The Genealogy Of Jesus Through Mary

The genealogy question is one that is convoluted to answer from Mary's perspective, in that it is not blatantly spelled out to us, today, who do not (typically) know or observe Mosaic law. Through using Mosaic law, as well as the gospel accounts and other areas of scripture, we can demonstrate that Jesus did, in fact, come from the line of David, from the line of Abraham. Let's get started.

There is no blatant account of Mary's lineage in scripture. In both Luke and Matthew, we are given Christ's lineage through Joseph, which seems odd, considering Mary was said to have been a virgin when she had Jesus. To the Jews, keeping a genealogy was of the upmost importance, but was always done through the male line, except in some extreme cases. For example, Rahab and Ruth are both mentioned in Matthew's genealogy, as is Bathsheba (as Uriah's wife), but all three held a place in scripture. So how can we possibly figure out Mary's genealogy if there is no account from a woman's side?

The Jews were a largely patriarchal society, with the male line being the one that carried the name and legacy of the family. Now, as many know, there are no guarantees that you will have a male child, or that one of your male children will survive to be married. God knew this, and added provisions into Mosaic law, as was written in the book of Numbers:

Numbers 27:8

Therefore, tell the Israelites; If a man dies without leaving a son, you shall let his heritage pass on to his daughter.

Numbers 36:6-7

This is what the Lord commands with regard to the daughters of Salphahad: They may marry anyone they please, provided they marry into a clan of their ancestral tribe, so that no heritage of the Israelites will pass from one tribe to another, but all the Israelites will retain their own ancestral heritage.

So we need to establish that Mary had no brothers, and that she married into the tribe of Judah (See Genesis 49:8-12 for details).

For the first condition, we know that Mary had a sister, but that is all (blatantly). John 19:25 states,

Now there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.

It is believed Salome was Mary's sister (See [url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2020:20,%20Mark%2015:40;&version=31;]Matthew 20:20 and Mark 15:40), but this is conjecture. All we know for sure is that Mary did have a sister. However, John 19:27 gives us some solid evidence that Mary had no brothers and her father was dead. It was custom for a widow to go to her father, then brothers, or else, if neither of them were there, sons for care. In John 19:27, Jesus does exactly this:

and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

The evidence there strongly points to being completely alone. What about the tribe of Judah?

[url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201:32;&version=31;]Luke 1:32 implies she is from the house of David. Luke 1:26-27 states,

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from GOD to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.

The recounting of Jesus's genealogy in Matthew demonstrates Joseph's relation to the line of David, too. Therefore, in the eyes of God, Mary was adopted into Joseph's line and was, for all intents and purposes, part of that blood line.

There are far more subtleties involved, but that's the general picture of how we can derive Mary's line from scripture, and trace it back to Abraham.