesus showed his anger well, and he showed his mercy just as well, when he visited with them in their homes and met them by night or in the Temple courtyard to cross swords about what is true and good in the law of Moses. That’s what I love about the Jews I know, by the way: they can argue aggressively for their viewpoint, and still be friends.
Here’s the bottom line for that era of history: Jesus told his disciples, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) As Solomon said in the Proverbs, “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, G-d has made both of them.” (Proverbs 20:12). G-d loved the Jewish people when he sent them Isaiah, to warn their invaders, and he loved them when he sent Jeremiah, to warn the Jews. He loved the Jews when he sent Jesus to set the stage for their worst trouble up to that point in history, and he loved them when he sent Hertzl to help them prepare for their greatest trial of all, and their greatest victory on its heels — the establishment of the state of Israel.
G-d loves them today, as he watches them come together to defend themselves against Hamas, and fulfill prophecies by Micah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others. And he loves them as they agonize over how to defend their own rights while trying to preserve life — even among their enemies. The Jewish people and nation, are in my estimation, like a masterpiece painted by Rembrandt. They are a beautiful evidence of the guidance and correction of Hashem, through hardship and blessings. There are bright colors and sombre, clear areas with sharp lines and sunlight, and dark shadows where mists obscure the scene. All of it shows the spirit of God, gently guiding a people toward creativity, humility, gentleness, forcefulness, and humanity.
OK, let’s talk for a minute about the Elephant in the room…
I know the topic of “hell” and judgment is an emotional one for my Christian brethren, because to many of them it sounds like I’m undercutting their urgency and faithfulness in trying to proclaim their concept of the “Gospel” to unbelievers. What if this is their audience’s “last chance”?
If “Hell” were a reality, and the “Good News” was the notion that you can escape it by “accepting” Jesus right now — and if masses of people were gobbling up the contrary signals I am sending — well then maybe you would be right to worry. But in my view, Hell is an outmoded, imaginary Greek idea that was added to the church long after Jesus died. And I can prove it.
And the Good News, according to Paul, is that God will soon bless EVERYONE through the children of Abraham — both Jews and Christians. That is the Good News. And hey, wait! You’re getting in MY way! I’m the one preaching the Gospel! :-)
The time has come, it seems to me, for mature Christian believers to recognize the full teachings of the Bible. We all need to read the signposts and see where we are in God’s plan for man. And if you think the sermon you’re giving this Sunday may be someone’s last chance to be saved before entering an eternity of fiery hell, please ask God to help you see why he is not doing more to make people listen. Couldn’t GOD do more? SHOULDN’T GOD DO MORE?? If someone, somewhere might spend a billion years in conscious torment because you and I had this argument over what the Bible really means, what’s wrong with this picture? Are the dark forces that powerful? Is God that weak?
In fact, Jesus actually said that God could have done more back in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. He said to Capernaum, “If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.” (Matthew 11:23)
That reveals that God could have done more to “rescue” them, but instead he told Ezekiel, “I took them away as I saw good”. [King James translation] What? God took Sodom away to “eternal fire” as Jude describes it, because he saw good to do so?”
Jude said Sodom suffered “Eternal Fire”. That’s how the King James translators put it. But the Greek words literally mean “age-like fire.” Aeonias is the adjective form of the noun for “age”. The first question a translator needs to answer is, “Do ages have a beginning, and do they have an end?” And the answer is, yes to both. Here are five verses that talk about the end of ages: Matthew 24:3, Matthew 13:49, Matthew 28:20, 1 Corinthians 10:11, and Hebrews 9:26.
It seems likely from archeology that the fire which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah lasted but a few minutes. (I’m referring to the many articles that have been published about the meteor which hit the Jordanian village of Tel-Al-Hammam, at the northern edge of the Dead Sea. I touched on it earlier when we were talking about dialog between Atheists and Christians).
It now seems pretty certain that the destruction of Tel-Al-Hammam (probably Sodom) originated with a meteor that exploded in the earth’s atmosphere, and was so hot it turned sunbaked clay into glass and killed everything in an oval that extended scores of miles. Even Jericho’s first destruction (not the one under Joshua) occurred when that meteor struck.
It took 600 years for the saltwater that splashed across the ground to be washed out of the soil enough for plants to grow again. If that was Sodom — and the evidence is pretty strong that it was — the Biblical claim that Sodom “served as an example” or teaching opportunity is full of meaning.
It implies that the destruction of those cities taught a lesson to those who witnessed it, as well as those who have since read about it in the Bible. (See Genesis 19:24–29, Deuteronomy 29:23, Luke 17:29 among the 30 or so Bible verses that mention Sodom and its lessons).
Here’s something interesting along those lines: Ezekiel defined Sodom’s sin as “pride, fulness of bread, abundance of idleness, and not caring for the poor and needy.” OMG, do you think he imagined 21st century America?!
Jude, Jesus’ younger half-brother, wrote that the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah “suffered the vengeance of an age-ending fire”. Did they die? Yes. Did they know what hit them? No. Did they suffer torment? No. Apparently God “saw good” to destroy that relatively small area of the inhabited earth to make a point for the benefit of others.
But here’s the kicker in the Sodom story. Both Ezekiel 16:60-63 and Matthew chapters 10 and 11 say that Sodom will be resurrected. That’s right, they will “arise in the judgment” — be brought back from the dead, if the Bible can be believed. (and I think it can). Ezekiel quotes God as saying that the residents of Sodom, whom he called a “sister” of Israel, will come back and be “forgiven”. Will they then be ashamed? Ezekiel says so. But they’ll be alive, and God says “I will be pacified toward you.” And Jesus says both Sodom and the Israelites of his day will find it “tolerable” in the day of “judgment”. The word for “tolerable” implies something not excruciating, just a bearable sort of discomfort — the kind of discomfort that all believers are commanded to put up with as part of their training to be followers of Jesus. “Forbear with one another,” we are commanded. That is not torture, it is a bracing kind of learning process which teaches empathy and forgiveness.
Here’s a pleasant thought: the prophecies of the Bible, even the harsh ones, seem to have a very generous, hopeful bottom line. When we pay attention to the details, we find that they predict the end of bad situations, and the positive transformation of any people’s bad character. For example, I get the idea that Christian institutions are going to be set aside as harmful, but the process will teach lasting positive lessons to all the participants. I invite my Christian friends to investigate this claim. I’ll be happy to engage in dialog with you.
Will this rant never end?!
Let me just share one more passage about the forgiveness in store for all people — the opportunity to get a fresh start in the Millennium:
In John 3:17, Jesus has just handed Nicodemus every Christian’s favorite verse about salvation: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Let’s pause and notice that the word “perish” means to die — to be unconscious, in oblivion, without any life or knowledge or memory — NOT to be kept alive in torture. But now look at the next verse, verse 17:
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
If you look up the key Greek words in this passage, you will see that “condemn” means to put on trial and find folks guilty. Jesus is saying that God did not intend for the Christian era to be a time of trial and decision or judgment for “the world”. Non-Christians are not on trial now. They should not be told that if they don’t accept Jesus at this time, it will be too late for them. They should not be told that they are in danger of Hell. Jesus tells us in this passage that God sent his son into the world, and allowed him to die, so that THE WORLD (not the Christians) would be “safe and sound”. That’s the literal, simple meaning of that verse. THE WORLD is not being judged now. There is no defacto time limit in the current age — no ticking time-bomb that says, “turn or burn”.
To further explain what he means, Jesus goes on to say that those who do not believe at present are “condemned already”. Does he mean they are destined for hell? Not in my opinion. He is saying that the precisely same punishment — educational experience — that Adam was given is still in force upon his descendants. Everyone except those who are “begotten from above” are living a short, circumscribed life. The followers of Jesus have entered into a privilege called “a new and living way”. They’re being prepared spiritually for something out of this world. See Ephesians chapter 1. “Fear not, Little Flock”, Jesus said to this insignificant group. “It is my father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”
But the general, broad opportunity for renewed human life Jesus promised for everyone else — that salvation has not yet reached the masses of mankind — even, I dare say, most of the folks who show up at church. To get on the path to spiritual life, people need to explicitly give their lives to Jesus unto death. Meet the Romans 12:1–2 call. The “high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
But those who are still “condemned” and are not part of the “high calling” are, even now, “safe and sound”. Because their liberty-price has been paid, their date of discharge from the prison has been scheduled, and until the new order of things is set up on Earth, they will benefit from the work duties and “college classes” they can take while they’re still incarcerated.
To speak plainly, without metaphor — it’s a blessing to be alive. Live it. Enjoy it. Learn from it. And try to be good. But if you don’t ever say the “sinner’s prayer, you’ll be just fine. God is way, way, more loving and forgiving than the radio programs about the “Gospel” are telling you.
In the Millennium, all humans will embark upon a broad, bright way toward life. A Highway to holiness. The “unclean” cannot pass over it, but it’s for them. The obstacles — stumbling blocks — will be gathered up so when folks start their walk they won’t stumble. “The wayfaring man, though a fool, will not err therein.” That’s the promise of Isaiah 35, for all the “ransomed” children of Adam in the coming Messianic era.
In other words, the reason folks who don’t believe are now “safe and sound” is because their unbelief at present leaves them under the original condemnation that all people, according to the Bible, are under — the curse of death.
We all die. “All in Adam die”. The world is safe and sound now, because Jesus has now died to eliminate the curse of death from ALL people. But the time for the deliverance of all people from death has not quite arrived yet. First the entire Jewish nation, and the followers of Jesus, need to complete their respective courses in preparation for the role they will be called upon to play in the future blessing of the world. This is explained by the prophet Joel in his chapter 2, verses 18–27, when he describes the blessings to Israel and the total removal of their unpopularity in the community of nations.
And the opportunity for every individual in the world to experience resurrection and new life upon the earth is explained in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, and many other places. “As in Adam all die, even so in Messiah shall ALL be made alive.”
Wow. That rant was too long. But write to me if you have questions or think I made a mistake.
[15] There are two genealogies given for Jesus. Matthew gives the bloodline of Joseph, which came from David through Solomon. But Joseph did not impart any genetic material to Jesus. Luke, on the other hand, gives the genetic heritage of Mary. It also came from David, but through Nathan, the next son in line for the throne. The key words that show this to be Mary’s bloodline, are in the first sentence: “Being regarded as, or supposedly, the son of Joseph…” Joseph, in other words, was the Son-in-Law of Eli, and Mary was the actual daughter. And Luke continues the genealogy all the way back to Adam — which is important for Gentiles like Luke — the redemption of Jesus fulfills the promise of God through Eve in Genesis 3:15 — the offspring of a woman would bruise (mortally wound) the Serpent’s head. See Clarke’s commentary on verse 23 and also Benson’s commentary.
[16] See 1 Kings 11:11
[17] The 423 years began when David ascended the throne after the death of King Saul in 1010 BCE. It ended when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s temple in 587 BCE.
[18] That’s a very big deal, to claim for Jesus the reign over “all the children of Jacob”. The 10-tribe Kingdom of Israel ceased to exist in 723 BCE, swallowed up by the Assyrian empire, which in turn was swallowed by Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. DNA studies show that the peoples of the Levant share much of the same DNA … but the “children of Jacob” and “children of Esau” are distinguished from each other not by DNA, but by value systems, cultural memory, and self-image. What laws do they acknowledge? What lifestyles do they pursue? Are they consciously inclined to “be a blessing”? Are they champions of the poor, advocates for the release of slaves and forgiveness of debts? Or do they make their life work the destruction of a rival population? For Jesus to rule in Jacob’s name as Mary was told would happen, the implication is that his impact will transcend the power of the grave. Resurrection and restoration of entire cultures will be needed to fulfill such a promise. Resurrection, not of bodies and souls, but of personalities, memories, and family relationships that have long been broken and need healing. A new and just society will need to be built — one in which the Esau, Ishmael and Moab descendants are pacified and the old scores are settled.
Imagine restoring all the victims AND perpetrators of the October 7 massacre in Israel, and you’ll have an inkling of just how massive this claim of future power and influence must be. Yet I believe nothing less than this is contemplated.
[19] Claiming Jesus to be the Messiah is not claiming him to be God. It is claiming him to be the anointed Son of God, who will be the agency of God’s restoration and completion of the human race. He always said that “My father is greater than I”. “Why do you call me good — there is only One who is good — God.” “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that he may glorify you.” Mary was a Jewish girl, full of the faith she learned from her father Eli and her teachers of the Torah. Never did she imagine that someone would call her the mother of God — or that her son would be equated with God. But if Jesus turns out to be the Messiah, and does the things that the Bible promises he will do, both Jews and Christians will know it because they see Israel being fully restored to life, and finding security. And they will know it when they see the 13th article of faith given by Moses Maimonides: the resurrection of the dead. The healing of the entire planet. The nations being restored and reconciled in justice.
The nations will never be unified by religious guys like me. Religion is already almost dead in the West and most of the East. Only actual events — actual ending of death and restoring the dead to life — will have an impact on a world that has learned the hard way not to trust anything but what they can see and touch themselves.
[20] Luke 1:34 NASB 1977
[21] Luke 1:35 NASB 1977
[22] Greek: Strong’s #1982 episkiazó
[23] Genesis 1:2 — Christian Standard Bible — “was hovering” is Strong’s #7363, to move gently over, brood, flutter
[24] Science Advances, Jul 7 2023, “The evolution and spread of sulfur cycling enzymes reflect the redox state of the early Earth” by Katherine Mateos, Garrett Chappell, Aya Klos, Bryan Le, Joanne Boden, Eva Stüeken, and Rika Anderson. Key findings from abstract: “Our results suggest that metabolisms using sulfide oxidation emerged in the Archean, but those involving thiosulfate emerged only after the Great Oxidation Event. Our data reveal that observed geochemical signatures resulted not from the expansion of a single type of organism but were instead associated with genomic innovation across the biosphere.”
The Archean was the 2nd geological epoch of earth, corresponding, I think, to the first few creative epoch-days of Genesis 1. I find “genomic innovation across the biosphere” to be compatible with the notion of the spirit of God fostering life…
[25] Luke 1:36–37: “36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
[26] Luke 1:38
[27] Luke 1:39
[28] Luke 1:42
[29] Luke 1:45
[30] Luke 1:41
[31] See Galatians 3:8
[32] Luke 1:43–44
[33] Jeremiah 31:15–17 “This is what the LORD says: A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping. Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” This is what the LORD says: “Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for the reward for your work will come, declares the LORD. Then your children will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children will return to their own land.”
[34] Luke 2:34, 35
[35] Luke 1:46–55
[36] See Matthew 20:25–26 His true followers will become good servant-leaders.
[37] See Luke 20:37–38 — Proving there is a resurrection. See Acts 24:15 to show it is universal, for all the good and the bad. Same idea as Jesus’ words in John 5:28–29 and Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:22
[38] See Isaiah 40:5 — When the Glory of God is revealed to all people, they will all see it together. Clearly this hasn’t happened yet. Isaiah 35:10 “The ransomed of the Lord shall return.” Who are the “ransomed”? 1 Timothy 2:4–6 — “Jesus died a ransom for all”. Therefore all will return.
[39] Moses Maimonides, considered one of the most righteous and learned men of the Jewish diaspora, wrote out 13 articles of faith. The 13th is the resurrection of the dead — in full harmony with both Tanakh and the “New Testament”.
[40] See Colossians 1:20 and Ephesians 1:9,10.
[41] See https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ancient-jewish-marriage/
[42] The law required that in such a case the husband must sign a “certificate of divorcement” for the wife to show that she was now honorably on her own, and marriageable material. The Ketubah fee pledge he had committed to already, was a reform that had been instituted about 70 years before by a leading jurist, Shimon Ben Shetach, to better protect the women of Israel from treacherous divorce.
[43] …To verify that her hymen was intact, and she really was a virgin. Normally a much more delicate procedure was used. On their wedding night the couple would sleep on a special white linen cloth, where normally a few spots of blood would indicate that the birth canal had been opened by the husband. If these “tokens of virginity” were not present, the husband and his parents might ask the father of the bride for a refund of at least part of the mohar gift — or worse, if infidelity were suspected. But the wording Matthew uses implies that observation or experiment (we get our word “heuristics” from the Greek word of Matthew’s gospel) were used to verify the girl’s testimony. She was “found” to be “with child.” So the pregnancy was verified. But no one had a better explanation than the one offered by Gabriel to the closest eyewitnesses.
[44] See https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ancient-jewish-marriage/
[45] Luke 2:1–40
[46] See Matthew 2:13–15
[47] See 1 Corinthians 15:7
[48] See Acts 12:2 Most likely, about 44 CE
[49] See Luke 2:39–52
[50] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_Virgin_Mary
[51] See EarlyChurchHistory.org — https://earlychurchhistory.org/daily-life/the-death-of-jesus-brother-james/
[52] See Galatians 6:10
[53] See Matthew 20:28 (starting with verse 25) and notes on Strong’s #3083, Lutron: (lýtron) is used in the NT of the ultimate “liberty-price” — the blood of Christ which purchases (ransoms) all human beings (1 Timothy 2:4–6), freeing them from all slavery (bondage) to sin. See also, Romans 5:18 and 1 Corinthians 15:22.
[54] See John 11:43
[55] Vanity Fair, December 2023, Cover Story, The Unstoppable Greta Gerwig. p 80 ff, by Sloane Crosley.
My apologies for not noting which Bible translations were used in any given quotation. Most often, it was the English Standard Version.
