Question
To answer your questions on the subject “Dealing With Missionaries”, may I submit that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah. He was of the seed of David. Matthew 1 gives the genealogy of Jesus as a direct descendant of Abraham and David through Joseph, Jesus’ legal father. The genealogy in Luke 3 gives Jesus’ lineage through His mother, Mary. Jesus is a descendant of David, by adoption through Joseph, and by blood through Mary. Primarily though, when Christ was referred to as the Son of David, it was meant to refer to His Messianic title. I know of nothing that requires Him to have this bloodline through males only.
Answer
It is well understood that the Messiah must come through the lineage of King David. When Christianity incorrectly translated the Hebrew word “almah” as virgin in Isaiah 7:14, they created a real problem for themselves. If Jesus has no biological father how could he be the Messiah.
Note: Almah means “young women,” or “maiden,” and need not be a virgin. The term almah is used many times in G-d’s Hebrew Scriptures, but only in this one place is there an attempt to incorrectly translate the word. The Hebrew word for virgin is “besulah,” also used many times in G-d’s Hebrew Scriptures.
Jewish law is covenantal, that is, it is a contract which G-d made to be eternal at Sinai, 3,319 years ago as of this writing. As in all contracts one must know exactly who is and who is not contracted, and each person’s contracted role as per the terms of the contract. This is because, like most contracts, G-d’s Jewish Covenant contains performance rewards and also penalties for contractual breach. Ergo, one must know EXACTLY what will be credited or debited, and to whom.
With that introduction we can look at the difference in the manner G-d chose to have Jewishness passed from parent to child, versus the way G-d chose to have tribal affiliation passed from parent to child.
For the covenantal obligation, that is, WHO IS JEWISH, G-d created His chosen Nation to operate so that Judaism, G-d’s direct covenantal relationship with each Jewish individual, would pass ONLY from biological MOTHER to biological child. Although G-d also created a mechanism whereby a person would be permitted to according to Jewish law to CONVERT to Judaism, one could NEVER become Jewish through a Jewish father. For this, ONLY the Jewish mother would have any significance.
G-d arranged tribal affiliation however to work in the opposite manner. That is, just as the father has no significance to a person being Jewish, a mother has no significance to a person’s tribal affiliation. ALSO, just as a Jewish male may be adopted into a Jewish tribe, a Jewish male may NEVER be ADOPTED into a Jewish tribe.
A Jewish man is born for life into his tribe, a Jewish woman only remains in her tribe until she marries. When she marries she changes to the tribe of her husband, and if she remarries, she assumes the tribe of her new husband. A convert to Judaism who is female, will likewise become part of her husband’s tribe when she marries. A convert to Judaism who is male however, will NEVER have a tribe.
A Jew may be adopted into a Jewish family, but a male convert can NEVER be adopted into ANY Jewish tribe. If a male does not have a tribe from his father at birth, in Judaism, he will never have a tribe. This was the problem with the rebellious son spoken of in the Torah – Leviticus 24:10. His mother was raped by an Egyptian. The mother’s husband was from the tribe of Dan, but the son, while Jewish through the mother, would never have a tribal affiliation because his biological father was an Egyptian. This loss of tribal place is credited with causing much or perhaps all of the serious problems with this boy.
Regards,
Eliahu Levenson
