28 June 2014

Why not son of Joseph and son of God?

In the essay I just posted, I mentioned “the nativity myth of birth in Bethlehem”.  Recalling those myths reminds me of the two conflicting and contradicting genealogies at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew and the third chapter of the Gospel of Luke.  Both genealogies trace descent from Dawid (David) ben Yishay (Jesse), but in two entirely separate lines.

In Matthew, beginning with Avrahim (Abraham) and working down, the descent is traced from David down to the present of the gospel in twenty-eight generations.  In Luke, the descent is traced from the present back to David in forty-two generations, then back to Adam, son of God.  Oh, and Matthew gives the descent through Sholomo (Solomon), while Luke gives the descent through Natan (Nathan).

Big problem though: both these alleged genealogies have Yosef (Joseph) rather than Yeshu (Jesus) as their end or start point.  Not very relevant to a Church which officially teaches that Miriam’s (Mary’s) conception was completely virginal and Yosef wasn’t even a sperm donor for in vitro fertilization.  Especially in the Catholic Church, which teaches the perpetual virginity of Miriam, which would have violated the Torah and been a sin in the first century.

The fact that Yosef is the focal point of both and that the name is Yosef calls into question whether the story of Yeshu originally had him as the Moshiach ben Yosef.

For the ancient Irish, this wouldn’t have been a problem.  In their mythology, which had more gods being members of trinities than not, Cuchulainn, born Setanta mac Sualtim, was equally the son of Sualtim and of Lugh Lamfada mac Cian, god of the arts and sciences as well as a trickster similar to Loki.

If the Church can teach that there are Three Persons but only One God and that Yeshu M’sheekha (Jesus Christ) is, at the same time, 100% God and 100% human, why can’t Yeshu ben Yosef be both fully the son of Yosef and fully the son of God, like Cuchulainn? 

Perhaps if the Irish had been on board when the Church Fathers were putting this stuff together, it would make more sense.  I am quite sure that Patrick had a much better understanding of Trinity after he held up his shamrock for the Irish and they explained it to him.


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