Nazareth – The Town that Theology Built
The Lost City
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a CITY of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
(Luke1.26,27)
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the CITY of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; because he was of the house and lineage of David:
(Luke 2.3,4)
But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: And he came and dwelt in a CITY called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
(Matthew 2.22,23)
And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own CITY Nazareth. And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
(Luke 2.39,40)
The gospels do not tell us much about this ‘city’ – it has a synagogue, it can scare up a hostile crowd (prompting JC’s famous “prophet rejected in his own land” quote), and it has a precipice – but the city status of Nazareth is clearly established, at least according to that source of nonsense called the Bible.
However when we look for historical confirmation of this hometown of a god – surprise, surprise! – no other source confirms that the place even existed in the 1st century AD.
However, the book of Haggai, describing the same occasion, names “Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel” as the governor of Judah (Haggai 1.1).
Is Sheshbazzar an alternative name for Zerubbabel? Not according to Ezra 5 which makes clear they are distinct characters. Is Sheshbazzar, perhaps, a son of Jechonias, the last king of independent Judah? According to Chronicles the descendants of “Jehoiachin the captive”(Jechonias) were “Shealtiel (Salathiel) his son, Malkiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah”.
But the same text goes on to list Zerubbabel not as the son of Shealtiel but of Pedaiah, his brother. (1 Chronicles 3.17-18).
Thus we have three possible routes for the “Davidic line”: Jechonias through Sheshbazzar; Jechonias through Shealtiel then Zerubbabel; and Jechonias through his brother Pedaiah then Zerubbabel. Ezra provides yet a fourth option. The scribe lists the families that had returned from exile:
“This is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of King Artaxerxes … of the sons of David, Hattush” – Ezra 8.2.
| The Genealogy of Jesus – Matthew’s edit | ||
|---|---|---|
| Matthew 1 | ||
| The scroll of lineage of Jesus Christ, son of David son of Abraham: | ||
| 1 Abraham 2 begat Isaac, 3 and Isaac begat Jacob, 4 and Jacob begat Judah and his brothers, 5 and Judah begat Perez and Zarah by Tamar, 6 and Perez begat Hezron, 7 and Hezron begat Aram, 8 and Aram begat Aminadab, 9 and Aminadab begat Nahshon, 10 and Nahshon begat Salmon, 11 and Salmon begat Boaz by Rahab, 12 and Boaz begat Obed by Ruth, 13 and Obed begat Jesse, 14 and Jesse begat King David 15 And David begat Solomon by the wife of Uriah. 16 And Solomon begat Rehoboam, 17 and Rehoboam begat Abijah, 18 and Abijah begat Asaph, 19 and Asaph begat Jehoshaphat, 20 and Jehoshaphat begat Joram, |
21 and Joram begat Uzziah, 22 and Uzziah begat Jotham, 23 and Jotham begat Ahaz, 24 and Ahaz begat Hezekiah, 25 and Hezekiah begat Manasseh, 26 Manasseh begat Amos, 27 Amos begat Josiah, 28 and Josiah begat Jechoniah and his brothers in the time of the Babylonian exile. After the Babylonian exile, 29 Jechoniah begat Salathiel, 30 and Salathiel begat Zerubbabel, 31 and Zerubbabel begat Abiud, 32 and Abiud begat Eliakim, 33 and Eliakim begat Azor, 34 and Azor begat Zadok, 35 and Zadok begat Achim, 36 and Achim begat Eliud, 37 and Eliud begat Eliezer, 38 and Eliezer begat Matthan, 39 and Matthan begat Jacob, 40 and Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, 41 by whom was born Jesus the being called Christ. |
|
| Therefore all the generations from Abraham until David are fourteen generations, and from David until the Babylonian exile are fourteen generations, and from the Babylonian exile until the Christ are fourteen generations. | ||
David's mighty brood
As a man of many wives, David fathered many sons. Born to him in Hebron: Amnon, Daniel, Absalom, Adonijah, Shephatiah, Ithream. Born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Eliphelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada and Eliphelet – 19 sons in all, excluding those “sons by his concubines” and Tamar their (only?) sister.
If just one of David’s sons Solomon really had “700 wives and 300 concubines” (1 Kings 11.3) just about every Jew alive would be of Davidic ancestry!
“Those who affirm him to have been a man, and to have been anointed by election, and then to have become Christ, appear to me to speak more plausibly than you who hold those opinions which you express.”
– Trypho to Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, XLIX.
Matthew's "Scarlet Women"
Defenders of the faith love to prattle on about the inclusion of four disreputable women in Matthew’s genealogy.
Tamar was a Canaanite and one-day prostitute who seduced her father-in-law in order to get pregnant. It was her right, don’t you know? Result was Perez, an ancestor of David.(Genesis 38)
Rahab was a Canaanite and career prostitute who betrayed her people to the enemy. She saved her own skin and “dwelt in the midst of Israel.” Result was Boaz, great grandfather of David (Joshua 2).
Note that only Matthew says that Rahab was the mother of Boaz. Earlier sources say simply that Salmon was his father. If Rahab really was a contemporary of Joshua (at the time of the fall of Jericho) and married Salmon, only four generations cover the 460 years to the birth of David!
Ruth was a widow who left her native Moab to live in Bethlehem, where her mother-in-law encouraged her to seduce a relative – Boaz (the son of Rahab). Result was Obed, the grandfather of David. (Ruth).
Bathsheba, probably a Hittite, was seduced by King David who subsequently had her husband murdered. Result was Solomon, the great emperor himself! (2 Samuel).
The point of all this? To remind listeners that the royal house of Israel itself sprung from whores.
Kinda makes an unwed virgin getting pregnant par for the course.
Genealogies in the Old Testament
- Genesis 4:17-22 (descendants of Cain, down to Tubalcain)
- Genesis 5:1-32 (descendants of Adam, down to Noah’s three sons)
- Genesis 10:1-32 (descendants of Noah; the “Table of Nations”)
- Genesis 11:10-26 (descendants of Shem, down to Abram and his brothers)
- Genesis 25:12-16 (twelve sons of Ishmael; the “Ishmaelites”)
- Genesis 35:22b-26 (twelve sons of Jacob; the “Israelites”)
- Genesis 36:1-43 (descendants of Esau: the “Edomites”)
- Genesis 46:8-27 (Jacob’s sons & grandsons in Egypt)
- Exodus 6:14-27 (descendants of Reuben, Simeon, and esp. Levi, the priestly tribe, down to Moses, Aaron, and Phineas)
- Numbers 3:1-2 (sons of Aaron; first generations of priests)
- Numbers 3:17-20 (sons of Levi; main classes of Levites)
- Ruth 4:18-22 (descendants of Perez, down to David)
- 1 Chronicles 1:1—9:4 (Adam to Saul’s descendents)
