I have been mulling over a question that, while obviously not a major barrier for my faith, has definitely stumped me. How do we reconcile the accounts of the virgin birth with the lineage that Jesus shares with David? I've read some internet resources (not scholastic, so everything taken with a grain of salt) that say that Mary's lineage, supposedly recounted in Luke (though it does specify that Heli was Joseph's father in Luke, while specifying that Jacob was Joseph's father in Matthew), is shared with David, making Christ a blood relative of David but not with Solomon since Mary is related to David through David's other son Nathan. Other's have stated that because it wasn't through Solomon, Christ doesn't fulfill the Messianic prophecies. Others have said that lineage is passed through the father, but Christ is an adoptive son and is therefore, in the Jewish sense, considered a blood son of Joseph. It's clearly quite a muddled issue, and I was wondering what you had to say on the matter.
In the ancient world, as now, it was fully understood that your biological and legal fathers were not necessarily the same.
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