Did any author in the New Testament actually know Jesus?

Hi, Peg. I'm not an expert, but I'd like to help Paul and Brian get their point across. Here's is my lineage, as recorded by ancient Hebrews, in three (pretend) books of ancient scripture:

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Bluejay, son of Rodney, son of Michael, son of Charles
Bluejay, son of Robert, son of Robert, son of James
Bluejay, son of Maurice, son of Theone, son of Theone

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Who is my father: Rodney, Robert or Maurice?

Who is my maternal grandfather: Rodney, Robert or Maurice?

Are any of the above genealogies fabricated?

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Here is another set of lineages provided by ancient Hebrews:

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Joseph, son of Heli, son of Matthat, son of Levi (Luke 3)
Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Matthan, son of Eleazar (Matthew 1)

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Who is Joseph's father: Heli or Jacob?

Who is Joseph's maternal grandfather: Heli or Jacob?

Are any of the above fabricated?

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Do you agree that these two scenarios (color-coded for your convenience) are essentially the same problem?

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Can you answer both correctly?
If you can answer one, but not the other, what makes the difference between the two?

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I submit that the difference between the two is that one of them has an answer that resonates with your religious faith, and the other one doesn't matter to you, one way or the other.

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If you really want to be honest, you should approach every question as if the answer doesn't matter to you. That's the only way to really separate what you want to be true from what you can show to be true. It's also the only way to realize when you don't know the answer.

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I'm Bluejay.

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Darwin loves you.

Hi, Peg. I suppose I deserved this for my sarcastic response to you in the "What I can't understand about evolution..." thread?Still, despite my mistaken use of relationships, can you not see the point that is being made?You have two pedigrees provided for Jesus, and, since they disagree, you have decided that one of them must be the paternal pedigree, and the other must be traced through the father-in-law. In doing this, you dismiss outright the possibility that one of the pedigrees is mistaken or fabricated.Did you know that Hebrew lineages can be traced through brothers, too? Surely you remember this memorable tale from Genesis 38:

quote:

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8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.

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What if the historian hadn't got the memo about how Onan's seed was supposed to be counted as Er's?-----Mormons keep pedigrees, too. I know my paternal line back 11 generations, and my other lines back at least five. But, in putting together the pedigree, my family had to wade through a lot of conflicting records and decide which was the best. I had one great-great-(and some more greats)-grandfather named Launcelot (true story), but he turned out to not have been my direct ancestor at all. We had a few generations traced through him, and, in the end, they had to all be removed, because, as it turns out, he was just the second husband of the woman who had previously been married to my bunchofgreats-grandfather.Do you think the Hebrews were immune to this sort of error?
Do you have any indication, other than that Joseph is connected to two fathers, that Mary's genealogy is presented in the Bible?Edited by Mantis, : "adn" is the wrong spelling of "and"

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I'm Bluejay.Darwin loves you.