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From: bill@emx.utexas.edu (Bill Jefferys)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: inconsistencies in the Bible (digest of postings)
Message-ID: <Dec.25.01.37.27.1989.17044@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 25 Dec 89 06:37:29 GMT
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In Article <athos.Dec.22.23.57.24.1989.25813>, bnr-fos!bmers58!davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke) writes:

#The genaeology in Luke 3:23-38 is that of Mary. We can know this with
#certainty because it begins with wording that relates to direct human
#ancestry and because we know that Mary was the only immediate human
#ancestor of Jesus.
#
#The first verse finishes by declaring Heli as a direct ancestor of
#Jesus. Luke 3:23 says "And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years
#of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was {the son}
#of Heli,". Note that it very definitely says "which was the son of
#Heli" and that the word "which" refers to Jesus.

This is precisely the kind of violence to Luke's words to which The Rev. 
Dr. Farrar was objecting in the quotation that I posted recently. It is a 
good example of the contortions to which inerrantists must occasionally 
resort in order to maintain their unusual view of the Bible. You are 
entitled to your opinion, of course, but to me it is quite clear that 
here Luke is referring to Joseph, not Jesus, as the "son" of Heli.

As I pointed out, the "genealogy through Mary" theory was unknown to the 
early Church and was invented late in the 15th century. As I stated 
before, it has no basis in scripture. Eusebius gives a contradictory 
theory derived from a letter of Julius Africanus, who in turn claimed to 
have gotten it directly from descendants of the Holy Family. It is said 
that Jacob, the father of Joseph, was the half-brother of Eli (Heli). 
According to the theory, when Eli died childless, Jacob married Eli's 
widow in a levirate marriage. Thus, Joseph has two fathers, his 
biological father Jacob, and his "legal" father Eli (through the levirate 
marriage). Eusebius' theory is far more plausible than the "geneaology 
through Mary" nonsense, which has long been rejected by both liberal and 
conservative scholars. While I do not necessarily subscribe to this 
theory, it at least has the virtues of being (1) plausible, (2) in 
accordance with Jewish law, (3) possessing ancient, if nonscriptural 
authority, and (4) not requiring us to distort the clear meaning of 
Luke's otherwise excellent Greek. The "genealogy through Mary" theory 
shares none of these virtues.

Bill Jefferys