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