Expert: Brenda Martin - 5/26/2006

Question
Why do people give a geneaology for Christ when he had no earthly father as the story is told ?

How could his name be Jesus when the letter J was not used until the late 1500's ?

Answer
HI Daryl, you asked--"GENEAOLOGY FOR CHRIST WHEN HE HAD NO EARTHLY FATHER ?"

” As the “son of David” and as the firstborn son of the Judean virgin Mary, Jesus had earthly human forefathers all the way back to the first father, Adam.—Luke 3:23-38.

Luke follows the ancestry of Mary, thus showing Jesus’ natural descent from David, while Matthew shows Jesus’ legal right to the throne of David by descent from Solomon through Joseph, who was legally Jesus’ father.

HOW COULD HIS NAME BE JESUS WHEN THE LETTER J WAS NOT USED UNTIL THE LATE 1500'S ?

Do you know how Jesus’ family and friends addressed him in day-to-day conversation while he was growing up in Nazareth? The truth is, no human knows for certain, although it may have been something like Yeshua (or perhaps Yehoshua). It certainly was not Jesus, your quite right.

However, when the accounts of his life were written in the Greek language, the inspired writers did not try to preserve that original Hebrew pronunciation. Rather, they rendered the name in Greek, I•e•sous´. Today, it is rendered differently according to the language of the reader of the Bible. Spanish Bible readers encounter Jesús (pronounced Hes•soos´). Italians spell it Gesù (pronounced Djay•zoo´). And Germans spell it Jesus (pronounced Yay´soos)and in English it is pronounced Jesus.


All the best
Brenda