31.
THE QUESTION WAS:
The Old Testament said the
Savior would come from the House of King David.
Which parent of Jesus was a
descendant of David?
a.
Joseph
b.
Mary
c.
Maybe both parents
THE ANSWER IS . C .
As for Joseph, the Bible clearly lists the descendants
from him back to David (who was a descendant of Abraham). But it is interesting to note that has long been thought
Mary was also a descendant of David, with more evidence surfacing just in the
past couple years. Church Fathers such as St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Irenaeus, St. Justin and Tertullian tell us that unbroken oral tradition tells
us Mary came from the House of David.
According to the Catholic
Encyclopedia: Tradition tells us that Mary too was a descendant of David.
According to Numbers 36:6-12, an only daughter had to marry within her own
family so as to secure the right of inheritance. After St. Justin
(Adv. Tryph. 100) and St.
Ignatius (Letter to the Ephesians
18), the Fathers generally agree in maintaining Mary's Davidic descent, whether
they knew this from an oral tradition or inferred it from Scripture, e.g.
Romans 1:3; II Timothy 2:8. St. John Damascene (De fid. Orth., IV, 14) states that Mary's great-grandfather,
Panther, was a brother of Mathat; her grandfather, Barpanther, was Heli's
cousin; and her father, Joachim, was a cousin of Joseph, Heli's levirate son.
Here Mathat has been substituted for Melchi, since the text used by St. John
Damascene, Julius Africanus, St. Irenaeus, St. Ambrose, and St. Gregory of
Nazianzus omitted the two generations separating Heli from Melchi.
At any rate, tradition presents the Blessed Virgin
as descending from David through Nathan.
For info on the genealogy of
Christ, see http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06410a.htm
http://www.catholic-legate.com/articles/w-jesus2.htm
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