Thanks, Chris! I appreciate so much when we can have civil chats on this platform.

Your point about the plank and speck is well taken. I don't make any of these claims lightly.

I've spent the better part of two decades digging into these matters. I've found that the vast majority of supposed contradictions in the Bible melt away with a bit of study. It doesn't take much -- often just a touch of historical context.

Take, for example, the two genealogies.

If you don't know the history, you don't know why we need two, or what their differences mean.

If you do know the history, you know exactly what we need both.

I wrote about this in Chapter 12 of my book The Quest for Christmas. Let me quote it below to answer your question:

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What if prophecy blocked Jesus from being Messiah?

It sounds bizarre, but it’s true. Jeremiah the prophet records a declaration from God that blocks David’s descendants from the throne, without which Jesus can never be Messiah.

This is one of the seeming impossibilities inherent in the challenge of Messiah’s appearing — a challenge no one knew quite how to resolve.

According to prophecy, Messiah must be a descendent of David:

The LORD swore to David a sure oath

from which he will not turn back:

“One of the sons of your body

I will set on your throne.” (Psalm 132:11, ESV)

This is an oath that God swore personally to David:

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. […] And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’” (2 Samuel 7:12-13, 16, ESV).

God’s promise could not be more certain: He will surely place a descendent of David on the throne forever.

Yet Jeconiah, one of David’s descendants, suffered a terribly specific curse at the time of the Exile. Jeconiah served as the second-to-last king of God’s people in Jerusalem. He reigned barely over three months before Babylon conquered Jerusalem to took Jeconiah away into captivity.

God did not bless his reign, but cursed it, as God’s people had long fallen into rebellion against Him.

God declared over Jeconiah:

Thus says the LORD:

“Write this man down as childless,

a man who shall not succeed in his days,

for none of his seed shall succeed

in sitting on the throne of David

and ruling again in Judah.” (Jeremiah 22:30, ESV).

Jeconiah sired several children, yet God directly blocked any of them (or their descendants) from the throne. This might not be a problem for Messiah; after all, David had many children. Perhaps Messiah could descend from one of them?

Yet Matthew denies that possibility. He opens his Gospel with a genealogy full of surprises:

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. […]

David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, […] and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. […]

And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, […] and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. (Matthew 1:1, 6-7, 11-12, 16 ESV)

Messiah must be a descendant of David to be able to rule on his throne.

Yet none of Jeconiah’s descendants may ever sit on the throne of David or rule in Jerusalem. God blocked the Davidic line from fulfilling His own prophecy.

And Jesus’ claim to the throne of David descends straight from Jeconiah.

How could God ever solve such a puzzle?

Through the virgin birth.

Matthew records Jesus’ genealogy through Joseph, Jesus’ adoptive father. Joseph descends from Jeconiah through Solomon, giving Joseph legal right to the throne. But as a physical descendent, Joseph is barred by the curse from sitting on the Throne or ruling in Judah. So, too, would any of Joseph’s physical children be barred.

So Jesus did not descend from Joseph physically.

Mary also descended from David, but not through Jeconiah. Mary’s line ran through Nathan, instead of Solomon:

Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, […] the son of Nathan, the son of David (Luke 3:23, 31, ESV)

This gave Mary royal descent, yet her line did not possess the legal right to the throne of David. That ran only through Solomon — and Jeconiah.

When the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus in Mary, no male of Jeconiah’s line was involved. This avoided his curse, which applied only to his seed — his physical descendants.

Jesus therefore came from untarnished royal blood, a direct descendant of David through Nathan.

Jesus also inherited the legal right to the throne of David, as soon as Joseph adopted Him.

Legal rights passed on to the firstborn male, even if that child was adopted, instead of natural born. As soon as Joseph adopted Jesus, the legal right to the throne revived.

Matthew records the precise moment this occurred:

An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus […] When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. (Matthew 1:20-21, 24-25, ESV, emphasis added)

Gabriel gave precise directions: Joseph must name the child. Naming a child burst with meaning to the ancient Israelite audience: to adopt a child, you name the child. The moment Joseph gave Jesus His name, Joseph became the legal father of this child.

And Jesus became the legal heir to David’s throne.

For generations, the legal right had passed to people unable to wield it. The curse on Jeconiah’s seed kept them from the throne. For the first time in centuries, the legal right passed to a descendant of David who bypassed the curse and now could ascend to the throne.

Thirty-three years later, when Jesus ascended to the Temple during the day of the Triumphal Entry, Jesus claimed it as Messiah — the King. David’s heir had returned to claim his throne.

Or as Nathanael said,

“Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:49, ESV)

And as even Pilate asked,

So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“You have said so,” Jesus replied. (Luke 23:3, NIV)

Or as we sing every Christmas:

Joy to the world!

The Lord is come.

Let earth receive her King!