Zerubbabel, and Davidic descent

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jul 30, 2016 at 05:42

Errata: I said,

" In Zechariah's time, Zechariah was the heir-apparent to the throne of David, even though he was not allowed to become king because the Persians then controlled Israel."

I meant,

" In Zechariah's time, ZERUBBABEL was the heir-apparent to the throne of David, even though he was not allowed to become king because the Persians then controlled Israel."

Zerubbabel never fulfilled this prophecy; but his descendant will:

Matthew 1
[12] And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel;
[13] And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor;
[14] And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud;
[15] And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob;
[16] And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

This was probably an adoptive line of Jesus' ancestry, through Joseph's adoptive father Mattan. His natural line went:

[23] 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,
[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,
[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,..

The Luke 3 line is probably Jesus' natural line through Joseph's blood father, Heli. It was important that Jesus descend from this line, which was through David's son Nathan rather than the kings of Judah; because God cursed that line. Nevertheless, in order to fulfill the promises to David of an eternal heir, as well as to fulfill what was said about Zerubbabel, Jesus had to have an adoptive line through the latter.

There are several Jews alive today, who claim to be descendants of David:

Bennett Greenspan, of Family Tree DNA, has concluded of these:

So far Y chromosomal testing of Davidic descent has yielded inconclusive results. "In all cases individuals who claimed to be descendants of King David on the direct male lineage did not match each other," says Greenspan. "To sum up, that means that one of the testors or none of the testors might be direct male descendants of King David."

-- http://www.momentmag.com/king-davids-genes-2/

In other words, there are no claimants today to be sons of David, who can prove their lineage; and the evidence strongly suggests that NONE of their claims are valid. Greenspan only tested Sephardic claimants, by the way, because all Ashkenazi claimants base their lineage on descent from Rashi -- who had only daughters.

So much for Zerubbabel, and Davidic descent.

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