Who is Jesus Christ, Really?

Also, as for Paul never talking about Jesus being an actual living person, that's false:

1 Thessalonians 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Originally posted by edgewaters Originally posted by Akolouthos The idea is that Jacob, the father of Joseph in Matthew, died, and according to ancient Hebrew custom Heli, the father of Joseph in Luke married his widow. Certainly possible, but the point being that neither is a geneology for Mary (and by extension, then, neither is a blood genealogy for Christ either, if he was virgin born). This makes Christ no descendant of David, and therefore, unable to fulfill the prophecy as the Messiah (since it must be a flesh descendant, quite clearly enunciated - they go so far as to say he must be from David's blood and "bowels")

As mentioned earlier, Matthew's is a more Jewish perspective on the life of Jesus and his gospel and focusses on Jesus as King of Israel. His genealogy, being Joseph's, is along the line of the Kings of Israel.

Luke, is a Gentile writing to a Gentile (Theophilus) and he also traveled with Paul in his ministry to the Gentiles, even to the end of his recorded ministry. He focuses on Jesus as the Son of Man. And thus his genealogy, being Mary's, goes back to Adam.
Luke stresses Jesus' humanity throughout his book. He gives our Savior's natural, biological family tree to show He shares humanness with the common man. He is not just the Jews' Messiah, but He is also the Gentiles' Messiah!  Therefore, Luke's genealogy goes all the way back to Adam, rather than stopping at Abraham as Matthew's does.
Luke was not so interested in Jesus' Davidic ancestry and wanted to record a line of descent that showed Jesus' universality to every man, and this would go through Mary, Jesus' link to humanity.  Boomajoom's differentiation between the two was spot on, Luke doesn't specify "begot", plus Jewish law traced inheritance and descent through the male, not the female line. Therefore, Joseph, was the son-in-law / legal son of Heli.


MATTHEW 1:1-16

1:1    The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
1:2    Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.
1:3    Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram.
1:4    Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon.
1:5    Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse,
        and Jesse begot David the king.
1:6    David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.
1:7    Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa.
1:8    Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah.
1:9    Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah.
1:10  Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah.
1:11  Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to    
        Babylon.
1:12  And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot             
        Zerubbabel.
1:13  Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor.
1:14  Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud.
1:15  Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan and Matthan begot Jacob.
1:16  And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called 
        Christ.

LUKE 3:23-38

3:23   Now Jesus himself began his ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,

3:24  Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph,

3:25  Which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son of Nagge,

3:26  Which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Semei, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Juda,

3:27  Which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri,

3:28  Which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Addi, which was the son of Cosam, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Er,

3:29  Which was the son of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Jorim, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi,

3:30  Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim,

3:31  Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha,which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David,

3:32  Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Booz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson,

3:33  Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda,

3:34  Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor,

3:35  Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala,

3:36  Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech,

3:37  Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan,

3:38  Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

** King David obviously had more than 1 son.
Solomon was the son of King David and Bathsheba. Solomon was not the oldest son of David, but David promised Bathsheba that Solomon would be the next king. ...
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Solomon.html

Nathan was the son of King David and Bathsheba. ... left from the house of David (Kings 2, 11) it follows that Yo'ash must have descended from Nathan. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_(son_of_David)

I don't care if Akolouthos covered this already.. I realised later darn it lol.. you're just gonna have to hear it from me too.

PS  Mary's father's name was Joachim, but certain Jewish writers also called him Heli, while Arabic commentators on the Koran called him Imram or Amram. His wife's name was Anna, or Hanna, of the tribe of Levi. Thus in Mary were united the royal and the priestly class.
http://www.holyorderofmans.org/Jesus-of-Nazareth/10-anna_and_joachim.htm

the name Joachim is only a variation of Heli or Eliachim,
http://www.virtualology.com/hallofspirituality/marymotherofgod.com/

So I'm not sure about the whole widow thing Akolouthos mentioned,
taking into consideration the info I found above.

Do we know Joseph's mother's name??
I had a hard time finding it.
I was going to say Rachael.. lol, but that was from generations earlier.

Originally posted by edgewaters Originally posted by boomajoom Also, as for Paul never talking about Jesus being an actual living person, that's false: 1 Thessalonians 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.      Could be a spiritual death. Too vague. Where does he talk about Jesus doing things a person would do, like eating or drinking?

Stop trying to twist things. The word in the Greek is for physical death, particularly for being slain. Also:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=53&chapter=1&verse=23&version=9&context=verse

And for your information, there is a verse about Jesus doing "things a person would do, like eating or drinking":

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=53&chapter=11&verse=23&version=9&context=verse